Warren police probe centers on allegation of falsified time card

By Ed Runyan

The officer was considered on duty but out of service while at two basketball games.

WARREN — Two supervisors in the Warren Police Department have been accused of falsifying the time sheet of a police officer who left work for more than four hours earlier this month to coach and watch two of his children’s basketball games.

So far, the officer, Sgt. Manny Nites, has not been charged with any wrongdoing, but the investigation continues, said Gary Cicero, the city’s human resources director.

Cicero wrote letters to Sgt. Michael Albanese and Lt. Eric Merkel this week, notifying them of the charges. The two officers will be asked to attend a predisciplinary hearing sometime next week to explain themselves, Cicero said.

The letter to Albanese says Nites was working the afternoon shift March 5 but left work at 5:34 p.m. and returned at 8:54 p.m. after watching his daughter’s high school basketball game in Solon.

Albanese, Nites’ supervisor for the shift, submitted a time sheet authorizing Nites to be paid for the entire shift, and Nites was paid accordingly, the letter says.

The letter doesn’t say whether Albanese knew where Nites was going, but it says Albanese thought Nites would be gone for about two hours.

Departmental practice requires that an employee provide his supervisor with a time-off slip in that situation, something Nites did not do, Cicero said.

The letter says Albanese changed Nites’ time sheet March 16 to show Nites gone for two hours, but that was also incorrect, because Nites was gone 3 hours and 20 minutes, Cicero said.

A letter to Merkel says Nites left work March 13 for 68 minutes to coach his son’s basketball game at Blessed Sacrament Church in Warren from 7:22 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

On that occasion, Nites gave Merkel, his supervisor, a time-off slip asking for one hour off to attend the game, but Merkel threw the slip away.

“Due to the minimal length of the game and the fact that it was taking place within the city limits, you discarded the time-off slip and advised Sgt. Nites to use the time off at the game as a [Code 6],” Cicero said.

Code 6 is terminology the department uses to indicate time when an officer is on duty but out of service, such as when he is on a dinner break, Police Chief John Mandopoulos said.

Merkel turned in a time sheet showing that Nites worked a full shift, Cicero said.

Not only were Merkel’s actions wrong, but discarding Nites’ time-off slip also put Nites “in jeopardy of disciplinary action for wrongdoing,” Cicero said in his letter to Merkel.

Merkel’s actions put Nites in a position of conducting personal business while on duty, a violation of departmental policies, the letter said.

Mandopoulos said Nites takes a few hours off on a regular basis to coach and watch sporting events in the evenings. He uses compensation time in such situations so that he can still receive his regular pay, Mandopoulos said.

“He is normally docked when he takes time off,” Mandopoulos said. “He wants to be part of his children’s life. He’s been coaching for 17 years, even before he had kids.”

Mandopoulos added that there are times when such requests for time off can be granted and times when they cannot.

He said he doesn’t know the specifics of either of the two instances mentioned in the letters because Cicero has conducted the investigations without his help or the help of the internal affairs officer in the police department, Detective Jeff Cole.

Mandopoulos said he doesn’t understand why Cicero is so focused on matters of this kind when the department has “real serious problems” brought on by the layoff of 20 officers Jan. 1 and possible additional police layoffs by June.

Each of the three officers named in the time-card issue are “excellent employees,” Mandopoulos said, adding that he wonders if there is an ulterior motive for the investigation.

The chief was brought up on administrative charges earlier this month for his treatment of Cicero in November. Mandopoulos said he attended a predisciplinary hearing in front of Safety-Service Director William “Doug” Franklin but has not heard back regarding the incident.

runyan@vindy.com