Warren cop gets 30-day suspension for policy violation
Staff report
WARREN
Warren Police Chief Tim Bowers has suspended Patrolman Jeff Hoolihan for 30 days without pay, starting June 1, for violating Warren Police Department policies and procedures.
Hoolihan, a veteran Warren officer and detective, was the subject of an internal affairs investigation after he told a local television reporter that city officials had covered up a crime he investigated in 2008.
Hoolihan said he told the reporter about an investigation conducted at the Warren Waste Treatment Plant that uncovered pornographic images on an employee’s computer.
Hoolihan said he talked about the investigation because he had been told that the investigation had been closed and that the worker had not been charged.
Warren police said the investigation was, in fact, still open.
Hoolihan cited the state’s “whistleblower” statute as his defense for discussing the investigation without authorization, but Sgt. Jeff Cole, the department’s internal affairs officer, said he told Hoolihan the whistleblower statute did not allow him to violate departmental policy regarding providing information to news media.
Hoolihan, who was transferred from the detective bureau to patrol duties in early 2009, also received a written reprimand a year ago for violating the police department’s use-of-force policy by ordering brothers 7, 9 and 10 to the ground at gunpoint in March 2009 in their backyard.