COLUMBUS, Ohio – Two vice officers of the Columbus Police Department have been fired and two supervisors suspended for the actions and decisions that led to the arrest of Stormy Daniels in July 2018.
Officers Steven Rosser and Whitney Lancaster were fired Thursday, according to documents from the Department of Safety Director Ned Pettus Jr.
The charging documents filed against the two fired officers stated that the arrest of Stephanie Clifford, otherwise known as Stormy Daniels, was improper and violated rules or division directives. Furthermore, documents indicated that Rosser lied during an interview when he said he was going to Sirens night club, the scene of the arrest, to investigate possible human trafficking, according to Fox 28 Columbus.
BREAKING: Two Columbus Police vice officers have been fired and two others have been suspended for their roles in the 2018 arrest of @StormyDaniels. pic.twitter.com/l1XrkGHQEV
— WSYX ABC 6 (@wsyx6) January 23, 2020
Rosser said he was searching Sirens for an underage dancer, “Pearl.” However, no other vice personnel interviewed made any reference to looking for an underage dancer, according to the documents.
The documents said the arrest of Daniels and two other women “deviated significantly” from the investigations at other strip clubs.
Rosser and Lancaster, were stripped of their badges and re-assigned to desk duty in 2018 following the controversy, Fox News reported.
Both officers have been named in multiple lawsuits, one being the suit Daniels filed alleging her arrest in Columbus was politically motivated because of her alleged affair with President Trump in 2006. Moreover, she claimed the arrest was planned days in advance.
The officers have 10 days to appeal the termination.
Daniels was arrested on suspicion of inappropriately touching an undercover officer following a performance at Sirens in July 2018. Regardless, the city attorney’s office dropped the charges within hours.
Consequently, Daniels settled the civil suit with the Columbus Police Department for $450,000.
An internal investigation revealed that Daniels’ arrest was improper. However, the police agency did not find that the officers’ politics were involved or that the arrest was planned in advance.
Sgt. Scott Soha and Lt. Ronald Kemmerling were suspended for their actions.
Soha was suspended for unbecoming conduct, violation of rules or division directives and failure to take a leadership role. He was suspended 120 hours for each charge. That suspension will be served concurrently.
Kemmerling was suspended for 240 hours.
“You (Kemmerling) engaged in malfeasance because your supervisory inaction led to the operational failures committed by Vice Section personnel during the Sirens operation and during other strip club investigations,” documents said.
Both Soha and Kimmerling have ten days to appeal their suspensions.
