NEWS

City still considering police chief, K-9 handler cases

Kristina Smith
mksmith@gannett.com

FREMONT – The Fremont police chief remains on paid leave while city administrators determine whether he violated city policy and where he will be disciplined, the safety-service director said Monday.

This comes after the Ohio Attorney General’s Office determined on June 19 that Chief Tim Wiersma should not be charged with a crime for writing a memo to his officers that described a suspect’s complexion as “brown skinned (’like a Crayola crayon’)” and then withdrawing the memo and issuing a new one.

Safety-Service Director Bob Ward said he did not know when a decision would be made but that he hopes it will be sometime this week.

“We have to go through our procedure manual and see if there are any administrative charges to be brought against him,” Ward said. “It’s just a long process that we have to go through.”

Meanwhile, the city is going through the same process with Officer George Dorsey, who pleaded no contest and was found guilty last month to one misdemeanor count of leaving the scene of an accident. Administrative charges likely will be brought against Dorsey, but the city has not yet determined what those charges are, Ward said.

Dorsey was supposed to have a predisciplinary hearing June 11, but the hearing was moved, Ward said. He did not know when the next hearing in Dorsey’s case would be.

Wiersma has been on paid leave since May 22. He was ordered to turn in his badge, his gun and his cell phone and was escorted out of the police building

He issued the memo on March 11 after talking with an informant who described a man she believed to be abusing a local woman and selling drugs, as “brown, brown like a crayon.” The informant made the statement in a recorded phone call, and Wiersma was repeating the description she gave him, his attorney, James VanEerten, has said.

Officers told city administrators they found the memo offensive. Wiersma’s attorney alleges no one told him they found the memo offensive but that commanding officers told him some might take offense to it.

Wiersma then told commanding officers to throw away the memo, and he sent out a new one that eliminated the crayon comment. Officer Michael Kennedy reported the situation to Ward on May 12, saying he was concerned Wiersma destroyed the memo.

Wiersma, however, kept the original memo and had no criminal intent, the attorney general’s office ruled.

Mayor Jim Ellis has been critical of Wiersma’s actions.

"The whole situation showed insensitivity to the issues that are facing the country right now," Ellis has said.

Dorsey’s case originally involved more criminal charges, but he took a plea deal last month.

He was charged with drunken driving after he crashed his sport-utility vehicle into another vehicle Feb. 17 at Moore Street and White Avenue while off-duty and then left the scene. Thirteen minutes after the crash, he called Capt. Jim White and reported what happened.

Dorsey is on probation for a year and must complete 50 hours of community service and a three-day driver intervention course. He also had to have a breath-test machine installed in his personal vehicle, which will only allow him to drive if the result shows he has not been drinking.

Dorsey was initally put on paid leave, but the police department brought him back to work on March 13. He is doing office work and cannot wear his uniform or carry a gun until the city decides whether he will face administrative discipline.

mksmith@gannett.com

419-334-1044

Twitter: @kristinasmithNM