John Jefferson
Harold Webb was fired from his police chief job with the New Miami (Ohio) Police Department after the mayor allegedly smelled weed in his office. (WXIX/YouTube)
An Ohio police chief is out of a job after the village council fired him because his office reportedly smelled of marijuana — and also because he was allegedly falsifying time sheets.
The Village Council for New Miami, a small town of 2,200 people outside Cincinnati, unanimously voted to terminate Chief Harold Webb late last month. Mayor Jewel Hensley outlined the allegations in a letter. Hensley alleges that Webb only reported to duty twice over a two-week period starting June 2. But when he turned in his timecard, he allegedly claimed he worked 48 hours. She also checked with Butler County Dispatch who reportedly said Webb only checked in for duty on June 2.
When Hensley, along with councilmen Ken Flick and Matt Stephens, went to confront Webb about this information on June 20, he said he had worked those hours but hid his patrol car in the garage from the mayor “because he saw this coming and wanted to make a statement,” she wrote. Webb said he could not produce his daily log and would have to call the camera company to show them video footage of him coming in and out of the office.
Hensley said she asked whether the job was “too much for him” considering he worked full time with the U.S. Postal Service and had a family, but Webb insisted that he could perform his duties. A few hours later, Webb contacted Hensley and told her to meet him in his office. She and Stephens went to the police station to retrieve the time logs.
“The first thing that came out of my mouth was who has been smoking weed in here,” Hensley wrote. “The smell of marijuana could knock you off your feet.”
Hensley noted that the office did not reek of marijuana when they met with Webb earlier in the day. On June 24, the village attorney wrote a letter to order that Webb be drug tested. The letter said Webb had to be tested by the next day. But when he went to the facility, he refused to have someone witness the test, according to Hensley. The mayor insisted it be witnessed because “Webb is the chief of police and should know every trick under the sun to use someone else’s urine if he were to be dirty,” she wrote.
Webb reportedly walked out of the facility and later texted Hensley stated that she “won” and would submit his resignation. He claimed the office smelled like weed because of a recent drug bust where the department seized over 850 marijuana plants.
The village board voted to fire him on June 27.
The mayor and Webb have been feuding for months. Earlier this year, she accused him of failing to respond to 911 calls and stealing hot dogs from a gas station, Cincinnati FOX affiliate WXIX reported. She also placed him on unpaid leave in March after Webb’s wife made comments on the police department’s Facebook page criticizing the mayor. The council voted to reinstate Webb after his lawyer pointed out that Hensley did not follow proper procedures in suspending Webb.
His attorney, Jeffrey Gray, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But he has previously defended his client’s integrity to WXIX.
“Chief has decades of experience in law enforcement. He’s never been disciplined before, nothing to this magnitude. His officers love him. They are willing to stick up for him. I think that speaks a lot about his character,” he told the station.
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