Ex-Lt. Kelty, who helped fix a 2014 OVI citation, promoted to sergeant

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A city police officer who was demoted two ranks at the start of the year for helping to set aside an OVI citation for the brother of another officer had one of his ranks restored by an arbitrator.

A ruling by arbitrator Marc A. Winters released Tuesday mandates that Patrolman John Kelty, who was demoted from lieutenant, be promoted to the rank of sergeant.

Kelty, a 25-year member of the department, also will receive back pay for the rank of sergeant retroactive to the first of the year because of the ruling, Police Chief Robin Lees said Wednesday.

The city still is not sure if it will appeal Winters’ ruling, Lees said.

The suspension came out of an investigation by the department’s Internal Affairs Division of a traffic stop Nov. 28, 2014, in which officer Thomas Wisener pulled over Joseph Slattery, brother of Lt. Gerard Slattery, who is head of the vice squad. Joseph Slattery appeared to be drunk and was taken to the police station to be given a test to determine if his blood-alcohol content was above the legal limit.

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 Kelty, who was a lieutenant then and the officer in charge 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.

The report said Kelty asked another supervisor to delete the towed-car report for Joseph Slattery without telling him why, called the tow yard and told the person in charge there to release the car to Gerard Slattery and also checked how the call was logged into the city’s computer. His account differed from Wisener’s, and the two were ordered to take a polygraph. Wisener passed and Kelty flunked when asked if he ordered Wisener not to charge Joseph Slattery with OVI and to give him citations only for open container and running a red light.

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

Wisener received a 10-day suspension, Gerard Slattery was suspended 10 days, and Kelty was demoted from lieutenant to patrolman.

Another officer, Assad Chaibi, lost four hours of vacation time. Chaibi, who gave the blood-alcohol test, put the evidence in a shred bin when he asked Kelty what he should do with it and received no response. The bin is locked and emptied every few days to be shredded; it had not been emptied before the investigation. Chaibi was found guilty of conduct unbecoming, failure of good behavior, failure to process evidence correctly and filing a false report.

During the investigation, Kelty was found guilty of dishonesty, conduct unbecoming, failure of good behavior, neglect of duty and improper conduct by a supervisor. He appealed his demotion, and a hearing took place June 18.

Winters ruled that Kelty violated the other rules except for dishonesty. He said the city did not prove during the hearing that Kelty was dishonest and, because of that, his demotion should have been only one rank, to sergeant, instead of two.

The ruling states that Kelty must receive training on the duties of a supervisor before he is returned to the rank of sergeant. After that, he most likely will take the place of Detective Sgt. Jose Morales, who is retiring this fall.

The ruling also said that nothing prohibits Kelty from taking the civil service exam for lieutenant again.

Wisener also appealed his penalty of a 10-day suspension, and a separate arbitrator ruled in his favor earlier this year. The city has appealed that ruling.