Fired cop to get $22,906.21 severance package


July 17, 2013 at 4:30p.m.

Fired cop to get $22,906.21 severance package

YOUNGSTOWN — The city has no choice but to pay a $22,906.21 severance package to former police Detective Sgt. Robert Lodwick, fired after being charged with two felonies, its law director says.

“Any illegal conduct that he may have committed or abhorrent behavior he may have engaged in does not provide us a legal rationale to not pay him the money he has already earned,” said city Law Director Anthony Farris. “There’s no way around it. It was accrued.”

The board of control, of which Farris is a member, will meet at 9:30 a.m. Thursday with Lodwick’s severance payment on the agenda.

Police charged Lodwick on June 7 with importuning and illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material. Lodwick is accused of inappropriate behavior with a 14-year-old female juvenile whose case he was investigating while a member of the department’s Family Services Unit. He was fired June 14.

For the complete story, read Thursday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com