Police officer placed on unpaid leave after arraignment

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A city police officer who was indicted by a grand jury in May was placed on unpaid leave Friday.

Art Carter, 43, was placed on leave after surrendering Thursday and being arraigned in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on five counts of sexual battery and five counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.

The allegations are a result of conduct by Carter as a coach at Ursuline High School and have nothing to do with his work as a police officer, Chief Robin Lees said.

Lees said the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation first began investigating the allegations in October, when Carter was placed on paid leave. His paid leave ended Thursday, Lees said.

Lees said the department was not expecting the investigation to take as long as it did when Carter was placed on paid leave.

Lees said Carter’s final status will not be determined until after the case against him is completed.

Carter was an assistant track and field coach at Ursuline and was removed from coaching in October after a graduate reported a past incident to the school. The school then contacted law enforcement, which is when the investigation began.

At the time he was placed on paid leave, Carter was serving on one of the area task forces.

Carter pleaded not guilty to all charges at his arraignment and is free after posting bond.

He has a pretrial date July 11 and a trial date set for Aug. 7 before Judge Anthony D’Apolito.