The Yellow Springs police department has requested outside help to determine whether criminal charges should be brought against one of its sergeants.
Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly says at the request of the Yellow Springs interim police chief, David Hale, he’ll investigate alleged criminal misconduct by Sergeant Naomi Penrod.
Penrod has been accused of twisting the arm of a resident who was filming her when police arrived on Nov. 5th to check on an eviction notice. An internal investigation determined that Penrod had committed a "hostile act," which she's appealing.
Kelly said that two detectives from his office have been assigned to the case and will turn over the results of their investigation to the Clark County and Greene County Prosecutor’s Offices.
"We've relieved these two detectives from all of their other assigned cases right now unless we have some major case that happen tonight," Kelly said. "But, this is their focus is to work on this investigation and then to complete it as quickly as possible, but leaving no stone unturned."
Kelly noted that it's a standard practice for a law enforcement agency to reach outside of its own ranks to have alleged officer misconduct investigated.
"No one wants to investigate their own," he explained. "And its always better to have outside people so that there's not any inclination that there's any kind of favoritism or inappropriate investigative techniques used."
The Chief said there is no date set for the investigation to be finished. Sgt. Penrod and the YS village manager declined to comment since the investigation is in progress.