Safety officials ripped in report on aborted Governor's Residence sting

[The Straight Story]

Safety officials ripped in report on aborted Governor's Residence sting
Pair is accused of killing routine law-enforcement operation to shield Strickland


Avoiding political embarrassment to Gov. Ted Strickland was key to the decision to cancel a sting to catch a courier dropping off contraband for a prisoner working at the Governor's Residence, the state's watchdog says.

A report released yesterday by the office of Inspector General Thomas P. Charles said that Public Safety Director Cathy Collins-Taylor and State Highway Patrol Col. David Dicken fabricated a coverup to justify scuttling a routine law-enforcement operation set for Jan. 10.

In fact, the report suggests that the Ohio Department of Public Safety is led by officials more concerned about politics and public image than public safety. It also describes an out-of-control inmate work program that provided cover for smuggling contraband into the prison system.

With no plausible reason for canceling the sting, Collins-Taylor, Dicken and others developed what the report described as a "smokescreen" designed to shroud the truth.The officials' stated concerns about the safety of the governor, troopers and the public were a "pretext" for killing the sting, the report stated.

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