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Council chief: Report is politics
The police report stems from an e-mail found on the clerk’s computer.
STRUTHERS — There is no crime. It is just a political attack, council President Anthony Protopapa said of a police report filed by Mayor Terry Stocker accusing Protopapa of unprofessional and unacceptable conduct as a reserve police officer.
The police report stems from an e-mail, discovered in Clerk of Council Toni Constantino’s former computer, that she sent to Councilman at-large Daniel Yemma. In the e-mail, she talks about finding Stocker’s briefcase that the then-mayor-elect had left on the council caucus room table at city hall.
Constantino’s e-mail about Stocker’s briefcase was among a number of e-mails between Constantino and Yemma that Safety-Service Director Edward Wildes found on the computer when he examined it before turning it over for use in another city department, according to the police report.
Protopapa said the e-mail was discussed in a closed executive session during a recent council meeting, but he considers what is talked about in executive session privileged information and would not reveal its contents.
He said he has no knowledge of what was in Stocker’s briefcase, however. He described what happened.
“I had gone to city hall and noticed the briefcase on the table. I asked Toni [Constantino] to look in it to see who it belonged to. I never looked in it myself. All I know is the clerk said it was the mayor’s, and that was it. I didn’t think anything more of it,” Protopapa said.
“It wasn’t a crime. We were just trying to find out who it belonged to,” said Protopapa. “I have been in police work for 15 years. My record is clean,” he said.
In his police report filed June 27, Stocker said the e-mail from Constantino to Yemma described the examination of and some of the contents of his briefcase. He said he had given no one permission to go through his briefcase, and in fact had specifically called Constantino and asked that she secure the briefcase until he could retrieve it.
Stocker said Constantino’s e-mail to Yemma refers to some “blatantly unprofessional and unacceptable conduct on the part of reserve officer Protopapa,” and asked Police Chief Robert Norris to look into the matter.
Norris said the only aspect of the e-mail situation that he has jurisdiction over is that involving Protopapa because he is a reserve police officer in the city. The rest is up to city council, the chief said.
Regarding the Protopapa situation, he said there is no evidence so far that would result in a criminal charge. He said reserve police serve at the pleasure of the city, however, and the safety-service director will make the final determination on whether Protopapa keeps that position, Norris said.
“I was a big Mamula [former Mayor Daniel Mamula] supporter. This is just political. It is childish. They need to move on,” Protopapa said of Stocker and his administration.
Stocker defeated Mamula for the mayor’s position in the November 2007 general election.
This is the second time Stocker has initiated an investigation involving city computers since taking office Jan. 1.
In January, the mayor asked the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation to launch a probe, alleging tampering with the computers by the previous city administration. As a result, BCI confiscated the hard drives of four computers from the city administration building for examination, but the agency has issued no report.
alcorn@vindy.com