James Vivo, assistant law director for Youngstown, takes part in a hearing in Youngstown Municipal Court regarding the evidence that will be used in the trial of Brian Flynn, a former Youngstown police lieutenant. At right is defense attorney Paul Siegferth Jr. and Flynn. The hearing was Thursday.

YOUNGSTOWN — A detective who investigated dereliction-of-duty allegations against former Youngstown police Lt. Brian Flynn testified he did not use emails from a Youngstown Police Department internal affairs investigation.

Detective Brian Breeden of the Summit County Sheriff’s Office testified Thursday before visiting Judge Mark Frost in Youngstown Municipal Court.

Breeden said he obtained lots of internal affairs emails through a public records request while investigating Flynn — but he did not consider them.

Attorney Paul Siegferth Jr., who represents Flynn on 14 misdemeanor counts of dereliction duty, sought the hearing to make Youngstown prosecutors prove that the evidence it intends to use at Flynn’s trial did not come from the internal affairs investigation.

Siegferth argued in a filing that any evidence obtained as a result of the internal affairs investigation is “protected from use by the prosecution.” He said the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Garrity v. New Jersey prohibits use of a “compelled statement” taken from a public employee during an internal affairs investigation from being used in a criminal case.

Breeden testified he has handled internal affairs investigations for the Summit County Sheriff’s Office and knows that such information cannot be used in a criminal investigation. He said he kept the internal affairs information separate from the criminal investigation.

Youngstown Law Director Jeff Limbian reached out to the Summit County office after learning of allegations that Flynn was ignoring allegations of child abuse and child pornography and not assigning them to detectives.

The Summit office agreed to carry out an investigation into the allegations, resulting in the criminal charges being filed Oct. 25, 2022. Flynn was fired from the Youngstown Police Department Dec. 2, 2022.

The Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force was referring cases to Flynn, who was “either summarily deleting them or just ignoring them, and he was directing officers in his unit to do the same,” Limbian said last year.

Each of the 14 charges accuses Flynn of negligently failing to perform a lawful duty in a criminal case or proceeding. Each charge is a second-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to 90 days in jail if convicted.

INTERNAL INVESTIGATION

Siegferth questioned Breeden about about 10 emails from the internal affairs investigation. In most cases, Breeden said the email in question did not “stick out to me” or was not “jumping out at me.” In a couple of instances, he said he could “vaguely” remember the email.

When he was finished with the investigation, he provided the Youngstown Law Department with a 4-inch-thick binder containing the evidence he obtained in the case, but the binder does not contain any of the internal affairs information, Breeden said.

Also at the hearing Siegferth discussed a second issue — the difficulty Siegferth was having in obtaining an email that the Barberton Law Department wrote to Limbian indicating that it did not feel that prosecution of Flynn was warranted, based on the evidence that Breeden provided following his investigation. The Barberton Law Department was recommending administrative charges instead, Siegferth said.

Siegferth said he obtained a copy of the email from another source, but he felt he needed the email to come from Limbian for trial purposes.

When Frost asked James Vivo, assistant law director for Youngstown, why the Youngstown Law Department doesn’t just provide the email, Vivo said he just wanted to avoid having Limbian try to find the email, which could be difficult.

Ultimately, Frost ordered the Youngstown Law Department to provide the email. The judge also gave prosecution and defense two weeks to file briefs on the issue of whether any information from the internal affairs investigation can be used at trial. He will rule on the issue after that.

erunyan@vindy.com