POLAND TOWNSHIP — A township police officer is on unpaid leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

Township Trustee Eric Ungaro said the officer was placed on leave Wednesday evening at the recommendation of police Chief Greg Wilson.

“We are following the policies and procedures outlined in the police union’s collective bargaining agreement, and he will remain on leave throughout the grievance process and investigation,” Ungaro said.

Wilson said the investigation is not criminal in nature, and the department is conferring with the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s Office because that office’s civil division serves as the township’s legal counsel.

Records provided by the department, however, show the officer in question, Joseph Patton, has been on administrative leave from his position since early October.

Patton faces charges of insubordination, neglect of duty (as a patrolman and an officer in charge), inefficiency and incompetence.

An internal affairs report states the investigation stems from an incident Sept. 8, when a woman Patton and another officer arrested overdosed in the rear of the police vehicle, had to be revived with an opioid overdose reversal drug and taken to the hospital.

The reports state the primary complaint is Patton’s mismanagement of the situation that led to the woman not being searched properly before she was transported.

Officer Jarrod Jackson, who also was considered for disciplinary action but later cleared, encountered a woman believed to have broken into a resident’s backyard cabin. A man found the woman walking along Dobbins Road, apparently inebriated, and dropped her off at the police department, the report states. Jackson called Patton, the duty officer for that shift, to assist.

The first complaint in the report states that Jackson asked Patton to verify that the woman had broken into someone’s shed or cabin, by accessing the computer-aided dispatch report on his tablet. He said he could not verify it, but the report states that information was available to him.

The report cites multiple instances in which Patton walked away, leaving the woman unattended, even after she gave vague answers that implied she was being dishonest, became belligerent, and made several statements, at least one of which was an apparent admission to a crime, and another that suggested she was using heroin. On one occasion, he left to get her a cigarette lighter from his cruiser.

After speaking to the property owner, Jackson came to tell Patton the man wanted the woman charged with criminal trespass. The report states Patton should have directed Jackson to go question the homeowner further and try to obtain evidence of the burglary he reported, justifying an arrest. The report states the woman was holding a beverage container she had taken from the cabin where the man found her.

Again, she was left unattended while Patton spoke with Jackson. She also kept distancing herself from officers, and attempted repeatedly to leave the scene, according to the report.

The report states that a dispatcher then told Patton the woman had an active warrant for drug possession and the woman should have been handcuffed at that time, but Patton still only gave her a verbal warning for criminal trespass.

It was only later in the encounter, when dispatch verified the warrant through Liberty police, that Patton arrested her. Although he first left her unattended again, after she was within earshot of the dispatch radio, Patton went to retrieve his gloves from his cruiser before handcuffing her.

The report states that the woman was only partially searched before being placed in the back of the police cruiser, and they did find what appeared to be a bindle of heroin, but no further search was conducted.

The report states Jackson had to stop the car several times along Interstate 680 because the woman was not responding to him. Ultimately, they had to administer Narcan, an opiate overdose reversal drug, and have her taken to the hospital by ambulance. Patton then noticed the white powdery substance in the back seat of the vehicle, the report states.

A Sept. 12 letter from Wilson to Sgt. Brian McCrea, who oversaw the investigation into Patton’s conduct, stated the chief was “profoundly concerned with the performance of our department during this call for service.”

A letter of Sept. 24 from McCrea to Wilson showed that after reviewing the video and other information, McCrea recommended discipline, up to and including termination, and suggested that Patton should be given the opportunity to answer additional questions with his union rep present. Jackson also was notified of potential disciplinary action against him on Sept. 16.

Records show they met Sept. 25, with Patton’s union rep present. Following the interview, McCrea said his recommendation for discipline remained unchanged.

McCrea’s summary of that interview states that at one point Patton said cops “miss drugs on people all the time, it’s part of the job,” which McCrea noted shows a lack of accountability for the seriousness of the incident.

In the investigation finding, McCrea determined that Jackson followed the orders of the officer in charge, and did partially search the woman, finding the bindle of heroin, but because Patton put the woman into the cruiser himself, he denied Jackson the opportunity to search her further. Jackson was cleared.

A significant suspension or termination was recommended for Patton. The suspension began on Oct. 3, but on Thursday, another letter notified him that his suspension was continued, pending a hearing under step 2 of the grievance process.

A disciplinary hearing took place Oct. 18 that gave Patton the opportunity to answer to a panel, which imposed a 15-day unpaid suspension.

Another letter from Wilson on Oct. 23 states Patton failed to provide a mandatory written response to the complaints against him, per policy and contract terms, which constitutes insubordination.

A pre-disciplinary hearing took place Oct. 29 regarding this allegation, and he was served with a 30-day unpaid suspension.

Records from the department show Patton has filed a grievance alleging the punishment is unjust and demanding compensation for all pay lost.

Previous internal affairs reports show a one-day unpaid suspension in February 2023 for failing to meet the standard responsibilities of an officer in charge, by not giving guidance to a patrolman handling an animal complaint case; for violation of the department’s tobacco use policy; and for showing up to work on at least two occasions unprepared — in both cases, leaving the township in a police cruiser to go to his home to retrieve necessary work items, once his work boots, and on the second occasion, his service weapon.