Girard officers on leave after complaint; man says police illegally entered his home
GIRARD, Ohio (WKBN) — Two Girard police officers are now on paid leave during an internal investigation into the handling of a case from September.
The officers were put on paid administrative leave on Tuesday after a complaint was filed on Oct. 17, according to a letter from Girard Police Chief John Norman.
Norman told WKBN on Friday that the officers being on leave is standard procedure during these types of investigations and is not necessarily an indication of wrongdoing.
The letters from Norman to the officers said preliminary results of the internal investigation found that the complaint was substantiated, however, a more detailed investigation into the matter is being conducted. Norman said the investigation would be handled by the department unless it was determined that an outside agency should be involved.
The police department did not provide further information to WKBN, however, the man who made the complaint said his issue was with police kicking open his door without a warrant.
The complaint stems from an incident on Sept. 7 in the 500 block of Powers Ave.
According to a police report from that incident, a woman told police that the man punched her, causing her to fall into bottles of urine that were in the room. She was then covered in urine, and the report noted that her clothes were wet when she arrived at the Girard Police Department to make the complaint. It also said she had an abrasion and marks on her throat and upper chest.
The woman said the suspect had taken her phone, so she was not able to call the police at that time. The woman also told police that the suspect had a gun but she did not know if it was in the home, the police report stated.
Two Girard officers, as well as two Liberty officers, went to the home to contact the suspect and reported seeing him get up, shut off the light and walk away, according to the police report. One of the officers noted in his report that he recognized the suspect from previous incidents and that the suspect looked at him before shutting off the light in the living room he was in and walking away.
The officers reported commanding that the suspect open the door, and one of the officers kicked the door open and forced the man out at gunpoint when he didn’t comply.
Officers reported finding a gun in a shoebox in the man’s bedroom, and they seized it during his arrest.
Body camera footage provided to WKBN from the police department shows one of the officers knocking at the door around 9:28 p.m. Another officer comments that he can see someone looking out the window, but no one answers the door.
Neither officer identifies themselves as police at that time.
A minute later, the officer knocks again on the door and says, “Police department,” but seconds later, he kicks open the door and orders the man out of the house at gunpoint.
The man who was arrested told WKBN that the officers only gave him seconds before kicking open the door. He said they did not have a warrant, and the woman who was listed as the victim in the complaint was not in the house at the time. He said officers knew that because she made the complaint at the police department.
He said no one in the home was in any danger, which did not justify their entry into the home.
He added that he had a permit for the firearm, which was also seized during an illegal search.
The man was charged with strangulation and disrupting public services following his arrest, and according to court records, he was convicted of lesser charges of misdemeanor assault and persistent disorderly conduct in the case.
The man said he pleaded to the charges because he was worried about retaliation and that he might be found guilty during a trial. He said regardless of the outcome of the case — for which he was sentenced to probation and anger management and drug testing — he wants the officers to be held accountable for their actions.
Chief Norman did not say how long the internal investigation would take to complete.
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