Saturday, December 12, 2015
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
An arbitrator has upheld the firing of Ryan Tolone, a former corrections officer at the Trumbull County jail.
In June, Sheriff Thomas Altiere fired Tolone, 29, of Girard, after learning that Tolone had the drug Suboxone in his system at the time he was involved in a fatal vehicle accident in Liberty.
Suboxone typically is prescribed to treat an addiction to opiates such as heroin or OxyContin.
Tolone hit and killed Emily Huffman, 45, of Liberty, as he drove his pickup truck south along Belmont Avenue near the Vintage Village mobile-home park at 10:40 p.m. Jan. 28.
Tolone was not charged in Huffman’s death, and he was not charged with drug possession.
Huffman was believed to be walking in the roadway and had a blood-alcohol level of 0.093 and the active ingredient for marijuana in her system, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said.
But in his 27-page decision, arbitrator Nels E. Nelson said he agreed with the sheriff’s office when it said Tolone’s use of the drug was “felonious conduct.”
Tolone told Sgt. Troy Sexton of the highway patrol the night of the accident he was not taking any medications, but a urine test came back positive for Suboxone.
Possession of the drug without a prescription is a fifth-degree felony, the arbitrator said.
Tolone also was working part time as an officer with the Brookfield Police Department at the time.
In an internal-affairs interview with Maj. Thomas Stewart of the sheriff’s office in June, Tolone admitted he was using Suboxone “because he had become addicted to oxycodone,” the decision said.
“He admitted that he did not have a prescription for the Suboxone but got it from friends and neighbors and on the street,” the decision says. He started an addiction-treatment program with a doctor Feb. 23, Tolone said.
Max Rieker, Tolone’s attorney through the Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, said Friday: “On behalf of the [OPBA] and Ryan Tolone, we disagree with the arbitrator’s opinion and stand by our original positions and believe that the termination of Ryan Tolone was and is unjustified.”
Tolone didn’t have to notify the sheriff’s office he was using the drug, but he failed to provide the sheriff’s office with a note from a doctor as required by county policy indicating that he was fit for duty, the sheriff’s office said.
In his appeal, Tolone argued that his termination was unjust because progressive steps were not taken, his statement to Sgt. Sexton was truthful because of the way the question was asked, Tolone is entitled to a chance at treatment before termination and his performance at his job was good.
The union said Tolone was not required give the sheriff’s office a doctor’s note that he was fit for duty because Suboxone “causes no impairment,” and the requirements for a doctor’s note apply to drugs that “might impair their normal function,” his attorneys said.
The sheriff’s office pointed out that Tolone had three disciplinary write-ups during his three years as a corrections officer, including a two-day suspension for “being involved in passing a note from one accused murderer [David Martin] to another accused murderer,” the decision said.
That incident occurred a couple of weeks before Martin and two other inmates took corrections officer Joe Lynn hostage for several hours April 23, 2014, the decision said.
Martin later was convicted of aggravated murder for killing Jeremy Cole, 21, and attempting to kill Melissa Putnam, 30, in September 2012 in Warren. Martin was sentenced to the death penalty.
The arbitrator said Tolone’s conduct at the accident scene had implications for his job because if an inmate were to learn that Tolone was buying Suboxone on the street, it could lead to manipulation by the inmate.
“A corrections officer who has been identified as possessing and using Suboxone without a prescription would be in a difficult position working in a jail where many of the inmates are there on drug-related offenses,” the arbitrator said.
Had Tolone been convicted of felony drug possession, his termination would have been immediate and “without recourse to the grievance and/or arbitration procedures,” the decision added.