Officer, Dispatcher Relationship Ends In Firing

The public safety director of Lorain (Ohio) has fired an officer for acts of “dishonesty, misfeasance, malfeasance and nonfeasance in office,” apparently associated with his relationship with one of the agency’s dispatchers. Director Phil Dore made the decision after an internal investigation of officer Zachary Iannantuono in 2009 and 2010 found that failed to follow several departmental policies. According to the department’s investigation, Iannantuono had a relationship with dispatcher Adrianne Nieves. During 2009 the two had off-duty conflicts, and the department ordered Innantuono to have no contact with Nieves. While on-duty in 2010, Innantuono made a traffic stop on Nieves as she left the department’s Christmas party, then followed her after the stop and surveilled her. The investigation found he then tried to pull over another dispatcher who was driving to pick up Nieves, but instead pulled over an uninvolved citizen. Afterwards, he found the dispatcher and pulled her over on the pretext that she was intoxicated, the report says. Dore said Innantuono failed a polygraph test related to the Christmas incidents. Read more about the situation here.