Trumbull sheriff appeals unemployment benefits for fired jail officer

WARREN

The Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office has appealed a ruling by the Ohio Unemployment Compensation Review Commission that made a terminated corrections officer eligible for unemployment benefits.

Documents from the commission contained in the appeal filed Thursday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court say that corrections officer James D. Millik was terminated for being untruthful about his actions minutes before three inmates took another corrections officer hostage last April.

The hostage situation ended quietly several hours later.

The documents give some details of Millik’s conduct but leave out many others that Sheriff Thomas Altiere and his staff would not provide Thursday.

Millik was placed on unpaid leave last year, but his appeal steps have not been completed, so the part of Millik’s personnel file relating to the hostage ordeal are not being released, said Dan Lester, assistant jail warden.

Millik arrived at work at 3:03 p.m. April 23, 2014, for his 3 p.m. shift on the fourth floor, according to the documents.

Inmates on the fourth floor called Millik over the intercom and asked if they were scheduled for recreation that day, to which Millik said they were not, but they were scheduled for “out of lockdown time.”

“Almost immediately after being released out of lockdown time at 3:16 p.m., the inmates grabbed Joe Lynn, corrections officer, and held him hostage with weapons they had created from sharpened spoons and a pen,” the documents say.

Read more about the incident and the case in Friday's Vindicator or on vindy.com.