Brian Flynn, former Youngstown police lieutenant, sits during a pretrial hearing earlier this spring. A judge has dismissed all charges against him.

YOUNGSTOWN — A visiting judge in Youngstown Municipal Court has dismissed the 14 misdemeanor criminal charges against former Youngstown police Lt. Brian Flynn.

The judge, Mark Frost, found the Youngstown Law Department failed to prove that it did not use statements obtained in an internal affairs investigation in the later criminal investigation and prosecution of Flynn.

Frost on Thursday issued a judgment entry stating that in testimony at a May 4 hearing and in followup filings, the law department “failed to affirmatively establish” that it had used only evidence obtained separately from the internal affairs investigation.

Youngstown Law Director Jeff Limbian said Thursday that the city respects Frost and “respects that this judge believes he made a correct assessment of the state’s actions,” but the city plans to appeal the ruling.

“We hope a further analysis by the court of appeals will show that over 100 years of police internal affairs experience and more than 100 years of legal experience from the prosecution will show the state appropriately handled” the case.

“We believe we appropriately navigated the disciplinary side of the case and the criminal side of this case and separated the two completely,” he said.

A message left at the office of Paul Siegferth, Flynn’s attorney, late Thursday was not immediately returned.

INTERNAL INVESTIGATION

The Youngstown Police Department fired Flynn last December after carrying out an internal affairs investigation of allegations that Flynn failed to assign about 24 referrals from the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force involving alleged child abuse and child pornography cases.

Flynn at the time was head of the police department division then called the Family Investigative Services Unit. The division is now called the Special Victims Unit.

The criminal charges were filed against Flynn last October after Detective Brian Breeden of the Summit County Sheriff’s Office investigated the allegations at Limbian’s request. Breeden turned over his investigation to the Youngstown Law Department.

Court records indicate James Vivo, assistant Youngstown law director, filed the charges in municipal court.

Flynn was on paid administrative leave for 20 1/2 months before his employment was terminated — March 25, 2021, until Oct. 25, 2022. The allegations of dereliction of duty were between November 2020 and February 2021, according to court documents.

Breeden testified during the May 4 hearing that he has handled internal affairs investigations in the past and knew that he could not use any evidence obtained through an internal affairs investigation in his criminal investigation, and did not use that type of evidence in the Flynn case.

He said he obtained evidence from the internal affairs investigation — mostly emails — in a public records request, but he kept it separate from the criminal investigation. He also did not include that information in the 4-inch-thick binder he turned over to the Youngstown Law Department at the conclusion of his investigation, he said.

FLYNN’S LAWYER

Seigferth stated in a filing that the city prosecutor’s office failed to prove at the May 4 hearing that no information from the internal affairs investigation was used in the criminal investigation of Flynn.

“During the … hearing, the (city prosecutor’s office) did not deny using all of the defendant’s (internal-affairs) testimony against him,” Siegferth stated.

He noted that Lt. Brian Butler of the police department’s internal affairs office testified at the May 4 hearing that he conducted a thorough internal affairs investigation and later turned over a binder on the investigation to the city law department. He testified that the binder was “with the law department several months,” the filing states.

Siegferth stated that “At no time did the (city prosecutor’s office) deny having the binder or offer any testimony as to precautions or methods used to insulate this material from anyone who may have been involved in future criminal investigation or decision to file criminal charges.”

erunyan@vindy.com