CLARK COUNTY — Personnel files for a Clark County police officer currently facing criminal charges are revealing incidents of alleged misconduct at his former places of employment.
News Center 7′s John Bedell first reported on the criminal allegations against Michel Stratton on June 17. Stratton was most recently an officer in South Charleston but was formerly an officer with Mechanicsburg Police, Enon Police, the Clark County Park District and Capitol University Police Department near Columbus.
Since our initial report, News Center 7 has uncovered, through public records requests, well-documented, on-the-job allegations filed against Stratton at more than one job.
Stratton’s personnel file from Mechanicsburg showed that a supervisor talked to him about eating in his cruiser, which was against department policy. He also got a written notice for bringing a taser home at least twice and was given a verbal warning for not completing daily logs.
The file reported that two other officers in Mechanicsburg told their bosses they witnessed Stratton using a racial slur for African Americans and making another derogatory comment about them while talking about a water park in Springfield. His personnel file showed that Stratton resigned from the Mechanicsburg Police Department when they let him know about the allegation.
An investigation of misconduct at the Enon Police Department documented allegations that Stratton did not turn on his body camera when he first arrived at a scene. The document showed that his bosses also gave him a written reprimand and a one-day suspension for making “false and misleading statements” to a councilmember about a conversation with a supervisor.
After that, files show a lieutenant recommended the department fire Stratton, but Stratton was on Family Medical Leave Act at the time and was never served those papers. He resigned from his job at Enon PD before getting those documents.
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“He’s not going to get into those allegations. Those were — that would be a different case. There’s no charges being brought against him currently regarding those matters and so it’s not really relevant to the case I’ve been hired on or the issues that we intend to fight at trial,” John Paul Rion, Stratton’s defense lawyer, told News Center 7.
Rion is defending Stratton in the criminal case regarding the allegations he misused the LEADS system, a confidential law enforcement database. Stratton is accused of using the LEADS system to look up car registrations of women, and then search for them on Facebook and send them a friend request.
The Ohio Attorney General’s Office told News Center 7 that the Enon Police Department asked the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations to investigate the allegations into Stratton.
A Clark County Grand Jury indicted Stratton May 9. In the indictment, Stratton is accused of one count of felony unauthorized use of property. The indictment alleges he committed the crime between June 2015 and December 2019.
Rion said Stratton is innocent and plans on taking his case to trial in Clark County.
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News Center 7 asked Rion about the list of professional allegations uncovered against his client.
“Um, you know, if you dig up anyone’s personnel files from date of birth to date of an accusation, I suppose there could be a lot of things there. I don’t know if he has enemies on the force. I don’t know if there’s people that he just doesn’t get along with that tried to make his name less than what it is. I don’t know,” Rion said in response.
Michael Holler, Enon’s current police chief, was the then-lieutenant who recommended Stranton be fired from the department. He also filed the complaint with Ohio BCI that led to the criminal charges brought against him.
Holler told News Center 7 that he did not view Stratton’s personnel file from Mechanicsburg during the interview process at Enon. He said his department has since “changed how they do things” and now physically reviews past personnel files of prospective hires.
News Center 7 reached out to both police chiefs in Mechanicsburg and South Charleston Tuesday morning, but have yet to receive a response.