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Lawsuit filed against Newton Falls
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Twenty-four Newton Falls police officers, residents and city employees have filed a lawsuit in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court alleging that illegal listening devices were being used in the municipal building in 2008.
The suit says the devices were installed for former Police Chief Robert Carlson and intercepted conversations among people in the police department, city manager’s offices and elsewhere.
Carlson does not have a published phone number and could not be reached to comment.
“Included in the surveilled areas was a conference room used during union negotiations for the purpose of union caucuses by the Fraternal Order of Police during contract negotiations,” the suit said.
The suit, which was filed by an attorney for the FOP, seeks a declaration that such eavesdropping is illegal, an order prohibiting such eavesdropping and monetary damages.
Named as defendants are the city of Newton Falls, Carlson, Mayor Lyle Waddell, and various current and former members of Newton Falls City Council.
Waddell, who took office at the same time former Mayor Pat Layshock was recalled at the polls in November 2010, said he was not a city official in 2008 and doesn’t know why he was named in the suit.
“I have no knowledge of it because I had no involvement,” Waddell said.
The suit says Police Chief John Kuivila asked the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation Technical Operations division to investigate the eavesdropping two years ago and that agents found cameras containing audio capabilities in several locations.
No warning signs were present to warn anyone that their conversations were being monitored, the suit said, adding that the city purchased the monitoring devices.
In an email from Kuivila attached to the lawsuit, Kuivila said Carlson told Kuivila during Kuivila’s first week on the job in November 2008 that the video cameras in the police department had both audio and video capabilities.
Carlson “stated that the audio was there so he could monitor the activities and conversation of the employees and how it was beneficial during contract negotiations,” Kuivila wrote.
Kuivila said he disconnected the audio capabilities as soon as Carlson was gone.
“The officers in the department have made multiple allegations of phone conversations being recorded, phone lines being recorded and rooms being set up with recording devices,” Kuivila wrote.
The devices also were being used in areas of the building used by agents from BCI and rooms where attorneys working in Newton Falls Municipal Court met with clients, Kuivila said.
The city’s clerk, Kathy King, reported being questioned by former Mayor Pat Layshock about private conversations minutes after they took place, Kuivila said, and city Manager Jack Haney reported that his private conversations also were “getting out of the office.”
Layshock did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Kuivila’s email said Municipal Judge Phil Vigorito apparently became aware that BCI agents were checking into audio monitoring in April 2009 and came to see Kuivila while the agents were in the building, saying he was having signs installed to notify people of the monitoring.
Judge Vigorito, when contacted Monday, said a new monitoring system was installed a year ago, and it does not utilize audio capabilities. Judge Vigorito, who was elected Newton Falls judge in November 2007, is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.