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No charges will be filed against 2 ex-Vienna cops
BY Jordan Cohen
VIENNA
The Trumbull Sheriff’s Office will not file charges against two ex-Vienna police officers in connection with the disappearance of $1,500 from a police safe last July.
The two, Jeffrey Ford, 35, and Nicholas Maccione, 28, resigned last September.
Sheriff’s Maj. Thomas Stewart, who had been investigating the incident at the request of township trustees, has sent them a letter saying he is unable to proceed because the ex-officers “have obtained counsel and I can’t question them in regards to the money.”
The $1,500 consisted of Christmas Fund and block-watch money raised by local community groups.
Police Chief Brian Darby had said previously he first learned about the disappearance when Ford told him about it last summer.
However, Stewart wrote that Ford “was led to believe that if he would resign, no criminal investigation would be conducted.”
Ford said that Trustee Heidi Brown had made that promise, but according to Stewart, when Ford realized that the interview with Stewart was part of a criminal investigation, he ended the conversation.
“At this point, I’m unable to determine who might have taken funds from the safe,” Stewart wrote.
Stewart also said that Ford turned in money to Brown at the time of his resignation, a statement confirmed by fellow Trustee Jeff Dreves, who said Ford handed in $100. Dreves said he was unaware of any promise made not to prosecute the officers.
Stewart’s letter recommends that the money be returned to Ford “unless he admits that he had taken it from the missing money.”
Attorney Matthew Vansuch, who represents the trustees, said he could not discuss what Brown told him based on lawyer-client confidentiality and would not say whether Brown had made the promise not to prosecute Ford. However, he said such a promise would have no validity.
“It wouldn’t be binding on the trustees because they would have to take an official action, which requires [approval] from two out of the three,” Vansuch said.
“She shouldn’t have done that — it was a mistake,” Stewart said.
Attempts to reach Brown to comment were unsuccessful. Brown had told The Vindicator on the night that Ford and Maccione resigned that she had personally asked for their resignations.
The deputy’s letter also criticized use of the safe for community funds in the first place. “... [T]he system in place for keeping the money in the safe was lacking in security, to say the least,” wrote Stewart, adding that the combination to the lock had not been changed in years.
“We’re going to make improvements on the combination and make it a policy to change it every six months,” Darby responded. “We’ll also reduce the number of people who have the combination.”
Darby said Ford was one of four people including the chief who had the combination.
The chief added that he and Dreves are “in the process of making a new policy” about storage of cash in the safe.
Ford and Maccione are Trumbull County employees. Ford is a dispatcher for the 911 center while Maccione is employed at the Juvenile Justice Center.
The two were part-time officers, as is the entire Vienna police department with the exception of the chief.