4 deputies on leave pending probe

Township police saw a pistol in plain view inside the vehicle.

staff report

BOARDMAN — Mahoning County Sheriff Randall Wellington has placed four deputies on paid administrative leave after an incident at a South Avenue bar.

Wellington said his office is conducting an internal investigation, which also will determine whether a crime occurred.

Township police were called to the Lanai Lounge about 1:15 a.m. Friday on a report of gunshots fired from the parking lot. The person who called police saw the people involved leave the lot in a maroon sport utility vehicle.

Police found a spent shell casing in the parking lot and spoke to a patron of the bar. The patron said she had been speaking to a man named Vince, who she believes was intoxicated. He showed her his badge and said he was a deputy sheriff, off duty.

The woman said the man later placed a small, black handgun on his leg while sitting at the bar next to her. She said that several other off-duty deputy sheriffs were with him.

Police found the maroon SUV in the parking lot of Days Inn, South Avenue, and saw a pistol in plain view inside.

They then located the vehicle’s owner, Dan Miller, 33, of Poland, and the other people involved, Thomas Assion, 30, of Youngstown; Adam Chasko, 24, of Austintown; and Vincent Dravecky, 23, of Canfield.

All four are Mahoning County deputy sheriffs who were off duty.

Wellington said they are corrections deputies.

He said that Dravecky has been with the department for about a year and is a probationary employee.

Dravecky told police that he had an accidental discharge of his gun (not his duty weapon) while in the bar’s lot. Police called the deputies’ supervisor, who came to the scene.

No charges have been filed and the sheriff’s department is investigating. It’s not illegal to fire a weapon within the township limits, township police Capt. Jack Nichols said.

Nichols said that though there is a law that prohibits discharging a firearm while intoxicated, that provision doesn’t define what constitutes intoxication.