EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio — Editor's note: The video in the player above is from a story published on July 10, 2021.
The East Cleveland chief of police penned a lengthy letter Tuesday to members of the community after the recent arrest of two officers, who are believed to have stolen $5,000 from a man on his way to pay for a funeral.
On July 9, East Cleveland police officers Alfonzo Cole and Willie Warner Sims were arrested after they allegedly took the money from the man during a traffic stop.
Today, Chief of Police Scott Gardner released a statement on East Cleveland Police Department's public Facebook account, in a move to provide transparency into the situation and encourage anyone potentially faulted the officers. Last week, Gardner confirmed to 3News that both officers are on unpaid leave following their arrests.
The chief of police says that while he is embarrassed by the actions of the officers, he feels that to not come forward and discuss the issue publicly would be a mistake.
You can read the full statement written by Gardner below:
"As most of the Cleveland area is aware, on July 9, 2021, two of our officers were arrested while on duty based on allegations of theft, among other criminal actions. I would like you to know that we have not been avoiding the issue, but have struggled as to how to put these events into words. Firstly, we would like to issue a sincere apology to all of those involved, to our citizens, and to those who continually support police. I would also like to touch on how we were made aware of the complaint, how it was handled, some of things which may have been overlooked by the public in this situation, and how this has affected our city and department.
Upon receiving the complaint of these officers’ alleged misconduct, the desk sergeant immediately took the information to the Detective Bureau. Both officers were ordered to the Bureau from the road and were questioned immediately. At this time, reasonable suspicion of criminal activity became apparent. As such, this matter ceased to be an internal investigation and detectives from the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office were called to conduct the investigation. Also at this time, both officers were placed under arrest and booked into the East Cleveland City Jail.
For a moment, I would like all of those reading to think about the prior sentence. Both officers were booked into the East Cleveland City Jail. This means these two officers had to be booked into our jail by our officers. While I did not personally book them into our facility, I cannot imagine the awkwardness and embarrassment felt by the booking officers caused by the flagrant disregard of societal standards displayed by these two officers. Not only was this insulting to East Cleveland as a city and as a police department, it was a punch in the face to a profession which has remained honorable since the founding of our country.
As most of you are now thinking, this has been a devastating blow to the image of the East Cleveland Police Department. For the past few years, we have been attempting to improve the department’s image by being more public regarding the arrests we make, crimes that occur, and sharing what our officers go through from day-to-day. Most of us feel that this has helped improve our view by the public, but realize that now, any progress which has been made since a similar incident in 2014 surfaced, has been lost. We are now forced to once again, start from the bottom, and attempt to rebuild our reputation, all because two officers could not practice basic self-control.
I would like to encourage anyone who has been wronged by these two officers to file a formal complaint with our department. These formal complaints are routed to our Internal Affairs Division, and will be used as evidence in an employment status hearing. These complaints will also be forwarded to the Cuyahoga County Sheriffs as evidence for the criminal investigation against these officers. For your convenience, you may access the Internal Affairs Complaint form via the following link: https://www.eastcleveland.org/.../PERSONNEL-COMPLAINT...
This form may be completed at your convenience and returned to the East Cleveland Police Department where it must be turned over to an on-duty supervisor.
Usually, I enjoy making posts to our social media to keep you all informed and sometimes make you laugh. I take no pleasure in this post due to its embarrassing nature; however, this situation had to be addressed by our department. I hope you will excuse the delay in our post. It is not that I have avoided the issue, it is that this after several drafts, I have not been able to channel the correct words, and only time allowed me to coherently gather my thoughts after my anger, embarrassment, and disappointment dissipated slightly. Again, I would like to offer a sincere, somber apology to not only the victims, but to our citizens, and law enforcement professionals throughout the United States."
The two officers have both been charged with fourth-degree felony theft in-office, and are currently out on bail. The Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department is handling the investigation and no other information is available at this time.