Republic file photo Columbus police officers have been cleared by special prosecutors following an investigation into allegations that CPD officers worked hours overlapping with private security work at Columbus Regional Hospital.
Special prosecutors investigating allegations of criminal activity at the Columbus Police Department declined to file charges against more than a dozen police officers and a former police chief related to discrepancies between hours worked for the city and outside employers.
In a 19-page outline of his conclusion released on Friday, Special Prosecuting Attorney Chris Gaal said an Indiana State Police investigation found that timekeeping records suggested that 17 non-administrative CPD personnel had received compensation from CPD and Columbus Regional Health for overlapping periods of time from 2013 to 2020.
Gaal said a handwritten timekeeping system used by CPD prior to 2019 was “rife with inaccuracy” and “created at least the potential for manipulation” but ultimately determined that there was “insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt” that any of the CPD officers had committed criminal offenses.
“There were often reasonable explanations for overlapping hours, including training, special detail duties and other informal changes that were approved by supervisors yet not recorded accurately,” Gaal states. “…As such, the possibility of human error cannot be discounted as a reasonable explanation for overlapping hours.”
Any remaining unexplained overlaps were deemed too minimal to merit further investigation, Gaal stated in the report.
In a separate investigation regarding former police chief Jon Rohde, special prosecutor Doug Brown of Decatur County said there was no criminal conduct and there was insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the former chief engaged in criminal conduct.
While Rohde was police chief, he worked two other jobs as a security guard at CRH and a mediator for the Indiana Office of Court Services.
Brown credited Rohde with the launch of the new CPD time keeping system on Jan. 1, 2019, saying he should be credited “for resolving the department’s time-keeping issue.”
Rohde stepped down as police chief at the end of 2019 and now serves as Bartholomew County Superior Court 2 judge.
The investigation, which started in 2020, included serving a search warrant on the City of Columbus to seize CPD’s timekeeping records dating back to 2016. CPD also provided Indiana State Police with the results of its internal investigation.
Investigators with the Indiana State Police particularly looked at timekeeping records for eight CPD patrol officers, three detectives, five supervisors and one sergeant. Of those, only three of them — two patrol officers and the sergeant — “involved larger numbers of overlapping hours and therefore merited a more detailed analysis.”
For the two patrol officers, most of the timekeeping discrepancy were explained by “supervisor error,” Gaal states.
However, investigators were not able to determine what caused the sergeant’s timekeeping discrepancy but didn’t find any evidence of fraudulent or criminal conduct.
“Ultimately, (the Indiana State Police detective) was unable to explain overlapping time periods on the 25 dates in question,” Gaal stated in the report. “It is possible that the overlaps may have been for legitimate reasons that were not recorded accurately. …In addition, his investigation did not reveal evidence indicating knowledge or intent on the part of (the sergeant) to engage in fraudulent or criminal conduct.”
None of the officers were named in the report.
Part of the investigation relied on an audit of the city’s payment records by the Indiana State Board of Accounts, which assumed standard working hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. from the general office hours listed on the city’s website, Gaal states.
City officials, for their part, have disputed the use of this methodology for the roles of police chief, deputy chief and captains, arguing that “these officers are expected to work 24/7/365.”
“They routinely respond to events at night, early morning, on the weekends or on holidays,” the city stated in a response to the audit. “Sometimes these involve criminal activity, sometimes they are simply attendance at a board or community event. Leadership of a police department is much more than a 40-hour-per-week assignment. Any such reference to standard business hours is a misleading characterization of the job.”
The decisions from the special prosecutors came nearly two years after former CPD officers Dan Meister and Ron May received suspended sentences by a special judge after pleading guilty to working a second job providing security at CRH while clocked in as city police officers.
The two officers were placed under supervised probation until it could be verified that they had paid all restitution, court costs and fines.
