Liberty man charged with adding fluids to boss' soup, theft at workplace

Staff report

STRUTHERS

A 27-year-old Liberty Township man accused of videotaping himself adding bodily fluids to his boss’s bowl of soup also faces theft charges after police say they learned he’d been diverting hundreds of dollars’ worth of business-related payments into his personal checking account.

John Cutlip of Maplewood Drive, who was indicted last month by the Mahoning County grand jury on felony charges of pandering obscenity and criminal mischief, is next scheduled to appear in court July 21. He will answer to the theft charges Sept. 19 in Struthers Municipal Court.

Struthers Detective Jeff Lewis said there hadn’t been any reports of conflict in the workplace, and the boss had “treated [Cutlip] like a son” during the several years they had worked together.

“They had no animosity in the office at all,” he said. “He said he did it as a joke to impress his girlfriend.”

Lewis added that Cutlip’s former boss discovered the video in March, after Cutlip left his Facebook account open on his workplace computer.

The boss, who believes that she consumed the soup, saw a series of messages between Cutlip and his girlfriend, during which the two commented on the incident, along with a link to the video.

Police obtained a search warrant and seized Cutlip’s cellphone as evidence.

According to police notes, Cutlip said he felt as though his privacy had been invaded by his boss, in part because she had read his Facebook messages.