CRESTLINE — Crestline Police Chief Joseph Butler recently was served papers documenting the administrative charges and complaints made against him as his professional future remains in jeopardy.

During a special meeting Wednesday, Crestline Village Council informed the public of a hearing set for Monday at council’s regularly-scheduled meeting that will decide the fate of Butler’s employment. A day prior, Oct. 30, Butler received a nine-page document outlining the complaints and charges being brought against him by council and village administrators.

According to the document, “The list of charges below constitutes incompetency, inefficiency, dishonesty, neglect of duty, insubordination, failure of good behavior, and other acts of misfeasance, malfeasance, and nonfeasance in the performance of the marshal’s (Chief’s) official duties in violation of including but not limited to the Ohio Revised Code section 737.171 and other applicable provisions, Department policies including body camera use policy, and of the Personnel Policies of the Village.”

The general administrative charges brought against Butler include:

  • Lack of Policies, Lack of Training and Direction for Staff, Etc.
  • Improper and/or Inadequate Training and of Use of Equipment, Failure to Dispose or Sell Confiscated Property, Failure to follow Federal and State overtime laws and procedures, Improper Use of Village Facilities, Improper Assignment of duties to Officers.
  • Improper Use of Body Camera and other Recording Devices of the Village.
  • Untruthful Statements.
  • Removal of Items From Village Offices, Missing and/or Improper Maintenance of Department Files, Improper Use of Village Facilities.

Charges come from accusations of Butler improperly storing files both in paper and digital forms on hard drives and in filing cabinets. This included accusations of Butler removing hard drives and placing them in drawers while failing to shares their location and keeping paper files of items such as DUI charges in file cabinets without a formal system of record keeping.

Butler also is charged by the administration with improperly storing evidence and failing to keep record of evidence being stored at the police station.

Firearms also were a main topic of concern in the document. The document said, ” Chief maintained an arsenal of automatic weapons, shotguns, etc. not readily available to officers and failed to adequately train the officers in order to allocate the weapons to the officers for use. Chief maintained Village owned weapons at his home without written authorization or knowledge of Village Administration. Chief stored fully automatic weapons and other firearms in a detached garage at his home.”

Butler also was charged with not providing proper access to the armory for his officers, resulting in no officer having access to the armory, weapons or ammunition in his absence; failing to properly inventory ammunition, resulting in an unnecessary stockpiling of ammunition; and placing officers in jeopardy by refusing to provide back-up weapons in the form of shotguns or rifles for police vehicles, resulting in officers strictly being armed with their service weapon and taser.

He also was charged with failing to properly train his officers on automatic weapons or shotguns.

The final accusations formed around Butler improperly recording others on his body camera.

New Washington Police Chief Jeff Shook, who currently also is the acting Crestline police chief, was asked to review and give a professional opinion on the footage captured by Butler.

Shook said he found numerous videos of meetings, both official and unofficial, with council members, mayors, administrators, prosecutors and other officials in the council chambers, village offices, the chief’s office and at private residences. He said there were numerous occasions that the other party involved would have justified reasoning to believe the conversation was private and not being recorded.

Following a report of his findings, Shook gave his professional opinion on the issue.

“In my OPINION, it appears as if whenever Chief Butler would leave his office to speak to anyone, he would turn on his body camera. Every time he went to the administration offices and or spoke to staff, you could guarantee that he was recording. One thing that was obvious was the fact that the videos show that every time he would turn on his Body Camera, he would place it in covert mode. The ‘Covert mode’ blacks out the lights to not bring attention to the body camera or the fact that he could be recording. This indicates to me that he knew what he was doing and intentionally tried to mask the fact that he was recording. Looking at the Body Worn Camera Policy (BWC) he was continuously violating that policy daily. As a matter of speaking out of the 1-200 videos that I watched, I can only recall three (3) videos where he captured himself doing ‘Police work’. All other videos would be outside the scope of the policy.”

Shook added Butler contradicted himself on what he considered grounds for termination, based on what he said of others and what his actions showed.

“I found it interesting that when he was talking to administration about firing an employee the reasons he cited were for violating policy. Given that this is his reasoning to fire someone under those conditions then he meets his own criteria for what a fireable offense is.

Please note that these opinions are based on a sampling of the videos that were produced.”

Shook then gave his personal opinion on preparing the report.

“I would also like to note that I take no pleasure in preparing this document as the opinions given are in direct conflict with a peer. I was asked for an opinion-based evaluation of the videos and I rely on my 30-year police career as the basis for my opinions.”

A public hearing is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 5 at council’s regularly scheduled meeting at 6:30 p.m.

The complete document signed by Butler and Crestline Village Administrator John Rostash may be found in its entirety below.