"...SHE ALSO SAID THAT SHE RAN AWAY ONE TIME AND HIS FRIENDS AT THE DEPARTMENTBROUGHT
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BACK"...
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CUYAHOGA COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE INTERVENED WHEN LT. ROBERT CHILTON FACED CHARGES IN BEDFORD HEIGHTS DOMESTIC DISPUTE, RECORDS SHOW
PLAIN DEALER NEWS
MARK PUENTE
THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2009
THE BEDFORD HEIGHTS POLICE CHIEF WANTED TO PROSECUTE A DEPUTY SHERIFF WHO THREATENED TO KILL FOUR PATROLMEN, BUT THE CHARGES WERE NEVER FILED AFTER OFFICIALS FROM THE CUYAHOGA COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE INTERVENED, RECORDS SHOW... SHERIFF'S LT. ROBERT CHILTON TOLD FOUR BEDFORD HEIGHTS OFFICERS HE WOULD KILL THEM DURING A DRUNKEN RAGE AFTER HIS WIFE CALLED 9-1-1... "HE SAID HE'S BEEN ARRESTED BEFORE BUT THAT THE SHERIFF GOT HIM OUT IN 15 MINUTES," AN OFFICER WROTE. CHILTON'S WIFE AGREED. "SHE ALSO MENTIONED HE WAS GOOD FRIENDS WITH THE SHERIFF AND THAT HE COULDN'T GET IN TROUBLE. SHE ALSO SAID THAT SHE RAN AWAY ONE TIME AND HIS FRIENDS AT THE DEPARTMENT BROUGHT HER BACK"... CHILTON SAID THAT IF HE WAS ARRESTED, HE WOULD KILL HIS WIFE WHEN HE GOT OUT, ACCORDING TO THE POLICE REPORT, THEN TOLD OFFICERS NOT TO COME BACK TO HIS HOUSE BECAUSE THEY WOULD GET SHOT...
"SHE KEPT TRYING TO GET THE POINT ACROSS THAT WE DIDN'T UNDERSTAND THAT SHE COULDN'T DO ANYTHING BECAUSE OF WHO [HER HUSBAND] IS," AN OFFICER WROTE IN A REPORT...
OFFICERS COUNTED 13 FIREARMS IN CHILTON'S BEDROOM... BEDFORD HEIGHTS POLICE HAVE RESPONDED TO CHILTON'S HOME SEVERAL TIMES SINCE 2003, RECORDS SHOW... [Full article here]
CUYAHOGA COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE INTERVENED WHEN LT. ROBERT CHILTON FACED CHARGES IN BEDFORD HEIGHTS DOMESTIC DISPUTE, RECORDS SHOW
ReplyDeletePlain Dealer News
Mark Puente
Thursday, March 12, 2009
The Bedford Heights police chief wanted to prosecute a deputy sheriff who threatened to kill four patrolmen, but the charges were never filed after officials from the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office intervened, records show.
Sheriff's Lt. Robert Chilton told four Bedford Heights officers he would kill them during a drunken rage after his wife called 9-1-1 and said her husband hit her in June 2007. Bedford Heights Police Chief Tim Kalavsky told sheriff's officials he planned to seek criminal charges against Chilton in Bedford Municipal Court because of the threats and the numerous incidents at Chilton's house.
The Sheriff's Office asked to handle the case.
"After conversing with Chief [Deputy Doug] Burkhart, Chief Kalavsky agreed to permit the Sheriff's Office to handle any potential criminal or administrative investigation regarding the incident," sheriff's records show.
Two weeks later, Chilton resigned. No charges were ever filed.
Nine months later, in March 2008, Sheriff Gerald McFaul rehired Chilton to his former position. Chilton, who now heads McFaul's warrant unit, declined an interview request.
McFaul defended rehiring Chilton in a recent interview with Plain Dealer reporters and editors. "He is a good man, a great man," the sheriff said.
He did not return a call Wednesday.
McFaul has come under fire in recent months for hiring and promoting his relatives and friends, along with giving them raises, after laying off 18 deputies. The 32-year sheriff is also being investigated by a special prosecutor for possible misconduct in 1986, when he told a woman how to dodge a subpoena so she wouldn't testify against him during a sexual-harassment trial.
Bedford Heights police have responded to Chilton's home several times since 2003, records show.
Chilton became hostile as soon as officers arrived for the 2007 domestic dispute, police say.
Officers counted 13 firearms in Chilton's bedroom and separated Chilton and his wife.
Chilton stressed he was a sheriff's lieutenant and that "he owned the Sheriff's Department." Chilton told officers he wouldn't get in trouble if police arrested him because he was friends with McFaul and County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, according to the report.
"He said he's been arrested before but that the sheriff got him out in 15 minutes," an officer wrote.
Chilton's wife agreed.
"She also mentioned he was good friends with the sheriff and that he couldn't get in trouble. She also said that she ran away one time and his friends at the department brought her back," an officer later told sheriff's investigators.
Chilton also touted his relationship with Dimora, who served as mayor of Bedford Heights for 17 years before becoming a county commissioner.
"He told us that our city was in his county and that he would call Jimmy Dimora," an officer said.
Dimora, on Wednesday, denied knowing Chilton.
Officers described Chilton as intoxicated and agitated that night.
Chilton said that if he was arrested, he would kill his wife when he got out, according to the police report, then told officers not to come back to his house because they would get shot.
His wife expressed concern about her safety to officers. Chilton then told officers he was going to the basement to sleep. The officers left.
Police did not see any signs of physical abuse on Chilton or his wife, but she urged her husband to admit that he threw her against a wall. Officers told her she needed to sign a complaint for her husband to be arrested. She declined.
"She kept trying to get the point across that we didn't understand that she couldn't do anything because of who [her husband] is," an officer wrote in a report.
Sgt. David Sandoval, who supervised the incident, said police did not arrest Chilton because he complied with every order. Sandoval was inside Chilton's house with his wife and didn't learn of the threats until after the incident. He said the threats are common.
"We get that stuff all the time," he said. "I based my decision on his actions toward me. He complied with all of my commands."
Burkhart, McFaul's chief deputy, said Bedford Heights officers could have and should have arrested Chilton. Burkhart later asked Chilton if he remembered making the threats.
"Sir, I don't remember," Chilton said. "I was too drunk."
The Sheriff's Office investigation revealed that Chilton could have faced misdemeanor charges in Bedford Heights, Burkhart added. He notified Chief Kalavsky that Chilton resigned from his job at the Sheriff's Office on June 27, 2007, two weeks after the incident.
"He didn't want to go through with any prosecution," Burkhart said about Kalavsky.
Kalavsky said he was satisfied with the outcome at the time but declined to comment about Chilton later being rehired.
Chilton got treatment for alcohol abuse and then returned to work on March 31, 2008, records show. He signed an agreement consenting to unannounced drug testing, records show.
Burkhart said he played no role in rehiring Chilton.
"The sheriff made that decision," he said.
In 2002, Chilton faced charges for being drunk and firing a rifle in the air at an apartment complex he owned on the East Side. He initially denied firing the gun, but two women witnessed the shooting.
McFaul suspended Chilton but praised him.
"He is, without a doubt, the best investigator I've got," McFaul told The Plain Dealer in 2002.
"He is a class act."
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