BUCYRUS—A Bucyrus police officer has resigned after being placed on paid administrative leave. The officer was under investigation for several alleged sex offenses while on the force, including “sexually touching” a 4-year-old girl’s buttocks.

Bucyrus Chief Neil Assenheimer said in a summary report of the investigation that the officer confessed to several sex offenses while undergoing a polygraph examination on October 4 when he applied for a job with the Ohio Highway Patrol.

The officer’s name is not being released at this time because no formal charges have been filed at this time. Reports are completed and have been forwarded to the Richland County Prosecutor’s Office.

According to documents, Chief Assenheimer became aware of the allegations on October 31, 2022. The officer was placed on paid administrative leave on November 1 and resigned from the Bucyrus Police Department on December 10.

An internal investigative report, dated November 11, 2022, by the Bucyrus Police Department said BPD viewed a video of the entire Ohio Highway Patrol interview and also spoke to the officer in person.

According to previous Crawford County Now articles, the officer joined the Bucyrus Police Department in 2014 and is a veteran of the U.S. Army. He earned a Purple Heart and served two tours as a sergeant with the United States Army in Iraq. and served
as a school employee and with Children’s Safety Town in 2019.

The investigation resulted in the officer being charged with ten policy violations and department charges while on duty with the Bucyrus Police Department and Mansfield Police Department, opening a criminal investigation into the allegations involving the 4-year-old girl.

Mansfield Police Chief Keith Porch said on Friday: “I can tell you the case has been finalized by MPD and sent to the prosecution for review. The case is in their hands.”

The Bucyrus Police Department’s internal investigative report listed the following offenses or allegations by the former officer:

1. Misuse of department property: The officer admitted to taking a ladder from the department to his home to hang Christmas lights. The officer admitted that he had had it for four or five years.

2. A. behave inappropriately towards any officer or employee; B. Obedience to laws, regulations, etc.: In the interview with the highway patrol polygraph, the officer admitted that he had been driving under the influence of alcohol and driving in 2019. He told the examiner that he had about 6 to 8 beers in 6 to 8 hours and drove home without incident.

3. Inappropriate Conduct for an Officer or Employee: In the OHP interview, the officer admitted to providing alcohol to a person he believed to be 16 or 17 years old at the time he was about 28 years old.

4. Behavior inappropriate for an officer or employee: The officer admitted to providing alcohol to a woman he was dating when he was 29 years old. The female was then 19 years old. The officer said it probably happened two or three times a week for five months.

5. Behavior inappropriate for an officer or employee: In the OHP interview, the officer admitted to digitally penetrating a woman he was dating in a public place in 2018.

6. Inappropriate behavior by an officer or employee: In the OHP interview, the officer admitted to masturbating during school hours in a school resource officer’s bathroom. He said this happened about seven to ten times.

7. Offensive act that could discredit police: In the OHP interview, the officer admitted on two separate occasions that he was accused of touching a woman’s buttocks, the latter incident said while he was drinking. The officer was accused of touching a woman’s buttocks on two other occasions.

8. Standards of Conduct Policy: In the OHP interview, the officer admitted to having sex about five times (with his wife in 2021) while on duty. He said they were trying to conceive at the time, and it was at his house during his lunch break.

9. Inappropriate behavior by an officer or employee: In the interview with the highway patrol, the officer admitted to touching the buttocks of a 4-year-old girl during a cookout at a friend’s house in 2017. The officer said the touching was outside of the clothes in a sexual way. He said he had been drinking. According to the BPD report, the incident is currently being investigated by Mansfield Police.

10. Standards of Conduct: The officer did not report that he was the subject of a criminal investigation into touching the 4-year-old girl’s buttocks and that he had been interviewed by the Mansfield Police Department.

The internal investigation report, signed by Bucyrus Police Captain Wert, was dated November 11, 2022, and concluded the officer had violated department rules and codes of conduct, improper norms, and standards of conduct. Some of his actions may also have violated Ohio Revised Code.

“I believe the violations warrant the need for disciplinary action. It should also be noted that the Mansfield Police Department/Richland County Prosecutor’s Office has not yet made a decision on whether to prosecute the officer,” Wert said in the report.

On October 31, a Mansfield police report was filed naming the officer as a suspect in relation to a gross sexual imposition.

According to Wert, the officer said in an interview that the incidents took place during a dark period in his life when he was having marital and drinking problems. He said the incident in which he was accused of groping a grown woman at a wedding in 2020 caused him to stop drinking. He said that he has entered a stable relationship and marriage as well. He said he was very sorry and ashamed and apologized for the incidents.

Bucyrus Police Department Captain Tom Walker, the department’s information officer, said Friday: “Our administrative investigation has been completed and the decision was that officer (name) resigned voluntarily.”

“Our agency had never accepted a complaint or suspicion of inappropriateness [or even marginally questionable] behavior of the former official (name). In consultation with the school district, they did not. In fact, the district told us they had nothing but praise for[him],” Walker said Friday.

Assenheimer said in a statement Friday: “Due to staff shortages, officer (name) was assigned to road patrol at the end of the 2021-2022 school year. Once we (BPD) found out there was a problem (October 31, 2022 ), we immediately addressed it by giving him administrative leave — and he never returned to work. In the end, he chose to resign.”

According to Captain Tom Walker, the officer cooperated fully and fairly with the investigation and chose to resign.

Crawford County Now will continue to cover this developing news story.