YOUNGSTOWN — Prosecutors filed 13 misdemeanor counts of neglect of duty Monday in Youngstown Municipal Court against Lt. Brian Flynn of the Youngstown Police Department.

The charges accuse Flynn of failing to follow up on cases of potential child sexual abuse and child pornography, said Jeff Limbian, Youngstown law director.

Flynn is the Youngstown police officer who has been on paid administrative leave since March 25, 2021 — 19 months.

City officials were not willing to say why he was on leave last month when The Vindicator learned about Flynn’s leave and asked city officials about it.

Limbian on Monday called Flynn’s allegedly illegal behavior “abhorrent.”

“It’s been a long process of investigating the level of neglect from Flynn,” Limbian said. “On many occasions Lt. Flynn failed to follow up on potential child sexual abuse cases and child pornography cases.”

In late 2019, Flynn was a supervisor in the police department’s Family Service Investigative Unit when The Vindicator spoke with him about a juvenile-related case the police department investigated. The unit handled juvenile and family-related matters at the time.

It appears the unit has since been renamed the Crisis Intervention / Juvenile Unit, which “handles investigations related to domestic violence, sexual assault, any crimes involving a juvenile and runaway / missing juveniles,” according to a Youngstown Police Facebook page.

A call to police Chief Carl Davis late Monday afternoon to ask about Flynn’s current status with the department and clarification on his former role with the department was not immediately returned.

Youngstown Municipal Court’s online database does not yet contain any record of the criminal charges filed against Flynn.

A Vindicator public records request to the police department in early September resulted in the newspaper learning that there was at the time a pending internal affairs investigation of Flynn. Laura Morway, an assistant Youngstown law director, would not discuss what the investigation was about.

Flynn’s personnel file did not contain any documents or information relating to him being placed on paid leave. It has information only on earlier disciplinary action taken against him during his career with the department and various commendations and incident reports regarding issues such as damaged cruisers.

In the letter accompanying the files from Flynn’s personnel file, Morway stated that the city is “exempt from releasing records that are subject to investigations of alleged violations of criminal, quasi-criminal, civil and administrative law, pursuant to” a portion of the Ohio Public Records Act dealing with Confidential Law Enforcement Investigatory Records Exemption, commonly known as CLEIRs.

Flynn’s personnel file states he was appointed a Youngstown police officer Aug. 31, 1998, and was promoted to detective sergeant in Feb. 9, 2006. He was promoted to lieutenant Sept. 16, 2011. Flynn, 48, is no longer listed on the police department’s website among lieutenants, captains and other top police officials.

Under the current contract, a lieutenant with at least three years of experience at the Youngstown Police Department makes a base salary of $77,104.77 per year.

erunyan@vindy.com

dskolnick@vindy.com