Officers remain on leave following officer-involved death on state Route 11
By Ed Runyan
liberty
An unspecified number of Weathersfield Township police officers and one highway patrolman remain on paid administrative leave as a result of the deadly confrontation they had with a Kinsman man Friday morning on state Route 11.
The officers are not being identified “at this time as a result of this being an ongoing investigation,” said Lt. Brian Holt, commander of the Southington Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, which is investigating the matter.
Holt said the dash-cam video of the incident also is not being released to the public upon the advice of Dennis Watkins, Trumbull County prosecutor.
Cody Dempsey, 25, of state Route 88, died shortly after state troopers and Weathersfield officers attempted to arrest him just south of the Tibbetts-Wick Road interchange.
Officers fired their weapons at Dempsey, killing him, shortly after the patrol deployed spike strips on Route 11 to disable the car Dempsey was driving.
Dempsey brandished a semiautomatic handgun before he was shot, but Holt said his department is still investigating whether Dempsey pointed or fired the gun at officers.
Three officers with the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office pursued Dempsey south on Route 11. He was in a Cadillac reported stolen earlier Friday, but none of the sheriff’s officers was involved in the shooting, and none went on leave, Sheriff Thomas Altiere said.
The chase reached speeds of about 75 mph, which is 5 miles per hour over the posted limit, and Dempsey did not exhibit any extreme behavior when one of the three officers pulled up alongside of him on the highway, Altiere said.
Holt said one of his troopers is on paid administrative leave, which is “standard protocol in events like this,” and he is “expected to return to full duty soon.”
Capt. Mike Naples of the Weathersfield Police Department said he has officers on paid leave as a result of the incident, but he would not specify how many and referred all other questions to Holt.
A call Monday to the Mahoning County Coroner’s office regarding autopsy results on Dempsey was not returned.
The Vindicator, meanwhile, obtained police reports and court records from Cortland and Warren dating back to 2009 indicating Dempsey spent two months in the Trumbull County jail in 2011 connected to an alcohol-related conviction; and was arrested other times regarding suspension of his driving privileges, driving under the influence of alcohol and or drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia.
An April 5, 2011, Warren police report says a girlfriend living on Hollywood Street Northeast reported Dempsey missing and expressed concern for his safety because, she said, Dempsey had a history of drug abuse and suicide attempts.
A report written by a deputy with the sheriff’s office in December 2005 said he was called to the Dempsey home on Route 88 when Dempsey was 16 years old because Dempsey was threatening suicide. Dempsey told the deputy he was depressed and used the drug LSD.
On June 8, 2014, Dempsey was living on Hazen Place in Sharon, Pa., when Cortland police passed a pickup truck he was driving at 12:43 a.m. and discovered Dempsey was driving despite having a suspended license. He pleaded no contest in Central District Court in Cortland and was fined $25 and court costs. He had a similar conviction a month earlier.
He was convicted of an offense involving minors in 2009 while living in Warren and was fined $250 and court costs and was placed on one year’s probation, which he violated. That sent him to jail for 60 days.
Cortland police said the charge stemmed from a May 9 traffic stop in which police found an open beer and marijuana in the car. Two other males in the car also were under age 21.
Two months earlier, in April 2009, Dempsey was picked up after Cortland officers reported finding marijuana and paraphernalia in the car Dempsey was driving. He was fined $150 and court costs and had his license suspended for six months. He was convicted in Central District Court of possessing drug paraphernalia.
Jeff Payne, owner of Payne Auto Body on South High Street in Cortland, employed Dempsey at his shop starting when Dempsey was completing his high school education at Trumbull Career and Technical Center around 2006. Dempsey continued to work there for about four years.
“He was always a good kid when he was here,” Payne said. “I don’t know what happened after he left here, if he went off the deep end or what.”
Payne said it was a shock hearing that Dempsey had died, especially since he was so young. “It hit us all by surprise,” he said.
A person who answered the phone at the Route 88 address where Dempsey reported living said he had no comment.