Safety director says Warren cop’s actions should halt promotion

WARREN — Doug Franklin, Warren’s safety-service director, has asked the Warren Civil Service Commission to determine whether Lt. Joseph Marhulik made himself ineligible for promotion to captain in the Warren Police Department because of racial slurs he uttered Aug. 16 while off duty but in his unmarked police car.

“It is my opinion that Lt. Joseph Marhulik’s actions ... disqualified him from appointment to Captain,” Franklin said in a letter to the commission. He added, however, that the decision “is entirely at the Commission’s discretion.”

Atty. James Fredericka, chairman of the commission, said he would schedule a closed-door meeting with Atty. Jim Ries of the Warren law department to discuss whether the commission has that authority. In his years with the commission, he doesn’t ever remember a situation where someone certified as eligible for a promotion was later deemed to be ineligible.

“The letter asks us to disqualify him,” Fredericka said. “I’m not sure if it’s too late for that.”