I-Team: Billing taxpayers to watch police ceremonies
CLEVELAND (WJW) — The FOX 8 I-Team has found your tax dollars are paying a man big money to attend police awards ceremonies and neighborhood meetings.
Charles See earns $230 per hour as a member of the Cleveland Police Monitoring Team, a federal group overseeing police reform.
We went to see him Thursday, before a neighborhood meeting on the west side.
Ohio lawmakers look to eliminate highest income tax rate, switch to flat tax
We told him, 'We had some questions about some of the billing you give to the city for some of your activities with the monitoring team.'
We found See has billed the city hundreds of dollars to monitor a 'police and community gathering to honor safety forces members who died in the line of duty.'
He has billed hundreds more to monitor police awards ceremonies, and more to meet with residents and to attend a Coffee with a Cop meet-and-greet event.
See told us he can't talk without permission from a federal judge.
Nonetheless, we asked, 'How does having someone like you attend an awards ceremony make the Cleveland Police Department function better?'
See responded, 'Ed, as I've said before, I'd be happy to answer that question, and I've got an excellent answer to it. But, according to what we have to do as far as speaking to the press, I have to follow those protocols.'
Newer members of that monitoring team earn three times as much per hour as Charles See. Billing records show he takes part in reviewing police operations and policy changes, too.
Still city records show he has collected a total of about $400,000 over the years.
The neighborhood meeting on Thursday night focused on police oversight. Some folks held signs calling for it to end.
'It's gotta end. It's gotta end,' Therese Pohorence said.
Others said city leaders share blame for oversight dragging out over a decade.
Darrell Houston spoke up and said, 'See what your elected officials are really doing. They're the ones who are squandering your taxpayer dollars. Figure out where their money's going.'
There's no way to know if See will bill the city for attending that meeting.
'You get that permission [from the judge],' See said to us. 'I'd certainly be happy to speak to you, particularly about any of my billing.'
The federal judge has never responded to us before, so we also said, 'Why don't you go to the Court and say, 'Hey, I want to explain this to Ed Gallek?''
Cleveland teen rescues mom, children from burning home
The city of Cleveland Law Department has challenged some of these bills. The monitoring team has argued that watching an awards ceremony helps the group be aware of positive police work.
A judge has final say over what gets paid.
In the meantime, the monitoring team has been in the headlines as a result of the lead monitor being involved in an incident at JACK Cleveland Casino. An off-duty officer said Karl Racine was refusing to leave. He ultimately left and he did not get arrested. He said he did not act inappropriately.
But Councilman Brian Kazy has called for Racine to resign.
U.S. Senator Bernie Moreno has called for an investigation by a bar association disciplinary counsel.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Yahoo
$80K beauty heist: Video shows serial shoplifter in Mayfield Heights
MAYFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio (WJW) — Mayfield Heights police have released footage of a suspect accused of stealing more than $80,000 worth of makeup and other beauty products. Caught on camera, a suspect with sticky fingers is accused of stealing $2,200 worth of makeup from Ulta Beauty on Som Center Road on May 15. Macedonia police arrest 6 women in Kohl's thefts But that's just a fraction of what she's accused of taking. On May 15, a woman walked into the Ulta Beauty store in Mayfield Heights. She appeared to be wearing a disguise, attempting to blend in with other shoppers. But a police report filed on May 23 told a different story. Remains found in search for missing teen last seen at airport The store's general manager said the woman managed to steal more than $2,200 worth of cosmetic products. The manager told police she discovered the theft while sorting paperwork and realized her employees had not reported the incident. The suspect was identified in the report as Paula Andrea Lopez-Correa, a Virginia woman wanted in multiple states. She is accused of stealing from Ulta Beauty locations across multiple states, racking up a total of more than $81,000 in losses, according to the police report. According to the store's loss prevention team, Lopez-Correa has used a black Kia Soul in some of the thefts. The car has a Virginia license plate number TFK5214. Nationwide recall on jerky and snack sticks Police said they searched city cameras for that plate number but found no matches. As of now, Lopez-Correa remains at large. Fox 8 reached out to Ulta Beauty's corporate office for comment but did not receive a response. Anyone with information about Paula Andrea Lopez-Correa is urged to contact Mayfield Heights police. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Yahoo
Cell phone store theft investigation moves forward
EDWARDSVILLE, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — Police say they have two suspects in the break-in and theft at a cell phone store in Luzerne County. Police say one of the suspects was identified by someone who saw him on a 28/22 news social media post about the break-in. Video of the break-in at the Boost Mobile store in Edwardsville on Thursday morning shows two men inside the store. One man was identified by police as 55-year-old Peter Showalter, and law enforcement say break-ins at cell phone stores are increasing nationwide and in our area. Surveillance video taken inside the Boost Mobile store in the West Side Mall in Edwardsville on Thursday morning. It was 6:30 a.m. Police say two men broke in and calmly walked around the store, stealing merchandise. Police say 55-year-old Peter Showalter is the man not concealing his face. The other suspect, according to police, is believed to be 29-year-old Mailk Smith. Islam Rabb is an area manager for Boost Mobile. 'What did you think when you saw that?' 28/22 News I-Team Reporter Andy Mehalshick asked. 'I was shocked. We really haven't had any issues with break-ins here at this location. It was already 6:30 in the morning, so it wasn't like it was in the middle of the night. Pretty much broad daylight at the time,' Rabb explained. Showalter was arrested by Wilkes-Barre Police for allegedly stealing the Mercedes Benz that was used in the Boost Mobile break-in. Investigators tell the I-Team that someone recognized Showalter on a 28/22 News social media post, as well as on the Edwardsville Facebook page, and called police. 'Nuisance mosquitoes' prompt spraying in several communities They connected Showalter and Malik Smith to the stolen Mercedes. Detectives also say that cell phone thefts, both from stores and individuals, are on the rise in northeastern Pennsylvania. 'There's a large market for it. It is becoming more difficult for them to sell phones in that manner, but there's always somebody that going to be willing to buy it,' Rabb added. Spencer Rappaport is a tech expert and runs a computer store in Edwardsville. 'There's a great market for them. People take them and will replace the IMEI, which is the serial number, basically that identifies them to what carrier that can be used, which service they can put on them,' Rappaport said. Edwardsville police say Showalter will be charged Monday morning in connection with the Boost Mobile break-in. Malik Smith is considered a suspect. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Retired deputy dies at home, three months after horrific car crash. I-Team found it might have been prevented
The Brief Patricia Carper, 64, died at home last month, 15 weeks after a one-vehicle crash in Gwinnett County left her and her husband trapped overnight in an overturned Dodge Caravan. An investigation by the FOX 5 I-Team, aired in March while Carper was still hospitalized, found the wreck might have been prevented. Before the Feb. 4 crash, the head football coach at nearby Seckinger High School had been lobbying Gwinnett County Transportation to install a barrier at the end of the road, but the county backed away after the new city of Mulberry formed. Mulberry, though, doesn't have a roads department. Carper's daughter says she never recovered from the wreck and blames the dangerous road for her mother's death. MULBERRY, Ga. - What happened to Patricia and Walt Carper had happened multiple times before on West Rock Quarry Road. And it might have been prevented, a FOX 5 I-Team investigation found. For months before the crash, the head football coach at nearby Seckinger High School had begged Gwinnett County's Department of Transportation to install some kind of barrier at the dead end, where the Carpers would careen into an embankment. "All I know is that people are getting hurt, and there's a very real chance somebody's going to lose their life," Coach Tony Lotti told the I-Team in March. At that time, Carper was still hospitalized. What we know Carper, a retired Clarke County Sheriff's deputy, died in her home May 20, according to her Georgia death certificate. Even before the crash, she suffered from kidney and heart problems, and she had just been discharged from a hospital stay in Braselton when the wreck happened Feb. 4. She suffered broken ribs, bruising and oxygen deprivation in the ordeal. Her daughter, Heidi Rutledge, said that for the next 15 weeks, her mother was in and out of hospital care. She remained in constant pain, had difficulty breathing, suffered an infection from being intubated, and lost the use of her left hand from lying on her arm for so long before her rescue, Heidi said. She had been out of the hospital for 12 days before she died. The cause of death on her death certificate: "acute and chronic respiratory failure with hypoxia (lack of oxygen)." "The wreck caused my mom's death," Heidi told the I-Team. "She was up on her feet when she came out of the hospital the first time, before the wreck," she said. "But after the wreck, she'd been bedbound and couldn't hardly move her body." The backstory The day of the crash, Heidi said her stepfather, Walt Carper, picked her mother up at the hospital. Then after a stop at a grocery store, her mother took the driver's seat of the Dodge Caravan and headed back toward their home in Barrow County. But she took a wrong turn in the dark at a roundabout and wound up on the south end of West Rock Quarry Road, which runs along the back side of Seckinger High School in Gwinnett. The Carpers had no way of knowing it, but for months Coach Lotti had been lobbying county DOT to make safety improvements to the road. Some students had been T-boned turning left out of a school exit, along with multiple other accidents involving drivers running off the dead end. "We'll be sitting on the front porch or doing something out here, and I'll see cars just flying down here," West Rock Quarry Road resident George Grob told the I-Team in March. "And then we'll hear them go off. I bet I've come down here for probably 10 or 15 people. "One night, it was two of them," Grob said. "Like, within an hour of each other." Coach Lotti asked the county for speed breakers, as well as a barricade at the cul-de-sac. With poor lighting, the distant lights of I-85 created an illusion that the roadway kept going, he said. Heidi said that's what misled her mother. "She looked through the trees, and I guess she (saw) that it was ongoing cars, so she thought it was an ongoing road," Heidi said. Driving off the embankment was only the beginning of the Carpers' suffering. The minivan landed on its side, and neither Patricia nor Walt could reach their cell phones. A Gwinnett County Police report estimated the crash time at 7 p.m. Heidi said she tried to call them every few hours. She finally went to her parents' home, found her mother's tablet, and located her mother's phone just north of the interstate. She called police to report them missing just after noon on Feb. 5. Around the same time, some passersby found the Carpers, Gwinnett County 911 records show. It was past 1 p.m. when both Patricia and Walt had been extracted. It was a school day. "When we heard about the couple that was stranded, my heart just sunk," Lotti said. "We had no idea they were there." Walt, 71, suffered a brain injury in the crash. He's still recovering in a nursing and rehabilitation facility in Monroe, his stepdaughter said. Why you should care Late last year, Gwinnett DOT had been working with Lotti to address safety hazards on the road. The county conducted a traffic study, recording speeds as high as 90 and 100 miles per hour, where the speed limit is 25. DOT added two new signs – one saying, "School," another saying, "Dead end 1000 feet." Lotti said he and traffic officials discussed adding speed breakers. But then everything came to a stop. Mulberry, a new city, formed on Jan. 1. "Congratulations! You are now in the new city of Mulberry," a traffic analyst told Lotti in an email obtained by the I-Team. "Unfortunately, we do not have an agreement with the City of Mulberry to install speed humps inside the city limits. We are stopping all progress and closing the request for a Public Hearing for West Rock Quarry Road." The email referred Lotti to the city's website. The trouble there: The city doesn't have a roads department. Its charter, approved by the state Legislature and ratified by voters, says the county must keep up roadwork during a two-year transition period. But Gwinnett and Mulberry have been locked in a heated dispute over the charter, which the county contends shifts too much financial burden to county taxpayers. The county is challenging the charter in court, the case currently with the Georgia Court of Appeals. The county filed another lawsuit last month against the state over Senate Bill 138, aimed specifically at Gwinnett and stripping its sovereign immunity for a year if a judge finds it violated the new law. Sponsored by the area's Republican state senator, Clint Dixon, the bill passed this year and was signed by Gov. Brian Kemp. When the I-Team contacted Gwinnett DOT Director Lewis Cooksey earlier this year, he said the county would need to have an intergovernmental agreement with Mulberry before putting any more work into West Rock Quarry Road. But the second time the I-Team reached out, Cooksey agreed safety is paramount and said the county would make additional safety improvements after all. Within days, a barrier had been erected at the dead end, and a new warning – "Road closed ahead" – was painted in giant letters on the road surface. "We were happy to help," Cooksey told the I-Team in a text. "We will continue to monitor the area and we ask that everyone use the utmost caution when traveling." Cooksey did not respond to messages about this story, and Gwinnett County Transportation had no comment on Patricia Carper's death. What they're saying "I think this is a perfectly good example of why we need to work together," Mulberry Mayor Michael Coker said. Coker said West Rock Quarry Road will be the city's responsibility eventually, but for now, it's the county's job to maintain it. "You guys came out and did that story, you brought attention to this issue," he said of FOX 5's story in March. "And ultimately the county made the changes, they put up those barricades. So I think that tells you everything you need to know, as to whose responsibility was that road." Heidi said her mother would still be alive if the barricade had gone up sooner. Local perspective Patricia Carper served 22 years with Clarke County, retiring in 2010. She worked as a jailer, and a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office said she's remembered as an excellent marksman. She's also remembered for taking over operations of the Athens jail in May 2000, the spokeswoman said. That was so other deputies could attend the funeral of a lieutenant who had died on duty in a car crash. Carper was laid to rest Wednesday at St. Matthew Catholic Church in Winder. She's survived by her husband, two children and three grandsons. The Source The FOX 5 I-Team reported in March how Gwinnett County's Transportation Department backed off safety improvements to a treacherous road, just before a Barrow County couple's horrific ordeal running off the roadway in February. For that story, the I-Team reviewed traffic reports, a traffic study, accident reports and photos of past wrecks provided by school personnel and residents. This story was prompted when the daughter of the driver in the February crash informed reporter Johnny Edwards that her mother died.
