Trial date to be set for former Boardman cop accused of impersonating

Staff report

BROOKFIELD

Court officials will schedule a trial date for Stephen Kendall, 41, of Salem, charged with impersonating a police officer during a 2012 traffic stop in Vernon Township.

Kendall, a former Boardman police officer, appeared for a preliminary hearing Thursday in Eastern District Court with his attorney, James Gentile.

The result was that the case will proceed to trial, a court official said. No trial date was available early Thursday afternoon.

Kendall was fired by the Boardman Police Department in 2007 after being convicted of gross sexual imposition involving a 17-year-old girl.

A Hartford Township police officer stopped Kendall’s car at 1:44 a.m. May 13, 2012, for a purported stop-sign violation. Hartford police and the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office patrol Vernon.

The officer said Kendall appeared to be trying to show the officer a credit card with a Fraternal Order of Police insignia on it, so the officer asked Kendall if he was a police officer.

Kendall said yes, and that he worked for the Boardman Police Department.

He also produced a worn but valid Boardman Police Department ID card, said Sgt. Robert Grexa of the Hartford Police Department.

Kendall was charged in 2012 but never appeared for court until being arrested in September on a warrant.