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Deputy pleads guilty to 2 felonies
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By ED RUNYAN
WARREN
A Mahoning County deputy sheriff who served as a corrections officer and part-time Braceville Township police officer has pleaded guilty to two felonies and won’t be able to serve as a police officer again.
Ryan M. Freeman, 31, of Front Street Southwest, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to two counts of unauthorized use of a computer system, fifth-degree felonies, and will be sentenced later.
A jury was selected Monday in his trial, and testimony was about to begin Tuesday morning, when Freeman chose instead to plead guilty to reduced charges.
He was indicted on two additional counts of obstructing justice and two additional counts of disclosure of confidential information and faced more than 12 years in prison.
After the Trumbull County Adult Probation Department conducts a presentence investigation, Freeman could get up to two years in prison.
The Mahoning County sheriff’s office placed Freeman on paid administrative leave in January after officers with the Trumbull Ashtabula Group Law Enforcement Task Force charged him with improperly using the law-enforcement-only Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway database.
TAG said Freeman looked up information about Fred D. Johnson, 39, of 714 Homewood Ave. S.E. in Warren and two Trumbull County law-enforcement officers while Johnson was in Freeman’s home in December.
Johnson and Brandi L. Purbaugh, 26, who lived with Johnson and also was in Freeman’s house, were later charged with aggravated drug trafficking, and their cases are pending in common-pleas court.
“There was no way we were going to allow him to plead guilty to misdemeanors,” Chris Becker, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, said Tuesday after the plea hearing, because the felony convictions will make it impossible for him to work in law enforcement again.
Becker said it was determined that Freeman looked up information about Johnson on the OLEG database that indicated that a TAG officer had recently looked up information about Johnson and started to build a case against him.
Freeman also looked up personal information about two TAG officers, including a photograph of them and their home addresses.
Becker noted that the information Freeman provided to Johnson “puts the [TAG] officer at a disadvantage” in that his investigation and the identity of the investigator are no longer secret.
Comments
Prime example of how all things are done with all cops. The only reason why we are commenting on this is because he got caught. Even brought his friend to the P.C.room. Smart Pig !
"Freeman also looked up personal information about two TAG officers, including a photograph of them and their home addresses."
This fellow should have gotten some serious prison time . There should have been no plea bargaining in this case .
Timothy, you truly are a moron, and you continue to prove it with each and every post. Once again, we get it, you hate cops. It is apparent that you could never pass a civil service test so I understand your anger.
Rokscout-i just have to do this. Lmfao. Good one.
oh no not a cop who was running afoul of the law!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
This was just a street hood who landed a law enforcement job .
timothy
"Prime example of how all things are done with all cops."
All cops?? Okay. Don't break the law and you wouldn't have to worry about them.
THE DETROIT CONNECTION
http://www.tribtoday.com/page/content...
A TAG spokesman said Freeman checked the Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway as a sheriff's employee and allowed two people who are known drug distributors from Detroit to watch as Freeman searched the system to see if police were looking at them as suspects. The spokesman said Freeman also used the system to search the records of two law enforcement officers.
Can this guy migrate to another state and get a job as a cop?
"Can this guy migrate to another state and get a job as a cop?"
Not if they do a background check . He'll just stay in Warren and sell drugs .
Who hired ihis moron.
Rokscout,Wrong rock boy ! It's not cops I hate it's people that hide behind the Civil Service Test and think they are above the people who pay their wages. Which happen in this case.You must be a pig! Or goverment worker to state something so dumb. The whole Nation wants to do away with you hoods. Matience workers are a dime a dozen build or do something new Civil Service boy.
@Timothy
You show your ignorance by the use of the word "pig". If you did not have anger against "It's not cops I hate" then you would not be using that word. You just proved yourself to be a liar, and a terrible one at that when you dime yourself out.
I myself like cops. I myself do not like slime balls like this guy that abuse his authority. Like Stan said, this guy happened to land a job in law enforcement. Just like EVERY job, there are people that make the rest of their profession look bad. Im pro police and pro flushing out the bad ones too.