Staff Reports
A special prosecutor has filed official misconduct, ghost employment and theft charges against two retired Columbus police officers after a lengthy Indiana State Police investigation.
Jackson County Prosecutor Jeff Chalfant filed the charges against Dan Meister, 46, 952 Jackson St., Hope, a 22-year veteran of the department, and Ron May, 58, 8015 S. County Road 875W, a 31-year department veteran, court records state.
Warrants for the two were issued Friday and each was arrested Friday afternoon, Indiana State Police said. Both were taken to the Bartholomew County Jail and each posted $7,500 bond before being released.
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Columbus police said an internal investigation was conducted after an allegation was made in September 2018 that Meister had been compensated for working at CPD and a secondary employer, later identified as security at Columbus Regional Hospital, at the same time. After that allegation, Columbus police said a review of work hours of all officers working at the secondary employer was conducted, resulting in the internal investigation being expanded to include May.
Indiana State Police said Columbus police contacted ISP on Nov. 29, 2018 with a request that state police detectives investigate possible criminal activity by two officers, Meister, who was a lieutenant with the department, and May, who was a sergeant.
At that time, May announced his retirement before the department could seek disciplinary action against him, while Meister assumed the rank of patrol officer, a reduction of two ranks, Columbus police said.
Handing off the investigation
Columbus Police Department turned its internal investigation over to the state police after an accusation that two CPD officers were working secondary jobs during the hours they were also working for the police department. After the Indiana State Police detectives completed their investigation, it was turned over to Chalfant.
Before the ISP investigation was completed, Meister announced his intention to retire in November 2019, Columbus police said. Although he has not worked for the department since November, he is still listed as an CPD employee due to accrued personal time benefits, Columbus police said.
Meister submitted a payment of $4,110.35 to repay the costs of the special investigation and compensation he received from the city while working for the secondary employer (CRH), Columbus police said.
On Friday, Columbus police said Meister’s employment status with the police department is now “under review.”
Columbus Regional Hospital officials confirmed last November that Meister and May were dismissed from their independent contractor jobs as CRH security on Nov. 30, 2018, one day after the completion of the CPD internal investigation. The officers were independent contractors for the hospital to supplement and enhance security provided by Protective Services, the hospital’s security company, hospital officials said.
Probable cause affidavits in the case state that, as supervisors, Meister and May knowingly and intentionally worked overlapping shifts at CPD and the hospital on multiple occasions between Feb. 19, 2015 and Aug. 31, 2018.
Court documents state the officers were paid by the police department and the hospital for the same hours worked on numerous occasions.
Investigators found that Meister had overlapped hours worked on 52 separate occasions. May was found to have overlapped hours worked on 62 separate occasions, court documents stated.
The number of hours compensated from the police department for Meister were approximately 44.43, according to court documents. The number of hours compensated from the police department for May was 66.35, according to court documents.
Court documents state the overlap in time while the officers received compensation for hours worked at CPD was spent on hospital property and that during those times, neither officer was performing official duties for the police department.
Holding officers ‘accountable’
Last October, then Columbus Police Chief Jon Rohde told the media that the department holds its officers to the highest of standards. “We’ve worked hard to establish a positive relationship between our officers and citizens. Part of maintaining that trusting relationship is holding our employees accountable when they don’t follow the policies that were established to reflect our core values. In this case, we’ve held our officers accountable for their actions,” then chief Rohde said in a statement.
A State Board of Accounts audit found that May and Meister “received $2,294.66 and $1,501.48, respectively, in compensation from the city while working at Columbus Regional Hospital between Jan. 1, 2013 and Aug. 31, 2018,” according to audit documents.
The State Board of Accounts requested each officer reimburse the state $2,608 for the costs of the audit.
In the statement issued last October after the State Board of Accounts audit was released, then Chief Rohde said the officers committed “severe and significant” policy violations involving the scheduling and verification of their hours worked that “did not rise to the level of termination.” Rohde said then that disciplinary action against Meister was “not out of the question” if the patrol officer was convicted of a crime.
The state audit also determined that CPD did not set “proper internal controls” to prevent employees from receiving unauthorized compensation.
“The department did not have a time clock and time cards were handwritten and maintained on a computer spreadsheet,” the state audit reported. “Due to the fact that department employees did not a punch a time clock, internal controls were not in place that allowed the department employees to receive compensation from the city while working at Columbus Regional Hospital. The city did not set proper internal controls over time reporting of its employees that allowed for unauthorized compensation to be paid to department employees.”
In 2014, the Columbus Police Department made a request to invest in electronic timekeeping software to eliminate errors and reduce time spent scheduling and managing officers’ work hours, the department said in a statement on Friday. In an earlier interview, Rohde said he inherited a paper time keeping system when he became police chief in 2014.
In 2015, the city purchased an electronic timekeeping system, but CPD determined the following year that the system was not capable, among other things, of managing the different pay cycles and work shifts of CPD officers.
In 2017, the city found a software system that would work and then went through a purchase process and then spent much of 2018 working with the city’s vendor, ExecuTime, to make the software compatible with CPD’s scheduling and pay cycles, Columbus police said. By the end of 2018, CPD was testing the new electronic timekeeping system.
On Jan. 1, 2019, the transition from paper to electronic timekeeping was completed, establishing additional checks and balances in order to diminish the possibility of individual abuse, Columbus police said Friday.
“The electronic timekeeping software currently used by officers at the Columbus Police Department had not yet been implemented during the time period the alleged misconduct occurred,” according to the CPD statement.
‘Off-duty security’
CPD officers are permitted to work off-duty security jobs, including at Columbus Regional Hospital, and do not have to notify CPD that they have accepted such a role, Columbus police said in earlier interviews.
“We have countless requests for off-duty security, so many that can’t even been filled,” Rohde said earlier. “Our officers’ responsibility is to make sure that they’re putting in their work time and it’s accurate and not overlapping with any other secondary position, and that’s what the expectations are.”
As many as 16 CPD officers have been contracted to work off-duty security at Columbus Regional Hospital as well as five Bartholomew County Sheriff deputies, Columbus police said in an earlier interview.
Rohde has since stepped down as Columbus police chief to seek the Republican nomination for Bartholomew Superior Court 2 judge. The current Columbus police chief is Michael Richardson.
“In all circumstances, our officers are held to the highest of standards, and are expected to uphold and follow the law,” Richardson said in a statement released Friday. “We will hold our officers accountable to these high standards so that every member of the public can maintain confidence in the officers who serve them.”
