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Men question charges against fired Warren police officer
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Former Warren Patrolman Reuben Shaw had handcuffs placed on his wrists and police officers escorting him Wednesday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
Shaw, 48, after pleading not guilty to grand theft, theft in office and breaking and entering, was taken in handcuffs to the Trumbull County Clerk of Courts office to make arrangements to post the $2,500 bond set by Judge Peter Kontos.
Shaw is charged with the three felony offenses and two misdemeanor charges, accused of stealing a 1969 Chevrolet Nova from the locked garage of a vacant home on Kenwood Drive Southwest in June 2013 by having it towed to a garage over which he has control.
Police Chief Eric Merkel fired Shaw, a 24-year veteran, May 2 after an investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
Several pastors who are part of the Trumbull County Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance and several others spoke after the hearing to question the fairness of Shaw’s firing and charges.
The Rev. Phillip Shealey, pastor of Greater Apostolic Faith Church in Warren, said the group of about a dozen men had come to court Wednesday “to make sure justice is served and that there is equal action for everybody” and to “make sure justice is served to [Shaw] rightfully.”
The Rev. Mr. Shealey said he and others have questions as to why Shaw was fired and charged criminally when “a lot of cases [involving other Warren police officers] were much more severe than what we’re dealing with right now.
“And all they amounted to, pretty much, was a slap on the hand with those officers, and they got their job back, and some even got promotions.”
The pastor was referring to disciplinary action taken in 2009 by then-police Chief Tim Bowers against Merkel, then a lieutenant; Sgt. Mike Albanese; Lt. Dan Mason, then a sergeant; and Sgt. Emanuel Nites.
Merkel, Albanese and Mason received time off for falsifying time sheets for Nites so that Nites could watch or coach basketball games involving his children while he was supposed to be working.
Merkel served 10 days off without pay, Albanese five days off without pay, and Mason 20 days, though an arbitrator later ordered that Merkel’s suspension be reversed, that he get only a written reprimand, and he was paid for the 10 days off.
Nites was suspended three months without pay for his time-card infractions.
Other members of the group mentioned former police Capt. Joe Marhulik, who was promoted to captain in 2010 despite having called two black men a racially offensive term while off duty in his unmarked police car in 2009. Marhulik served a two-week suspension for the incident.
Shaw’s father, Eddie Shaw, said he thinks his son was selectively prosecuted because of racial discrimination. The Shaws are black. Merkel is white. “It’s a personal issue. This is not about a Nova,” he said.
Clyde Wilson, a candidate for Warren Board of Education and Warren City Council in recent years, said the Nova involved is a “junk car” inside a garage that was “falling down.”
“All kind of animals all in the place,” Wilson said. “He didn’t break in. They [residents of the home] was cutting them up, cutting cars up, selling them, getting drugs, whatever they was doing with them.”