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Interview with Chief Dave SuciuThursday, March 22, 2012, 2:00pm in the Chief’s Conference Room-Reynoldsburg Police Department

My name is David D. Sturtz, Special Investigator for the Mayor of Reynoldsburg. The date is Thursday, March 22nd, 2012 and the time is 2:09pm. The location is the Chief’s conference room of the Reynoldsburg Police Department. This interview will be recorded and transcribed. The Chief is being represented by attorney Fred Gittes and an assistant attorney Jeffrey Vardaro. Is it Vardaro, close enough I hope? Chief you are the subject of this administrative investigation and are here to provide truthful and accurate information pertaining to the circumstances involving an incident that occurred on Tuesday, December 27th and Wednesday, December 28th of 2011 involving Reynoldsburg Police Officer Daniel Edward Downing and a Ms. W**** G******. I refer to Reynoldsburg case number 1-11-009642 and Pickerington’s police file, case file C11-1918.

Sturtz: Do you understand what I just read to you and do you accept that?

Suciu: Yes sir.

Sturtz: Ok, and you have read and signed Garrity and your attorney signed it as a witnessed?

Suciu: Yes sir.

Sturtz: Ok. Chief, how long have you been employed by the City of Reynoldsburg?

Suciu: Since August of 2004.

Sturtz: What positions have you held while being employed by the City of Reynoldsburg?

Suciu: Lieutenant and Chief of Police.

Sturtz: Were you appointed to the position of Chief or was it by direct appointment?

Suciu: Direct appointment.

Sturtz: And who was the appointing authority at that time?

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Suciu: Mayor McPherson.

Sturtz: And how long were you employed by the City of Zanesville?

Suciu: Nearly 18 years.

Sturtz: And while there in your 18 years what positions were….did you full-fill?

Suciu: Police Officer, Detective, Sergeant and Lieutenant.

Sturtz: Describe your educational background please.

Suciu: I have an Associate’s Degree in Criminal Justice from Zane State College. I have another Associates Degree from Zane State College in Natural Resources. I have a Bachelor’s Degree from Ohio University in Criminal Justice and I attended the Northwestern University School of Staff and Command and the FBI National Academy.

Sturtz: That was my next question, explain your police background. You did some time at the Ohio State Patrol Academy I bet?

Suciu: Absolutely.

Sturtz: And the FBI? And Northwestern. Were you on normal duty hours on Tuesday, December 27th and Wednesday, December 28th or were on vacation or holiday leave?

Suciu: I was on vacation.

Sturtz: On vacation. Were you accessible to your department either through email, text messaging or telephone?

Suciu: Telephone.

Sturtz: You made yourself available?

Suciu: Absolutely.

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Sturtz: When were you first made aware of the situation involving Ms. W**** G****** and Police Officer Dan Downing?

Suciu: On Wednesday, I am going to say mid-morning of the 28th.

Sturtz: The 28th. Were you briefed on the details of what took place the evening of the 27th and the 28th?

Suciu: Yes I was.

Sturtz: And who briefed you?

Suciu: Lt. Jim O’Neill.

Sturtz: Was this by telephone?

Suciu: Yes.

Sturtz: Was the briefing detailed in your mind enough that you understood what took place and what went on?

Suciu: I believe so.

Sturtz: Ok. When Lt. O’Neill called you and he briefed you on the situation, did you give him any directions or instructions on what he should be doing?

Suciu: I believe we talked about the incident for a few minutes, he explained to me some of the basic facts of what had occurred and as far as any direction I believe he had told me what he was going to do and I concurred.

Sturtz: What was that, what did he say he was going to do?

Suciu: I believe he said or maybe he already had entered W**** G******’s information into CAD as a, I guess we call it…..Flag their name and car in our CAD system and that ….. and again we talked about the incident itself but that was about what he had told me on what he was going to do on this.

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Sturtz: When Lt. O’Neill described what happened, what were your thoughts about your officer or your officer’s?

Suciu: Well, anytime when something like this happens where you know…well, the way it was explained to me was that Downing had received some text messages and that the text messages involved possibly a suicidal person. He did tell me that this was from an individual that Downing had known for an extensive period of time. Anytime you hear that kind of stuff you…of course you get a little bit concerned; anytime there is a potential suicide involved or something like that. We ….again he gave me some of the details about the incident that Pickerington PD had ended up making an arrest out of this incident that he believed was handled appropriately and that the, the person W**** G****** had been arrested and charged with I believe he told me a felony. I think at the time I was told for carrying a concealed weapon which ended up being improper transport but basically the text messages were you know…of a threatening nature. I don’t want to say threatening nature but of a suicidal nature and they had done some things to try and locate her and ended up with Pickerington making an arrest out of the situation.

Sturtz: Ok. I noticed, I am not sure if you initiated these when you came here or you became chief or not, but items of interest.

Suciu: Correct.

Sturtz: I had read about six months of these and they are very historical….

Suciu: Right.

Sturtz: I think it is an outstanding report where you keep superiors informed what goes on….

Suciu: Right.

Sturtz: Because you can map out what is happening here in Reynoldsburg. Did you initiate those kind of reports? Is that your…..?

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Suciu: I did / I didn’t. Uh, I use to when I worked for Chief Miller prior I would do a recap to her and then at some point when Chief Miller left and I became Chief and I was reporting directly to Mayor McPherson he requested I forward my daily recap to him.

Sturtz: Ok. Besides the Mayor, who else gets those reports to your knowledge?

Suciu: I typically copy Mr. Hood and Mr. Kozanecki who is the Mayor’s Court Clerk at the direction of the Mayor.

Sturtz: Ok. Are these reports considered important and critical to the operation of your police department and this administration?

Suciu: Are you asking me if they are critical? I review the reports on a daily basis so it is critical to me….

Sturtz: Right.

Suciu: But as far as me giving the information to the Mayor and or Mr. Hood and Mr. Kozanecki that is probably a question….I don’t have a problem sharing what is going on with the police department so…. I don’t have a problem doing them, no.

Sturtz: Now your reports, I think it gives everyone in the administration an excellent overview of what your officers does to protect this city.

Suciu: Correct.

Sturtz: So I think they are very critical to this administration.

Suciu: Agreed.

Sturtz: On that night and I am going back to the morning of the 28th when Lt. O’Neill called you and filled you in, uh do you recall instructing him to put that in your morning report? Or items of interest?

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Suciu: We talked about, he asked me whether or not he should include it or not and his direction to me that nothing happened in Reynoldsburg and an arrest had been made and nobody got hurt and sounded to that it had been handled properly and typically with those kinds of circumstances is not typically something we would involve or would place into that report so we made the decision together that that incident was not included in the daily report.

Sturtz: Ok. When did you return to duty after the 28th? Do you recall…..

Suciu: It would have been the Tuesday after the holiday. I believe the date was Tuesday, January 3rd.

Sturtz: Ok, did …. When you returned did Lt. McKinley and O’Neill and Sergeant Shane Mauger meet with you personally in your office and again discuss the situation involving Ms. W**** G****** and Police Officer Dan Downing?

Suciu: I don’t know if it was on that Tuesday, but I do remember meeting with….I don’t remember meeting with Mauger but I do remember meeting with the two Lieutenants.

Sturtz: Ok, the two Lieutenants. How many times as you recall did you meet either the group or with individuals, either Lt. McKinley or Lt. O’Neill to discuss this situation?

Suciu: Oh, a few. I would say it more than a couple but less than 10.

Sturtz: Sure, ok. I will rephrase this question. When did you decide not to place this information into your items of interest? And you kind of alluded to…what this group decision?

Suciu: During my discussion with Lt. O’Neill I got the impression that it had been handled properly and an arrest had been made by Pickerington Police Department. Again, nothing had happened in Reynoldsburg and again I thought….it sounded very good to me. In fact I even made the

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comment to Lt. O’Neill that sounded like they did a really good job and that…..and I did not see a reason to include that especially since it did not happen in Reynoldsburg.

Sturtz: Ok. I am going to agree with you. I have read cases and looked at this and I think your Sergeant Shane Mauger did an outstanding job of organizing, getting his troops in position, I will speak about Officer Downing here when he got concerned about the text messages, he did go to a supervisor and said things are kind of turning bad here somebody is coming and your guy Shane Mauger started into action and I thought he did well.

Suciu: I thought he did too.

Sturtz: Ok. Did you personally contact Pickerington Police Chief Mike Taylor and discuss the arrest that Officer Colbertson of the Pickerington Police?

Suciu: Actually Mike and I go to lunch on a regular basis every few months. We have become friends over the years and he called me one day that week and we had lunch; I believe it was on that Friday.

Sturtz: What was the purpose of that personal contact?

Suciu: I, again we had lunch for about 45 minutes to an hour and talked about a lot of different things but one of the reasons I believe he called me is he had some concerns about the incident that happened that night and I particularly remember the fact that this arrest had been made and he had some concerns about how they had been provided the information about the fact that G****** had a weapon.

Sturtz: Was he upset?

Suciu: He did not seem upset to me, no. He did not tell me he was upset, he had some concerns.

Sturtz: Did he tell you what his concerns were?

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Suciu: That the fact that one of his officers had walked upon or made a traffic stop through his talking with some of his people found out that we were working this same individual as far as trying to determine where they were and those kind of things and they made the stop before we got the information to them.

Sturtz: Did Police Chief Mike Taylor give you his opinion on how maybe you could have handled the situation differently?

Suciu: No.

Sturtz: He didn’t give you anything of this is maybe how I would do it or you should have…..

Suciu: Not that I recall, no.

Sturtz: Based upon the preponderance of the information why did you not direct one of your lieutenants to conduct a preliminary investigation into the involvement of Police Officer Downing and Ms. W**** G******? Based upon what you have been told.

Suciu: Right. Um, and this is one of the things myself, Lt. McKinley and Lt. O’Neill talked about and we take these types of incidents very seriously and again very seriously in regards to initiating an internal investigation regarding any allegedmisconduct. When we discussed this we kept coming back to that we thought they did the right things that night and that there was no misconduct on the part of Officer Downing or Sergeant Mauger or anything like that so we had no reason to initiate an investigation regarding any misconduct.

Sturtz: Um, huh. Let me rephrase this a little bit different too about Officer Downing. When you talked with Paul Akers of Channel 10 investigator reporter you alluded to the fact that this was a long standing relationship between Downing and W**** G******.

Suciu: I knew from the report that he had known her for 14 years, yes.

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Sturtz: Ok, do you remember reading in the Pickerington Police Officer’s report where she made the comment when he asked her where she was coming from and where are you going and she…… Lewis Center and I am going to Reynoldsburg to see my boyfriend.

Suciu: Yea, after the fact I do recall that…..the week of, well it would have been when Lt. McKinley…… we did not get the Pickerington Report until Lt. McKinley began the investigation that we initiated internally.

Sturtz: Ok, but you do recall that she alluded that Reynoldsburg Police Officer was her boyfriend and she also alluded that she was having an affair with him. Do you recall that?

Suciu: If it was in the report I would say…….I don’t remember those exact words were used but I do remember the part that, that was her boyfriend or something to that….I don’t remember the part that she was having an affair with him, no.

Sturtz: Ok. Well, that was in the report or I would not ask you that….

Suciu: Ok, I understand.

Sturtz: When you met with Police Chief Mike Taylor, did inquire as to what would happen with the disposition of the weapon she had and was charged with improper carrying of that in the car?

Suciu: I don’t recall talking about the weapon, no.

Sturtz: You had no conversation about it?

Suciu: I don’t believe I asked him the disposition or anything, no.

Sturtz: Did you, here again back to Chief Taylor….. did you have any conversation with him about your contact with the investigative reporter, Paul Aker-Channel 10?

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Suciu: I did. When Paul Akers called me, or I spoke with Paul Akers I believe it was Monday the 23rd my first contact with Mr. Akers I called Chief Taylor and advised him that there is a good chance that Channel 10 would be calling him also and that was pretty much the extent of my conversation with Chief Taylor on that.

Sturtz: Ok. Chief, when did you actually have conversation with Mayor Brad McCloud concerning the circumstances W**** G****** and Police Officer Downing?

Suciu: It was after a council meeting and I believe it was not the first week I was back but the second week so that would be Monday morning, I don’t have a calendar handy….it would be the second Monday of January I believe, maybe even the third. It is in there….. the mayor said to me, he did talk to me about an incident involving Dan Downing. I had an idea of what it was he was talking about and because we and when I say we I mean myself and two lieutenants had talked about it previously and I believe it was the next day after that I had a conversation with Mayor McCloud.

Sturtz: Ok. What did he ask you? What was he after?

Suciu: Well, initially he asked me if this was something that I was ……. He said, I realized we were both off and on vacation all the holidays what have you was this something that I was going to tell him about and I believe I said, Mayor to be honest this is something that was off my radar screen by that time and it had passed and probably not because it was just something that I was gonna bring up to him.

Sturtz: Ok. How well do you know Officer Dan Downing?

Suciu: Well, he is primarily been on midnight shift I believe since he has worked here at Reynoldsburg of course I primarily work dayshift. I know what his work product looks like. Um personally, I do not know him very well at all.

Sturtz: You don’t have off duty contact with him or anything of that nature?

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Suciu: No sir.

Sturtz: I would like to show you a photograph if I can find it here and I ….. do you recognize the photograph of the people in there besides yourself?

Suciu: Right. That’s Officer Downing and I believe that is probably Ms. G****** from my recollection of seeing her photographs during this whole incident.

Sturtz: Ok. Now this photograph was taken the day he was sworn in as a Reynoldsburg Police Officer.

Suciu: We do that as standard practice.

Sturtz: Now, this was September 26, 2007 I believe is the date of this photograph. Now he is married to a Heather Fogg and he married her on September 26, 2003, three years later and is still married to her and did he introduce her to you, this lady here?

Suciu: I believe he did.

Sturtz: As W**** G******?

Suciu: I believe so.

Sturtz: And…..

Suciu: I mean, that is a long time ago but I believe we did do introductions.

Sturtz: Did you know he was married at the time?

Suciu: Yes.

Sturtz: And did you question the fact that he brought his girlfriend to the swearing in?

Suciu: I don’t know that I had any indication that this was his girlfriend at that time.

Sturtz: Ok. Well, I have to ask you this….was it odd that a married police officer show up with someone else other than Ms. Downing?

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Suciu: I think that’s odd yes.

Sturtz: Would you consider him on duty in that photograph? Being sworn in?

Suciu: Yes.

Sturtz: Ok. But you think he introduced this young lady as W**** G******. I believe he may have. Like I said, it was a long time ago

Sturtz: Yes it was….

Suciu: …….…but I believe there is a good chance did introduce me or at least told me her name.

Sturtz: Ok. Here I have to ask you again because of your background. You have a good education, uh you have been in positions of leadership I have a hard time….why would you not ask him about her at that time. Where is your wife.

Suciu: I believe he told me at that time his wife was still in Cleveland working in Cleveland.

Sturtz: Ok.

Suciu: If I remember, I know there was an issue with her still being or working in Cleveland because he was a former Cleveland Heights police officer

Sturtz: Yes.

Suciu: ………and she had not found a job down here yet and so she was still in Cleveland area.

Sturtz: Ok. When did you direct Lt. Scott McKinley to conduct an internal investigation of Police Officer Dan Downing?

Suciu: The day after the allegation was made regarding the ownership of the gun belonging to Officer Downing.

Sturtz: Ok. Was that the reason why you directed him to do that?

Suciu: Yes.

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Sturtz: Did anyone direct you to direct McKinley or did you do that on your own initiation?

Suciu: Actually I had a meeting with the Mayor the night before after council and I received the email because that was after he had said something to the effect that he was considering bringing in an outside investigator to look into this whole matter so when this allegation happened I went to the Mayor and forwarded him the email from Akers and actually even called Lt. McKinley to verify that this was the first time we were hearing about this…

Sturtz: Yes.

Suciu: …….and that I went to the Mayor after council and said, this is something that needs to be looked into but I was not sure if he was going to have this outside investigator to look into it or did he want us to look into it? And that was my main question and I wanted to know how to proceed and at that time Mayor McCloud said, no you guys….I want you guys to look into it and I said, well I would be assigning it to Lt. McKinley…he was fine with that and I think the only thing he asked was that we get it done in a couple of weeks and I said that should not be a problem.

Sturtz: What changed? What changed from McKinley was going to do this to an outside person was coming in?

Suciu: I don’t know. I really don’t. The last…..that was on Monday and Lt. McKinley began to investigate this on Tuesday and Thursday I was placed on administrative leave.

Sturtz: Ok. In that time before you were placed on administrative leave did you ever explain to the Mayor your reasoning why you either did or didn’t do certain things? Why you did not put it in the report? Why you didn’t have……

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Suciu: We had had conversations, yes.

Sturtz: What did you tell him?

Suciu: Well, again going back to I thought the incident had been handled properly, that if and thinking back through and even if the allegations were you know were true about whether or not Officer Downing was having an affair or what have you I did not feel in my judgment that it was or it rose to the level of conducting an internal investigation and this was a discussion I had with the Mayor, Lt. McKinley and I had with Lt. O’Neill we just did not feel that it rose to that level with what we had until we got to the issue about the weapon.

Sturtz: Um, huh. Do you now or did you before know before how much contact W**** G****** had with Officer Downing?

Suciu: Honestly, obviously they had a lot of contact but I still don’t know how much contact.

Sturtz: Ok. If I were to advise you that while Downing was in his Field Training Officer period with Officer Joe Vincent that I am going to say that more than several occasions W**** G****** would meet Downing for lunch when he was on duty and in uniform to the point the night that W**** G****** was arrested by Pickerington Joe Vincent was one of the officers that was at the scene and he walked up and she was like Joe-Joe, I mean she knew him by name. She knew him so well from all those contacts were you aware that she was meeting …..

Suciu: No.

Sturtz: ……Downing on duty and eating lunch with him?

Suciu: No.

Sturtz: Ok. Also, in about a three year period of time he worked his third shift and W**** G****** worked for Ohio State University, same time third

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shift and had an ongoing text messaging telephone conversations on their tours of duty. Were you made aware of that?

Suciu: Never made aware of that…no.

Sturtz: Now, would you condone that?

Suciu: No.

Sturtz: Do you have a policy or procedure that would prohibit that?

Suciu: Yes.

Sturtz: Do you enforce it?

Suciu: I believe we do.

Sturtz: I mean if you knew or had the circumstances, you would enforce it right?

Suciu: Yep.

Sturtz: Ok. In my talking with them they both admitted to a long term phone calls and text messages during that. Ok, let me …. Did at anytime did anyone on your staff, Lt. McKinley and Lt. O’Neill ever voice a disagreement in your decision in not to pursue and investigation?

Suciu: I know when we talked about this original, Scott said from his Military perspective he would call Downing in but he also understood that we deal with a different perspective then the military.

Sturtz: Yes.

Suciu: That conducting an investigation into allegations of possible affair did not rise to the level of something we would be able to conduct.

Sturtz: Yes. Did Chief Taylor, I am going to go back to Chief Taylor again did he ever advise you that you should have notified the Mayor and conduct an investigation? Did he ever give you that kind of advice?

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Suciu: No, not that I recall. No.

Sturtz: You don’t. Ok. You said that you did explain to the Mayor why you did not direct one of your staff to conduct an investigation?

Suciu: We talked about it…..

Sturtz: Yes.

Suciu: ……and again I will go back to that I thought the officers did honestly a really good job that night and I believe I even went so far to say again, if the allegations of Officer Downing having this affair were true I was impressed that he went to his supervisor and even disclosed this information. I know I shared that with Mayor McCloud and again I did not feel that an act unfortunately and in no way do I condone this but an act of an affair or anything like that rose to the level of conducting an internal investigation for an off duty affair.

Sturtz: Ok. You have used off duty and in my checking facts and talking to people a lot of contact on duty, telephone, texting um, do to his affair with W**** G****** on that night the circumstances involved the Delaware Sheriff’s department that had to go out and check addresses where is she, OnStar got involved…….your entire third shift was out here looking at entry points into Reynoldsburg to find this woman and eventually Pickerington because she turned south, Pickerington Police get involved and suddenly this affair does involve a lot of police personnel and has attracted television people, Paul Aker in particular and one question that Paul Aker asked you in your comments to him, Is this …… did you ever talk to Officer Downing?

Suciu: I did not.

Sturtz: And of course you told him that.

Suciu: Right.

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Sturtz: ……and he said, why didn’t you talk to Officer Downing? And I guess that is my question to you, with all those circumstances why didn’t you question Officer Downing?

Suciu: Again, in my judgment in talking to Lt. O’Neill and McKinley and even the Mayor about this incident I did not see the necessity to investigate this any further.

Sturtz: Ok. Did you ever become or made aware of the ramped rumors circulating in your police department and the administration over here concerning Police Officer Dan Downing and Ms. G******’s long term relationship? Did you realize how much…..?

Suciu: Not until this incident began to kind of bubble up.

Sturtz: Ok. I talked to a lot of people over there and over here and there was a lot of not truthful rumors but rumors that disturbed people working here.

Suciu: I have never heard about W**** G****** until this incident.

Sturtz: Ok. Back to your communication with Paul Aker’s he asked how many times your officers were threatened by people and you made the comment, 3-5 times during the week. Do you recall that?

Suciu: I do.

Sturtz: In these reports this is six months there is one item of interest where a guy was going to commit suicide and told the officer’s if you show up I will shoot you. Now that is one I found in all of your items of interest and I am having Sergeant Cindy McCombs check your aggravated menacing and menacing…and how many charges were file to see because I was really that….3-5 times a week. I was not sure where that came from.

Suciu: Right.

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Sturtz: Do you have records?

Suciu: Other than from my experience and reading through reports where and officer or where someone might say…… I don’t think charges are ever filed.

Sturtz: Right.

Suciu: But somebody says, and you were in law enforcement someone says, I am going to kick your ass or what have you that is more of what I am referring to, you cannot arrest me those kind of issues.

Sturtz: I think he took it as ……….

Suciu: I could see….

Sturtz: The real stuff the guns and all that.

Suciu: No, the guns no.

Sturtz: Let me clarify in my mind why we did not report to the Mayor either the items of interest or didn’t have it investigated. In your mind with the information you were given it was your determination that there was not enough there to move forward.

Suciu: That is correct.

Sturtz: Ok and that is based upon what you were told?

Suciu: Yes.

Sturtz: Your, and that was your decision?

Suciu: And that was based upon my discussions with Lt. McKinley and O’Neill. I did not feel there was enough information there for us to move forward with any kind of internal investigation.

Sturtz: In hindsight, knowing he has his photograph taken with his girlfriend and not his wife. Three years of telephone calls and text messaging, he is on

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duty and she is eating lunch with him, he is married and all that…..does that give it a different flavor or not?

Suciu: If I know all those details, yes.

Sturtz: Ok, that is a good honest answer—yes.

Suciu: Yes.

Sturtz: Ok, is there anything else on your behalf as far as your actions of reporting/not reporting or having this investigated is there anything else you would like to add to this, or what we talked about here today?

Gittes: Excuse me can we have a moment to talk before he……

Sturtz: Yes we will. We will go off record here and Attorney Gittes will talk with Chief Suciu.

Off The Record

Sturtz: It is 2:55pm and we are back on the record after a short recess of Attorney client discussion. Uh, do you want to speak there Mr. Gittes or do you want the Chief.

Gittes: No, did you have some INAUDIBLE to share with him?

Sturtz: Yea, there is one other thing I have to share with you. Were you aware that Officer Downing text message W**** G****** in said on several occasions…… “Everything is over whelming, I wish I was killed on duty”, were you aware of that?

Suciu: No.

Sturtz: Now when I questioned Officer Downing about that he said, “Yes I did but in the context of he was trying to scare her or whatever” but it was said on more than one occasion.

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Suciu: That he had told me?

Sturtz: No, not you. Her……..

Suciu: Ok.

Sturtz: Her…no,no,no. Made this to her. He admitted that but said I only did it because it is my thought which I will write up in this report that whether he said it for effect, but he did say it and I would probably say that he should have some counseling…..

Suciu: Absolutely.

Sturtz: But you should be aware of that as Chief that he made those kind of comments.

Suciu: I am not aware of those comments, no.

Sturtz: Ok.

Gittes: Thank you. Chief just real briefly let’s go through a few things. In your time as the Chief have other individuals been sworn in as Officers? Brought friends as well as family members to the swearing in?

Suciu: Yes they have.

Gittes: Have you posed for pictures with them?

Suciu: I always pose for picture with friends and family and the officer that is sworn in.

Gittes: Ok. Did Ms. G****** ever make a complaint to your knowledge to the Reynoldsburg Police Department about Officer Downing’s behavior off duty or on duty?

Suciu: I am not aware of any complaint.

Gittes: Did, I think Mr. Sturtz mentioned his Field Training Officer and information about lunches with Ms. G****** and Mr. Officer Downing

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during his training period. Did he, the training officer ever report that to you?

Suciu: No sir.

Gittes: To your knowledge have you seen anything in Officer’s Downing personnel file where there is such a report about that?

Suciu: No sir.

Gittes: Was there ever a report by any supervisor’s below you in the Reynoldsburg Police Department raising concerns about Officer Downing on duty behavior related to Ms. G****** prior to this event?

Suciu: I am not aware of any such report.

Gittes: Are you aware of any directive or city personnel policy in the City of Reynoldsburg or the Police Department that says that an off duty private affair even consensual involving a city employer or police officer by itself even if it is an extra marital affair is unbecoming conduct or forbidden?

Suciu: I am not familiar, no.

Gittes: And I am just going to ask you and I don’t know what your answer is but are you aware of any other police department that has a specific directive that off duty consensual affairs are in anyway a violation of department policy or constitutes inappropriate conduct?

Suciu: I will say, I even called a couple of Chief’s to ask when this was going to ask and they agreed with us that an extra-marital affair or infidelity is not something that they would open an internal investigation on.

Sturtz: I ran a survey of 13 agencies, 10 responded and 6 said they would have done something and a few said no and that went from we would have advise him to get counseling to we would have looked into it. I did the same thing you did.

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Gittes: Did you and this may be INAUDIBLE I just want to make sure. When was the first time that anyone actually said anything to you about the weapon in terms of any issue of it belonging to Officer Downing?

Suciu: That Monday, right before I assigned the investigation to Lt. McKinley.

Gittes: Overall how is Officer Downing’s, I should know this but I don’t. Are there performance reports at Reynoldsburg Police Department?

Suciu: We do a yearly performance evaluation.

Gittes: Overall, how have his actions been if you know?

Suciu: Officer Downing is an outstanding officer with regards to his performance here at Reynoldsburg and enforcement of his duties.

Gittes: Ok. The last thing I want to ask you is….. Mr. Sturtz asked you about your daily reports and I think he was asking you and you referred to them as critical. Could you explain what the actual use of these daily reports are and what did you mean by critical?

Suciu: Are you asking me?

Gittes: Yes, I am asking you.

Suciu: I feel they are informational and Mr. Sturtz alluded to the Mayor and Mr. Hood particular and even Mr. Kozanecki. They are informational as I can give them an ideal as to what is going on and what is going to be coming across their desk. But a lot of that is left to my I guess I will call it my discretion but what it is and what does not make into that daily report. When I am not here the lieutenants can draft this daily report and they see mine on a number of occasions so I guess they can follow that same protocol I would call it but I feel they are informational for the mayor and city attorney and ….. but again that is left up to my personal discretion what goes in and what does not go in.

Gittes: Do you have anything else you want to……. Actually, these reports are not used operational by the Detectives or Patrol officers……. Or……

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Suciu: No, honestly this is as a daily,…… matter of course myself, and typically one maybe both read all the reports each morning and then we pick out the different things that we feel whoever is doing the report which is typically me unless I am not here pick out the things that the Mayor, City Attorney and the Mayor’s Court Clerk need to be made aware of clear down to how many parking tickets…it just kind of depends but those kind of things…we go through the reports and I guess I will call it a synopsis of the reports.

Gittes: Is there anything else you want to add?

Suciu: No.

Sturtz: Let me make a comment on the word “Critical”. Over the years I have read many…..many reports, wrote many of reports and I think your items of interest tells this administration what your people do day in and day out, the drugs, the DUI’s, the shoplifting…. It really gives a tremendous overview at how busy your people are. I think it is an outstanding report. I don’t know how the Mayor uses it or the Clerk of Courts or the City Law Attorney but you have good historical value here and if you had to ask for or want something else you already have the data here to say here is how busy we are, day after day and weekend after weekend this is what we do. So I look at that and use the word critical not that INAUDIBLE putting something in there but the fact that it is an outstanding report that you have put together.

Suciu: Well, thank you.

Sturtz: So, do you have anything else Mr. Gittes?

Gittes: I don’t. Do you have anything else you want to say?

Suciu: No sir.

Sturtz: Ok, at this time the interview will Chief Suciu will end at 3:06pm. DDS.

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Trailing Information:

-Interview recorded-Document transcribed/CLK-Original to Mr. David D. Sturtz-Copy to Case File-Copy for investigative file for Mayor Brad McCloud

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