COLUMBUS — The Ohio Supreme Court has issued former Campbell police Chief Drew W. Rauzan a stayed, six-month suspension of his law license for illegally accessing a law enforcement database while he was police chief and other misconduct as a lawyer.

Rauzan’s suspension was stayed — meaning stopped — on condition that he not commit any further misconduct. Rauzan has been a lawyer since 2013.

Rauzan agreed to resign from the police department in 2017 as part of a plea agreement in which he also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor unauthorized use of a law-enforcement-only database.

That misconduct involved conducting searches on the database not connected to any legitimate law-enforcement purpose.

That misconduct also resulted in the Mahoning County Bar Association charging him with violating the Rules of Professional Conduct in July 2018.

In December 2018, the bar association also accused Rauzan of co-mingling personal and client funds in his client trust account.

In February 2019, the bar association also alleged Rauzan had committed professional misconduct while he and fellow Struthers attorney Carol Clemente Wagner jointly represented clients in a personal-injury matter, the Ohio Supreme Court stated.

The misconduct occurred in May 2017, when Wagner transferred $2,500 of a $5,000 retainer from a client from Wagner’s client trust account to her law firm’s operating account. She had not done sufficient legal work on the case for those funds to have been considered earned, the supreme court stated. A trust account is where funds are held for a client.

A short time later, Wagner transferred the other $2,500 to Rauzan’s client trust account. But Rauzan had started using that account as his operating account and had spent down the account, “which essentially resulted in his taking his portion of the … retainer as an earned fee.” He had not done a sufficient amount of work for the funds to be considered earned, the supreme court stated.

Rauzan and Wagner eventually did complete a significant amount of legal work for the clients but not at the point where the transfer of money took place. The clients filed a grievance.

The punishment for Wagner, who became a lawyer in 1988, was a public reprimand.

In considering punishment, the Board of Professional Conduct of the Ohio Supreme Court found that Rauzan had a clean disciplinary record prior to these incidents, “lacked a dishonest or selfish motive,” was cooperative in the investigation and made restitution. Other penalties had been imposed in some of the violations, such as his losing his ability to ever serve as a police officer again, the supreme court stated.

erunyan@tribtoday.com