Investigation of Middletown police

Have you noticed that the Journal-News hasn’t said anything about the Channel 9 investigation of Middletown’s James Cunningham and the Middletown police? That shows where their loyalties are and their biases too! The Journal’s staff writer, Ed Richter, has already moved on to some really “important stuff” like the front page article about Downtown Middletown Inc’s new director, who from all indications will carry on the city’s misguided focus on the downtown. Essentially, the Journal-News is aiding city hall’s cover-up of their corruption by failing to report it. Ever heard of the sin of omission?

Mr Adkins, City Council and the Police Department have remained silent and unwilling to answer to anyone. That’s how they operate … ignore the problem until citizens forget about it and hope that it gets buried under the piles of propaganda that Ed Richter publishes for Mr Adkins.

Yep, they think they can get away with anything. But those problems aren’t going to just go away and there is a growing stench around city hall that should remind us … there’s something very wrong here!

In case you missed it, here’s the first post about Channel 9’s investigative report. The black print denotes additions to the original post.

WCPO, Channel 9 TV news, has been doing investigative reporting on local police departments. (You can see it on WCPO.com) Three days in a row, their reports included a segment about specific complaints on Middletown police officers (three officers to be exact). The reports exposed records of misconduct from excessive and unnecessary use of force to sexual harassment. They reported an incident witnessed (by fellow police officers) where Lieutenant James Cunningham “drilled” in the face, a mentally ill homeless woman while she was in custody.

Perhaps the most scandalous of these reports was the numerous filings against Lieutenant James Cunningham by fellow police officers (both male and female) concerning sexual harassment. Many of the complaints were made BEFORE he was promoted to lieutenant! There was minimal disciplinary action taken by Major Hoffman (who maybe should be held complicit?) for Cunningham’s numerous and serious violations. Cunningham, as a police officer, was doing the very things for which he could arrest others. It’s shameful that good officers have been subjected to such working conditions.

There are many other incidents that went unreported or ignored and buried. This investigation encompasses only the last 3 years. But what other violations and suspensions have occurred and been condoned by the police department and municipal court over the other 25 years of Cunningham’s tenure? This is the tip of the iceburg.

Since our city manager, Mr Adkins, has requested Cunningham for some of his “special” projects unrelated to policing, such as locating blight for the city to seize (or buy … like Bar Boca for $35,000) and tear down. It would appear that Adkins is also complicit!. Adkins had to know about Cunningham’s record, in fact, Mr Adkins was Prosecutor for the city when Cunningham was a patrolman and sergeant.

Cunningham has been allowed to retire rather than be fired or held responsible for his actions, thus continuing to be rewarded for bad behavior and Middletown residents are paying for it. He has demoralized our police department, maligned our residents and been the source of deep embarrassment to the city. NOW OUR TAX DOLLARS WILL PAY FOR HIS RETIREMENT!! One more financial/ nail in the city’s coffin.

Where was council when all this corruption was taking place? Were they waiting for instructions from Mr. Adkins or were they just oblivious as usual? Shouldn’t council have some questions for Mr Adkins at the next council meeting about ethics and civil rights? Oh, … but council hasn’t taken the blinders off! So Adkins will hide his complicity behind the cover-up of silence a while longer.

Wonder if the group of people who have been abused or maligned by Cunningham have thought of going for a civil suit? And could that civil suit include other police officers and city officials?

Wait ‘til you read some quotes from Channel 9’s in depth, online report! Read a summation appearing on MUSA soon.

Everyone should read the report by WCPO.com on 11-1-17 about Middletown police Lt. Cunningham. The following is some excerpts with comments in red. Where excerpts have been underlined, it is for special emphasis.

“We reviewed thousands of disciplinary records from 40 police departments serving the Tri-State, focusing on the agencies in seven metro area counties in Ohio and Kentucky. Reporters studied thousands of incidents involving police in large and small law enforcement agencies.

We weren't sure what we would find when we began collecting these records, but our goal was making sure the public was aware of how law enforcement agencies handle discipline.

We identified 37 incidents of dishonesty among law enforcement employees over the past four years. Penalties ranged from counseling, where a supervisor talks with the employee about the behavior, to termination.”

“But Cunningham's case stood out because city officials refused to release any information about the law firm's investigation of the sexual harassment allegations. They said the investigation fell under attorney/client privilege and did not qualify as a public record.

Lt. Cunningham's case is by far the most complicated.

He received a 30-day suspension in October 2014, after the city's investigation into sexual harassment complaints led to a secondary investigation into Cunningham's use of force against a homeless woman he arrested for disorderly conduct.

Ultimately, the harassment allegations led to a July 2015 "conciliation agreement" with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission in which Middletown agreed to pay $15,000 in damages and prevent Cunningham from supervising the complaining officers for at least two years. Cunningham was also required to receive 30 hours of training "on anti-discrimination laws, sexual harassment, LGBT awareness, bullying, workplace communications and professionalism," according to the settlement document Middletown supplied to WCPO.”

Remember this report was only for the last few years. Lt. Cunningham has been doing this and worse since day one on the police force. The tax payers paid the $15,000 in damages, not Cunningham; that and the cover-up of his conduct by multiple police supervisors over the years is inexcusable. How many times did Cunningham get suspended? How many complaints were filed against him? How many complaints were intercepted by Major Hoffman or other supervisors that refused to make a report? How many honest police officers left the Middletown police force because of this corruption?

“Two years after the settlement, this is the first time the matter has ever been publicly reported. After WCPO began asking questions about Cunningham's discipline, the department announced this week that he will retire on Nov. 1.

The allegations against Cunningham stayed out of the public eye partly because the officers didn't want media attention, their attorney said. They just wanted to change the culture of the department.

The reason they wanted to change the “culture of the department” was because much more of the department’s “culture” was corrupt than just Cunningham. The corruption in Middletown is not limited to the police department! Inspectors, administration, municipal court and revitalization have liars, cheaters and thieves, also.

"They weren't looking for a shakedown," Gerhardstein said. "They were looking to feel safe at work. They were able to achieve some of those goals by making sure Lt. Cunningham went through training. They couldn't get him fired. It's just not something the city would agree to. But they were hoping to make things better."

That’s right “they couldn’t get him fired. It's just not something the city would agree to.” If you’re a crooked employee in Middletown city government you’ll be safe! The powers that be will protect you, cover for you, and refuse to take reports against you. Also you will get raises and promotions much faster than your honest co-workers.

Middletown City Manager Douglas Adkins defended his handling of the Cunningham case in an April 2015 affidavit.

"Because of his record (ha ha ha) and length of service, I did not believe that a termination would withstand the arbitration process," Adkins said. "I believed a lengthy suspension (with pay, therefore a vacation) and a last chance agreement were more effective tools than an unsuccessful termination."

But Gerhardstein was skeptical of the arrangement, especially after he learned that Cunningham served most of his 30-day suspension with 25 unused vacation days.

"The city's investigation was designed to protect Lt. Cunningham," Gerhardstein argued in a 2015 filing with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission. "No written reports were collected from the 70 witnesses interviewed by the city and now the city refuses to release any documents from the investigation claiming they are attorney/client privileged."

The city never released investigative reports, but Middletown did provide several hundred pages of records about Lt. Cunningham to WCPO. Hundreds of additional documents came from the Ohio Civil Rights Commission.

The records also show that Cunningham had more than 40 use of force incidents in his record.

In a 2006 internal memo, Major Mark Hoffman said Cunningham had been involved in 44 incidents with "no prior discipline" in the prior 12 years. But Hoffman recommended a 3-day suspension for a Feb. 6, 2006 incident  in which Cunningham punched a teenager in the stomach after a foot pursuit.

The May 2014 incident involving a homeless woman was initially deemed justified by Middletown Lt. John Magill. But that changed after the sexual harassment case heated up in September.

In a March 2015 affidavit, former Middletown Police Chief David VanArsdale said he asked Middletown's law department to investigate sexual harassment allegations when he first learned of them in July 2014. In the course of that investigation, he said city lawyers "became aware of a use of force complaint against Lt. Cunningham," VanArsdale said in the affidavit. "The investigation revealed evidence of an excessive use of force."

An arrest report on May 28, 2014 shows Cunningham's initial account of the incident was that he "moved" a homeless woman's mouth to keep her from spitting on him: "I put my hand across her mouth to prevent her assaulting me and moved it to her right."

That account cleared a supervisory review of the incident when Magill documented that the homeless woman, Jewell Gabbard, "showed no injury" when he visited her jail cell. Magill concluded that the use of force complied with department policy.

But Cunningham's account began to unravel in early September, 2014, when Det. Cris Kelly – who witnessed the incident – told Middletown Police Major Rodney Muterspaw that Cunningham didn't just move the woman's mouth away from him.

"No, he drilled her," Kelly said. Muterspaw, who was promoted to chief nine months ago, documented Kelly's account of the incident in a Sept. 9 email to his former chief, VanArsdale.

"He said in a text message later that he regretted not coming forward earlier," Muterspaw wrote. "Gabbard was mentally ill and should not have been struck."

Two days later on Sept. 11, Gabbard filed a handwritten complaint alleging Cunningham hit her while she was handcuffed on May 28.

"He hit me real hard," Gabbard wrote. "Had a bad headache for a while."

Gabbard's report was taken by Lt. Leanne Hood, who also happened to be one of the seven officers who accused Cunningham of sexual harassment in the summer of 2014. In a December 2014 affidavit, Hood alleged Cunningham had "a long history of harassing people in the department … Lt. Cunningham has been close friends with Chief David VanArsdale for a long time. They bike together, kayak together and drink together quite a bit when off duty. The chief has made it clear that he supports Cunningham and will not take action against him."

If VanArsdale was protecting Cunningham because of his personal friendship, he is as guilty of wrong doing as Cunningham.

Hood also claimed in the affidavit that Middletown Law Director Les Landen "had prior knowledge of Cunningham's sexual harassment of city employees" and "personally witnessed several incidents" involving a former law department employee.

Magill, Hoffman, David VanArsdale, Les Landen, Doug Adkins and many others knew about Cunningham being a bully with a badge and protected him. This shows just how deep dishonesty and corruption goes in Middletown. Council, you are the elected officials who are responsible for allowing corruption and it’s cover up, not to mention failure to protect the citizens. If you can not get this under control, we, the citizens should remove you from office and get someone for council that can get rid of the corruption. The least that we expect out of local government is honesty and integrity (something that’s been lacking for years).

It shouldn't be that hard, Bob, given the horrendously poor voter turnout in town.  I posted about that in another thread.

middletownscouter wrote: It shouldn't be that hard, Bob, given the horrendously poor voter turnout in town.  I posted about that in another thread.

The point of this topic or thread and the first two posts within it (please read from the top), is investigation of the corruption in City Hall.

Holding Council responsible for permitting, abetting, and continuing the corruption and it’s cover up is important. So, the investigations need to be brought to the forefront and kept in the public eye.

That will, hopefully, help bring about the desired changes in Council/City Hall. 

Come on bud bob
Many of the # scouter mentioned as visitors have tried a lot of things with admins,councils and on their own. Many have served on boards,committees and have attended/spoken to numerous councils and city officials.

Stop acting like nothing ever happened before you came around, and honestly what have you accomplished?

Not an attack—keep trying!!

apathy??

You see - this right here is why no one stands up either.  Rather than encourage one another to get out, stand up, run for office - it always ends up in a knuckle dragging ape crap fight over who has done what and when.

Bob -

buddhalite:

I will vote for you for council. Just answer some questions.....

If elected, will you stand up for the people and not cave in to the pressure when you do? Will you make your decisions based on fact and not be influenced by the pressure you will feel when pressed for the always present unanimous "yes vote by other council members? Will you be like Anita Scott-Jones who started off strong for the people asking prying questions on behalf of the people and then faded away and became just another rubber stamping approval robot? Or, will you be like Josh Laubach, who, against the entire council, including the pressure from Larry Mulligan and the city manager, managed to stay until the end while being treated like an outcast because he wanted to ask the hard questions?

Which one buddhalite? I want someone with some guts. Someone who will thumb their nose at any pressure from the MMF/Mulligan/city manager positions. Someone who will "THINK ON THEIR OWN" and not feel beholden to anyone but the people. Someone refreshing for an change.

Will you be for the people or play the court jester like all the rest of them have done to date? Will you be bullied by the dictatorial power structure in place in this city?

The right choice gets my vote (and, I'm sure, many others here) and I will keep voting for any new candidate that DOES NOT mimic the cloned candidate we continue to see time after time. The Bronstons, Mulligans, Picards and Bohannons of the world are commonplace as to candidate selections each time. No quality/no substance/no competence/ no logic.....no guts. That is why we are in bad shape as to real leadership in this city, the state and the country. Dare to be different. Dare to be for the people.

Ah, so now the measure of being able to speak is how many posts someone has?

Applause with sincere gratitude is due to WCPO, ABC Channel 9 News for reporting their investigation of Middletown’s police department and other Middletown city officials involved in wrong doing and it’s cover up.

Because the Journal-News, a Cox media affiliate (and CBS’s Channel 7), refuses to report anything uncomplimentary and unapproved by city hall, Middletown residents are effectively kept uninformed; all easily done with the aid of staff writer Ed Richter whose job it is to take dictation from Mr Adkins. Pretty simple, and too easy!?!?

City hall has successfully kept the city’s corruption from becoming public. Our residents seem not to care about the corruption because they are either uninformed or misinformed by the local propaganda paper, Journal-News. The public can not care about things of which they have no awareness. This will continue unless the corruption is exposed, expunged and then exterminated like vermin.

Perhaps constantly keeping the public (our residents and tax payers) informed of past and current corruption will prove to be city hall’s nemesis. Relentlessly publishing their corruption and unethical conduct as far and wide as possible, just may be our best opportunity to rid the city of corruption and the corrupt and unethical. Printing and delivery is the final hurdle to making this happen. The goal is a new honest, ethical city government.

Lest it be forgotten again, here are some of the reported “low lights” exposed by the WCPO Channel 9 News investigation of Middletown’s police department and other city officials involved in wrong doing and it’s cover up.

• Of the “thousands of disciplinary records from 40 police departments serving the Tri-State” reviewed by WCPO, “Cunningham's case stood out because city officials refused to release any information about the law firm's investigation of the sexual harassment allegations. They said the investigation fell under attorney/client privilege and did not qualify as a public record. Lt. Cunningham's case is by far the most complicated.” In a “conciliation agreement” with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, the city of Middletown agreed to pay $15,000 in damages. Cunningham paid nothing and the entire matter was hidden from the public view for two years.

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• Several hidden records were revealed on Cunningham. So, how many more damning records remain hidden on him and others in all of our city government? Middletown residents are routinely kept in the dark about anything that city hall is afraid to make public. What are they afraid of???? Is it fear of being held lawfully and financially responsible for whatever is being so carefully kept hidden?

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• City hall was still controlling the investigation: “The allegations against Cunningham stayed out of the public eye partly because the officers didn't want media attention, their attorney said. They just wanted to change the culture of the department.” "They weren't looking for a shakedown," Gerhardstein said. "They were looking to feel safe at work. They were able to achieve some of those goals by making sure Lt. Cunningham went through training. They couldn't get him fired. It's just not something the city would agree to. But they were hoping to make things better." Our police wanted to feel safe from one of their own . . . Cunningham!!!

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• “Middletown City Manager Douglas Adkins defended his handling of the Cunningham case in an April 2015 affidavit.” The affidavit lamely defends Cunningham, citing his “record and length of service.” At the time of the affidavit there had been no public exposure of his record of corruption! Adkins said. "I believed a lengthy suspension and a last chance agreement were more effective tools than an unsuccessful termination." Adam Gerhardstein, the attorney for the seven officers who accused Cunningham of harassment, said on camera in WCPO’s interview: “… The city's investigation was designed to protect Lt. Cunningham ..." Gerhardstein argued in a 2015 filing with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission. "No written reports were collected from the 70 witnesses interviewed by the city and now the city refuses to release any documents from the investigation claiming they are attorney/client privileged." Mr Adkins has explained in detail on his blog that he informs Council of how he expects them to vote on his recommended, predetermined resolutions and ordinances. The police department seems under that same umbrella of control … Adkins, himself, handled the city’s investigation and it’s cover up!!

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• Mr Adkins virtually insulated himself and Chief Muterspaw from exposure: “WCPO attempted to interview Cunningham and Middletown Police Chief Rodney Muterspaw. Both declined.” This refusal occurred on camera and was aired on WCPO news and Adkins can be heard saying “We’re not going to do this tonight” to reporter Craig Cheatham. On Mr Adkins ‘October 30, 2017 blog in CityofMiddletown.org, he says “”Let me expand. We’re not going to do this anytime ...” In other words, if Adkins prefers to keep hidden any information that might expose some dirty laundry to the public, he will do so ... at will!!!

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• In Mr Adkins’ October 30 blog, he conveniently ignores WCPO’s findings in their investigation and instead focuses on police good deeds. But even further, Adkins has been hiding, for years, a long record of misconduct in Cunningham’s personnel file which began very early in his “career” as an officer. Cunningham’s file shows he was unfit from the start. Adkins was the city prosecutor early in Cunningham’s “career” and had to have knowledge of Cunningham’s ugly personnel file. As city manager he has oversight of our police. Adkins, along with all of Cunningham’s supervisors and our law department have colluded to protect him and themselves.

Seriously??