Ohio sheriff’s lieutenant apologizes for ‘won’t help Democrats’ post, blaming sleeping pills

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio sheriff’s patrol commander who announced on Facebook that he wouldn’t help Democrats and would demand proof of who a person voted for before helping them, has apologized, blaming prescription sleeping pills for making him “out of character “. ” actions.

Lt. John Rogers, a 20-year veteran of the sheriff’s office in Clark County, where Springfield is the county seat, made the following statements in several Facebook posts, WHIO-TV reported In one post, he reportedly wrote: “I’m sorry. If you support the Democratic Party, I will not help you.” Another said: “The problem is, I know which of you support the Democratic Party, and I’m not going to help you survive the end of days.”

The sheriff’s office said Rogers, who led the department’s highway patrol, will remain on the job with a written reprimand for violating the department’s social media policy.

Clark County is in the spotlight after Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump expanded false claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were eating people’s pet dogs and cats.

The sheriff’s statement said the posts did not reflect the mission and values ​​of the office.

“It is clear that while these comments are grossly inappropriate, they do not in any way reflect the service provided by the Clark County Sheriff’s Office to our ENTIRE community,” the statement said. “The community has every right to be upset by Lt. Rogers’ actions, and he, as well as the Sheriff’s Office as a whole, will have to work even harder to restore the trust of members of our community.”

Rogers formally responded to the reprimand, writing in a letter in his personnel file that he had no recollection of making or deleting the posts and was alerted to them when a colleague asked if he was OK. Springfield News-Sun reported Rogers wrote that he didn’t find them on his page when he searched and first saw them during a meeting with a department representative.

Rogers said he sometimes takes prescribed sleeping pills, which can cause him to have “uncharacteristic” text messages, phone calls or other forms of communication as a side effect. According to the lieutenant, as soon as he learned of the message on Tuesday, he deactivated his Facebook account and stopped taking his medication, the newspaper reported.

“For the last several months, we’ve been fighting this attack against the Haitian community and other immigrants, and we’re standing up for people’s rights and we’re not condoning the opposite behavior,” said Mike Young, Deputy County Sheriff. , told the newspaper. “I cannot go back in time and take this post; the lieutenant posted and he got the consequences for it.”

Clark isn’t the only county in Ohio dealing with controversial statements from law enforcement on social media.

The U.S. Justice Department said its election observation efforts will include Portage County, where a Last month, the sheriff was accused of voter intimidationto ensure that the county complies with federal voting rights laws during early voting and on Election Day.

The department’s announcement comes after Republican Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski posted on social media that people with Kamala Harris signs should write down their addresses so immigrants can be sent to live with them if the Democrat wins the presidential election.