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Judge: Officer violated terms of probation
By Ed Runyan
BOARDMAN
Warren police officer Jeff Miller spent the past five days in the Mahoning County jail awaiting a hearing Tuesday regarding a probation violation.
Miller, 48, was released from custody after Tuesday’s hearing before Judge Joseph Houser in Mahoning County Court in Boardman, where he was found to have violated terms of his probation from an earlier case.
His punishment was the five days he had already served in jail, court officials said.
Miller’s probation violation was his failure to complete 60 meetings required by the alcohol treatment program at Glenbeigh within 75 days of Aug. 28, 2012, court records say.
Sgt. Jeff Cole, spokesman for the Warren Police Department, said Miller remains on active duty with the Warren Police Department, and no disciplinary action was taken against Miller regarding a 2011 traffic case.
The original charge stemmed from Miller’s arrest Sept. 22, 2011, after a traffic crash on U.S. Route 224 in Boardman at the Tiffany Boulevard intersection.
Miller was eastbound on Route 224 at 10:13 p.m. and drove through the red light at Tiffany Boulevard, causing a collision with a vehicle heading south on Tiffany Boulevard, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said.
Neither Miller nor the woman in the other car was injured.
Miller failed a field sobriety test and was cited for operating a motor vehicle impaired after he refused to take a breath test.
He also was cited for a traffic- light violation.
According to the trooper who investigated the accident, Miller was “very confused” and admitted to being on several medications.
“He stated that he had been advised not to drive while on the medication” and “had an odor of an alcoholic beverage,” the report said.
Sue Lopez of New Middletown, the woman in the other car, told the trooper that after the accident Miller walked up to her car and said he didn’t see any damage.
Lopez said she told Miller she had damage to the passenger side of her car and declined when Miller asked her if they could move their cars off of Route 224.
“We better just leave it where it is,” Lopez wrote in her statement, adding that Miller said, “‘Well, I’ll give you my license — I said no,” Lopez wrote.
“He then said, ‘Well, I am going to get a drink’ and went across the street,” Lopez wrote. The trooper didn’t mention anything about Miller leaving the scene in his report.
In March, Judge Houser found Miller guilty of the reduced charge of reckless operation, fined him $250 and $80 in court costs, and suspended jail time in lieu of Miller attending a 28-day Glenbeigh alcohol program.