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O.U. Deputy Police Chief Placed On Leave Over DWI
By: Cheri Russo
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Ohio University's general counsel says the university's deputy chief of police was placed on paid administrative leave in December because of an after-hours, off-duty driving while intoxicated incident.
John Biancamano says the incident happened in Athens, but Mark Mathews was not ticketed.
Mathews was placed on paid administrative leave in early December pending the outcome of an internal investigation into allegations of misconduct.
Today, the university released Mathews personnel file.
The file contains a letter from Chief Human Resources Officer Linda Lonsinger dated December 9, 2011 which informs Mathews of his paid leave status.
The letter says due to the investigation "regarding allegations of inappropriate conduct," Mathews is not permitted to be on the O.U. campus during the leave.
It also says that Mathews is "required to be available by telephone to O.U. during the university's business hours."
The file also contains some positive yearly evaluations of Mathews, the most recent being June, 2011.
It shows paperwork that accuses Mathews of being involved a fight outside a bar in 1993 and Mathews employment application where Mathews admits to prior use of marijuana and underage drinking.
Mathews was hired at Ohio University as a patrol officer in May 1992 before being promoted to assistant chief of police in December 2002, assistant director in December 2003 and associate director in August 2004.
Mathews held the post of Interim Police Chief in May of 2006 after Tony Camechis retired.
Biancamano says nothing has been filed against Mathews in Athens regarding the DWI, but he doesn't think that's an issue.
"It's not unusual for someone to have a situation where there may be a problem, but they are not formally ticketed," says Biancamano.
Biancamano says the internal investigation should be completed in the next week or so.
After that, they will have a meeting with Mathews to inform him of what disciplinary action will be taken.