LORDSTOWN, Ohio - Earlier this year, 21 News reported on an investigation into allegations of misconduct surrounding the Lordstown Police Department that was abruptly closed once handed to Village Prosecutor Joseph Fritz.

Newly released documents from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation shed new light on why.

The allegations centered around a recording played at a Lordstown council meeting that appeared to imply that officers working side jobs at Ultium Cells were ordered not to serve warrants on workers inside the plant.

That recording included Captain Chris Bordonaro telling an officer that they would serve warrants for serious crimes, such as domestic violence, but that for minor misdemeanors and traffic warrants, they should try to serve them after workers left the plant.

Some within the department, including Officers Joseph Keough and Richard Watson, former officer Michelle Mercer and Watson's wife, former mayoral candidate Danielle Watson, alleged that this amounted to evidence of a quid pro quo, whereby Lordstown officers would ignore criminal activity inside the plant in exchange for a higher-than-average $70 per hour pay rate for working inside the plant, essentially a form of bribery.

After the recording was played at the council meeting, Chief Brent Milhoan requested an investigation by the BCI into his department, which had also been requested by Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins on behalf of Lordstown Mayor Jackie Woodward.

As part of its investigation, BCI interviewed the Watsons, Keough, Mercer, Milhoan, Bordonaro, Officer Justin O'Rourke and Ultium Security Director Ethan Sorbin-Randolph.

In their interviews, Bordonaro and Milhoan both denied having a policy of not serving warrants, with Bordonaro calling the accusation "ludicrous."

When Richard Watson was interviewed, he said he believed that not making arrests for minor offenses amounted to "dereliction of duty," but also went on to say that he did not have firsthand knowledge of any such policy, only hearsay.

Watson also repeated the allegation that the rate of pay was "unusually high," but did not provide any context for the implication beyond a belief that some were "lining their pockets."

"[Special Agent Supervisor Chuck] Moran asked Watson if he was ever ordered not to take action at Ultium Cells during calls for service outside the off-duty detail. He said that he had not been, but he was only called there on one occasion," the BCI report reads.

Keough told BCI he also believed the pay for working inside the plant amounted to "double-dipping" on behalf of Bordonaro and Officer Brett Blank. However, Keough appears to contradict the claims of a policy of not serving warrants, at one point telling BCI investigators that he'd been told by other officers that they were no longer supposed to serve the warrants, but then also saying he was aware of Bordonaro facilitating arrest warrants with Ultium human resources.

“That, that they are paying us enough money that we don't want to disrupt their business. That's exactly how I took it, is, uh, basically old school like New York. You know, don't pay us, we bust your stuff up, pay us, and you won't have any problems," Keough told investigators.

His allegations also included Bordonaro allegedly instructing officers to discard narcotics found inside the plant in the trash if no charges were being filed.

Former Lordstown officer Michelle Mercer relayed much of the same information, also without firsthand knowledge other than the Bordonaro recording.

Mercer went on to admit that she encouraged Keough and Watson to solicit that recording by telling Bordonaro they'd gotten a license plate "hit" on a warrant inside the plant and asking what they should do about it, which is when Bordonaro advised that they would only make an arrest if it was a serious crime or otherwise they should wait for the suspect to leave the plant.

Mercer, Keough and Watson later admitted there was no such "hit," and that it was fabricated in an effort to record Bordonaro's answer.

Ethan Sorbin-Randolph, a manager with Intercon Security Services who arranged for Lordstown police to patrol inside the plant, told BCI Ultium wanted officers inside the plant and to have arresting powers in an effort to curb repeated drug offenses, as well as for the officers to establish a working knowledge of the plant due to the volatile chemicals inside and the potential for an emergency call in the future.

Sorbin-Randolph said the $70 per hour rate of pay was arrived at with an understanding that officers are often stretched thin between overtime and court obligations, so they arrived at a higher-than-average rate that Ultium could afford that would incentivize officers to take the shifts.

“So, as I mentioned earlier, I was a former police officer. In my experience, it's a lot of times pretty difficult to acquire services outside of the normal day-to-day operations because obviously police officers have busy lives between working overtime or, or court services. So I worked with Captain Bordonaro to determine a rate that would, number one, entice an officer to want to, you know, work the special detail, um, that was slightly higher than their normal overtime rate, but was not going to be, you know, impacting the financial wellbeing of Ultium Cells at the end of the day as well. Something we felt that was reasonable, that's where we came up with a $70 amount," Sorbin Randolph said.

In the conclusion of the BCI report, investigators wrote that many of the issues brought up by current and former Lordstown police employees amounted to policy matters outside of BCI's scope. For the bribery allegations, BCI found that those making the allegations had "no firsthand knowledge," and that many of the allegations arose from the Bordonaro recording that was made under false pretenses and were also refuted by those with firsthand knowledge, particularly Sorbin-Randolph.