Dr. Frank Kardasz (Ed.D)

According to written reports from the Ohio Highway Patrol and an internal police investigation, Mr. Clark showed up in a city vehicle at an Oct. 31 traffic stop of Jocelyn Phillips, 34, of Fostoria and tried to persuade Trooper Jonathon Gray to release her to his custody. The reports allege that Mr. Clark, who was off duty and in civilian clothes, tried to mislead Trooper Gray and other authorities about how much Ms. Phillips had drunk and advised her not to take a breath test. "Due to Detective Clark being there, Phillips would not follow my instructions until she got the OK from him," Trooper Gray wrote in a statement to Fostoria police Capt. Rodger Wilson, who conducted the department's internal investigation.

That inquiry found Mr. Clark later lied to two city prosecutors handling the case and tried to intimidate them into reducing or dropping a charge of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated against Ms. Phillips. The Fostoria woman pleaded guilty to a minor-misdemeanor charge of reckless operation on Feb. 15 in Fostoria Municipal Court and was fined $150. One of the prosecutors, Carol Reffner, said in a statement to Captain Wilson that Mr. Clark wrote a letter on police stationery to Ms. Phillips' attorney last November stating that the woman told him she consumed two drinks the night she was arrested.

However, Trooper Gray said in a report a microphone in his cruiser recorded a conversation between Mr. Clark and Ms. Phillips in which the woman acknowledged drinking four beers and two shots of liquor. "Clark wrote out a statement on Fostoria Police Department letterhead clearly for the purpose of throwing a harpoon in the state's case, claiming that Ms. Phillips was not drunk," Ms. Reffner wrote in her Feb. 18 statement. Barbara Dibble, a prosecutor who works with Ms. Reffner, said in a statement that Mr. Clark threatened her during an encounter in November.
"He suggested that no one dare cross him," Ms. Dibble wrote. "He then approached me like he was going to bump me but did not and said something to the effect of ... what's this, a baggie of drugs ... as though I had dropped them ... or as though he could certainly make it look like I had."

While with the police department, Mr. Clark served as its main contact with the Seneca County Drug Task Force. During its internal inquiry, the city referred the matter to Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn, who asked Lt. Charles Frizzell to review the case. In a July 1 letter to Mr. Davoli, the sheriff said Lieutenant Frizzell "feels there are several code of ethics violations which include intimidation, interference with a law enforcement officer's arrest, and most importantly false statements." No criminal charges have been filed against Mr. Clark. The city has referred the case to Lynne King, a municipal prosecutor for the city of Sandusky. Neither Ms. King nor Alicia Wolph Roshong, Fostoria's law director, could be reached yesterday for comment.

Mr. Clark is the latest officer to leave the force because of allegations of misconduct. Chief Dennis Day was fired in August, 2004, after being charged by Fostoria officials with "dishonesty, insubordination, neglect of duty, and failure of good behavior," including accusations that he left town while on duty to visit an ex-girlfriend in Florida.