10 Investigates has learned that a Columbus State Community College supervising police officeris off the job as the school investigates activities within the department.
The investigation began about a month ago with an internal tip about alleged inappropriateactivity in the department, 10 Investigates' Paul Aker reported.
According to a personnel file, a lieutenant in the department has been off the job since Aug. 13while investigators look into irregular overtime payments.
"The investigation began in August when someone noticed something might not be right," saidColumbus State spokesman David Wayne. "It continued from there."
The college declined to comment further, citing an ongoing investigation, but it said allfindings would be reported after a thorough review.
The lieutenant, whom 10TV is not identifying, denied any wrongdoing during a phoneconversation. She declined additional comment saying she did not have permission from theuniversity.
She is currently on paid leave.
10 Investigates analyzed dozens of payroll records and identified some significant spikes inovertime paid to certain officers.
The records show that for a single two-week period, one officer received his normal 80 hours ofregular pay, plus 127 hours of overtime, Aker reported.
10 Investigates pulled the officer's time card, it showed handwritten alterations. It alsoonly showed 69 hours of overtime, 58 hours less than what the officer was paid for.
The lieutenant in question signed for at least some of the overtime hours.
10 Investigates asked the officer about the 127 hours of overtime, and he said he did not workall the overtime during a single pay period, but was instead paid from previous time periods fortraining other officers.
"I didn't get paid for them," the officer said. "So that's been added on."
A check with the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy revealed that the officer was not certifiedto conduct training, meaning, according to an agreement between the college and the police union,he should not have been able to receive extra pay for that work, Aker reported.
Columbus State said it would look into the officer's claims that he was paid for training otherofficers.
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