Youngstown cop has suspension reduced in OVI case

May 27, 2015 at 12:08a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

An arbirator reduced the penalty for a city patrolman from 15 days suspension to four hours for his role in the decision not to charge the brother of a ranking police officer with OVI in November.

Arbitrator Langdon Bell issued his ruling May 20 after a hearing March 30 in which Patrolman Thomas Wisener appealed his suspension for filing a false report for a traffic stop Nov. 28 in which he pulled over Joseph Slattery, brother of Lt. Gerard Slattery, who is head of the vice squad.

Wisener is one of four officers who were disciplined for the stop and the failure to file OVI charges against Joseph Slattery. An internal- affairs report of the stop released in December showed that after Joseph Slattery was taken to the police station for his test, he called his brother, who was off duty, to pick him up.

Gerard Slattery then asked who was giving his brother a citation and was told it was Wisener. He then called then-Lt. John Kelty, who was the officer on duty, and voiced his displeasure with Wisener. He later yelled at another officer who allowed the car to be towed. The report said Gerard Slattery went to the tow yard and picked up his brother’s car without paying the tow fee.

Wisener wrote up a report, instead giving Joseph Slattery a citation for having an open container of alcohol in the car he pulled over on the West Side.

Gerard Slattery was suspended 10 days for his role in the case, and Kelty was demoted from lieutenant to patrolman. The other officer, Assad Chaibi, lost four hours of vacation time.

Wisener has already served his suspension, Police Chief Robin Lees said. Lees said the law department is considering appealing the ruling. If the ruling is upheld, then Wisener would be entitled to back pay he lost while serving his suspension.

Bell wrote in his ruling he found it hard to understand how Wisener could be given the longest suspension of those officers involved in the case, especially because a ranking officer was given less time off and the department, according to its standards, holds ranking officers to a higher standard.

Wisener had claimed during the investigation that he felt pressured to write a false report of the traffic stop, but he was never specifically ordered to do so. The arbitrator said besides the four officers who were disciplined, three others, including Lees, knew of the incident and that Gerard Slattery had called Lees about the stop on his brother.

“To this impartial arbitrator, it is inexplicable how this employer could, and did, impose upon this grievant a 15-day unpaid suspension while imposing upon the individual initiating and directing the improper police actions designed to thwart the proper enforcement of law while acknowledging that ranking officers are held to a ‘higher standard,’” Bell wrote.

The internal-affairs report recommended that the OVI charge be reinstated against Joseph Slattery, if it was possible. However, court records show that charge was never filed. Joseph Slattery was found guilty on a charge of open container and was fined.