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Trustees file suit in dismissal of officer
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Weathersfield Township trustees have filed a lawsuit in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court asking for a declarative judgment that former patrolman Richard W. Mattessich’s request for arbitration of his firing not be allowed.
Trustees unanimously fired Mattessich on Dec. 20 after a public hearing.
According to Vindicator files and the lawsuit, Mattessich was fired for lying to his superior officers.
In one case, Mattessich was accused of lying Dec. 12, 2010, that another officer had come on duty 10 minutes after roll call for the shift.
An internal investigation showed it was Mattessich who arrived 30 minutes after the start of the shift. He also was the officer in charge that night and failed to have roll call, township officials said.
In September, Mattessich lied when he told his superiors he had not had counseling while he had been on sick leave — something he later admitted was not true, township officials said.
“Further, [Mattessich] admitted to surreptitiously taping meetings with his superiors and other officers and that he failed to pass a lie-detector test,” the township said in the suit.
The township says Mattessich does not have a right to appeal his firing to an arbitrator because he failed to appeal the firing to the Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
Mattessich has argued that he is entitled to arbitration under the provisions of the collective-bargaining agreement between the township and the Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the lawsuit says.
The township says Mattessich is not entitled to arbitration because he did not follow all of the required steps outlined in the contract, such as notifying his supervisor of any grievance within five days of his firing, the suit says.
Mattessich has no published phone number and could not be reached to comment.