An Ohio police chief has been fired after the mayor of a small town accused him of a series of violations, including making the police department smell like marijuana and falsifying overtime sheets.
When the mayor of New Miami Village in Butler County asked Police Chief Harold Webb to submit to a drug test, he refused, suggesting that the act, which had to be performed in front of a nurse, was degrading.
Miami’s new city council voted unanimously to fire Chief Webb on June 27.
The mayor of the town, with a population of 2,200, has since made public a long list of alleged violations committed by the fired chief.
These include ignoring 911 emergency calls and even stealing hot dogs from a local gas station when only free soda was allowed during service.
Mayor Jewell Hayes-Hensley also accused Webb of “theft in office” by falsifying timesheets and “cashing her paycheck knowing she was required to show proof she was at work.”
Ohio police chief Harold Webb, pictured, was fired by the New Miami Village Council for multiple violations, including falsifying overtime records and smelling marijuana in the police department.
New Miami Village, Ohio, Mayor Hayes-Hensley had begun to suspect that the chief had been claiming to be working when he was not actually on duty.
Hayes-Hensley became suspicious that the chief had claimed he was working when he was not actually on duty at the station.
In early June, the boss said he had worked 48 hours in a single week, but had only been seen on duty two days out of seven.
Upon closer inspection, it was revealed that Webb had only been “online” for one day of the week.
The mayor then asked for video evidence of the police chief at work, but was not provided with any. Webb also works full-time for the U.S. Postal Service.
It was when Hayes-Hensley visited the police department to pick up the chief’s daily time records that she noticed the distinctive smell of marijuana.
“The first thing that came out of my mouth was who had been smoking marijuana in here. The smell of marijuana could take your breath away,” he wrote in a lengthy and descriptive five-page letter detailing his allegations.
Webb, who had only been in office for a year, said the stench came from a raid in March in which more than 850 grams of marijuana flowers were seized.
A letter was then hand-delivered to the police chief’s home notifying him that he needed to take a drug test.
Webb refused, saying he felt demeaned after being told he would have to take the test in front of a nurse as a witness.
“You know what you’re getting. This is the third time you’ve questioned my integrity,” Webb wrote to the mayor, adding that he would resign “tonight.”
“Do you understand how humiliating it is to have someone watch me urinate? Also, the reason my office had an overwhelming smell of marijuana is because there are over 850 grams of marijuana flowers from the search warrant on Reiff Drive in March.
“I’m sorry that things didn’t work out for us,” he wrote. “I hope you can continue to move the town forward.”
The boss was in trouble earlier this year for allegedly stealing hot dogs from a local gas station when the agreement was made for him to only be allowed to drink free sodas.
Mayor Hensley felt she had no choice but to fire the mayor after he failed to submit his letter of resignation despite offering to do so.
Despite offering his resignation, Webb never submitted his letter of resignation, leaving the New Miami Village Council with no choice but to fire him.
In a statement, Mayor Hensley wrote: “My job is to ensure the safety of the residents of our community. My goal is to transform our village into a safe and prosperous community for all.”
‘The council and I are working very hard to have a greater police presence in our town and to do a major cleanup of both crime and housing. It is time for the residents of the Town of New Miami to know that they have a mayor and council that are working to put the needs of the community first and do everything in their power to make the Town of New Miami a safe, clean and prosperous community.’
During his brief time in office, Webb had already clashed with the mayor and had been placed on unpaid administrative leave after he apparently mishandled the police department’s Facebook page.
The town of New Miami in Butler County, Ohio, is home to 2,200 residents.
Hensley said the chief had allowed inappropriate comments to be posted on the forum, including from his own wife. The Facebook page was eventually shut down.
“We will not use a village’s land to tear down our village,” Hensley said at the time in April this year.
After Webb was reinstated from his suspension, other complaints were filed against him, including some against village employees, but it was only a matter of months before the chief was finally fired.
“The chief has decades of experience in law enforcement. He’s never been disciplined before, nothing of this magnitude. His officers love him,” said Webb’s attorney, Jeff Gray. Fox 19 At the beginning of the year.
“They are willing to defend him. I think that says a lot about their character.”
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