YOUNGSTOWN - Former Youngstown Police Lieutenant Brian Flynn appeared in court on Thursday. He’s charged with 14 misdemeanor counts of dereliction of duty. The charges stem from child pornography or sex abuse cases that allegedly went un-investigated by Flynn during his time at the police department. 

The focus of Thursday’s hearing revolved around emails and whether they can be used against Flynn.

Two officers took the stand to review and verify some of these emails. Some were sent between Flynn and Youngstown Police Department’s Internal Affairs Officer Brian Butler.  Butler was able to confirm he had sent the emails and, when pressed by the prosecution, said there's no privacy protection for city issued email accounts.

Flynn's lawyer is countering that by saying the emails are protected by Garrity.

Garrity is when a statement from an officer is "protected," and cannot be used in a criminal prosecution, therefore it can't be used against his client. 

"The state's knowledge of this material is improper … I'm not throwing the police department under the bus but they are not allowed to give that material to somebody if it's going to be used for criminal purposes," Flynn’s lawyer said in court. 

The judge did not make a decision on the motion to exclude the "garrity" emails and did not rule on the motion to dismiss the case. 

"It is theoretically possible that this matter might be terminated by my ruling. I'm not saying it will be," the judge said. 

The Judge said he will make his ruling by May 19. 

Flynn was placed on paid leave back in March of 2021 then fired from the Youngstown police department in December 2022. As for the cases that went un-investigated under Flynn, the city's law director previously told 21 news that they had been re-assigned, but when we asked YPD what happened to the cases they wouldn't specify if they had been re-opened.