LORDSTOWN, Ohio - When Lordstown Mayor Jackie Woodward received former Deputy Richard Watson’s retirement letter earlier this week, she wasn’t surprised. 

“I don't blame him for making that decision, you know, he has been an officer for over 30 years and obviously this job is getting to him,” Woodward said in an interview Thursday. “So enough is enough. It's time for him to go. And it does save the village the hassle of having to go through the process of the termination.”  

21 News exclusively reported Watson tendered his retirement in a letter to Woodward dated Dec. 8, after learning she and Police Chief Brent Milhoan had each recommended Village Council terminate his employment with the police department. Watson could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Watson, who had worked with Lordstown Police since 2007, was one of the primary accusers of bribery within the department over an alleged policy to not serve warrants at the Ultium Cells plant in exchange for officers receiving higher-than-average wages to work security there.

Those allegations were made public at a council meeting March 17. Watson's then-wife, former mayoral candidate Danielle Watson, played a recorded phone call in which Captain Chris Bordonaro can be heard telling Officer Joseph Keough they would serve warrants for serious crimes, such as domestic violence, but for minor misdemeanors and traffic warrants, they should try to serve them after workers left the plant.

Watson and Keough later admitted there was no such warrant, and the scenario was made up in an effort to get Bordonaro to admit wrongdoing on the recorded call. Woodward called the fabrication “unacceptable.”

“During that shift, he was the officer in charge, and as the officer in charge, you're pretty much the supervisor. You are held to a higher standard in that position,” Woodward said. “You should be patrolling the roads and keeping our citizens safe during that time, not sitting there trying to think of ways to get your boss in trouble.”

Threatening remarks Watson made about Milhoan and Bordonaro during the investigation were also a factor in the recommendation that he be fired. They included statements that Watson would “open the f---ing skulls” with a baseball bat if “they ever f--- with me,” and that “if I had my way, I would have those two on a slab with a toe tag.”

“Officers have to be able to rely on other officers for backup, or if they get into a difficult situation, they want to know that … a fellow officer’s going to back them up and help them,” Milhoan said in a phone interview Thursday. “And when you have somebody that's making those type of statements, I think it's pretty obvious that he's not going to support us if we needed help.”

Now that the BCI investigation has completed with no findings of criminal wrongdoing and the dust has appeared to settle, Milhoan told 21 News the accusations and investigation were “unfortunate,” but “we were confident that the truth would eventually come out.” 

“I was confident that BCI would do a very thorough investigation, and they did that. … I think that most of the people in the community felt that our police department provides a very professional service to the community,” Milhoan said.