YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — A city police lieutenant who was charged with dereliction of duty after having been on paid administrative leave for more than a year has been fired.
Lt. Brian Flynn was fired Tuesday, according to Staff Inspector Lt. Brian Butler.
According to a letter addressed to Flynn and dated Friday, a completed internal investigation found that Flynn violated departmental rules and policies. The letter, signed by police Chief Carl Davis and Mayor Tito Brown on Tuesday, said Flynn’s conduct was unbecoming and that he neglected his duties and was incompetent in his position, leading to his firing.
Flynn was arraigned Friday in municipal court on 14 counts of dereliction of duty, a second-degree misdemeanor. He pleaded not guilty before Visiting Judge Mark Frost.
The charges were filed in October after an investigation by the Summit County Sheriff’s Office.
Flynn, who was head of the unit in the department that investigates crimes against children, is accused of failing to follow through on several investigations between November 2020 and February 2021.
Summit County officials investigated the case because city officials were having trouble finding an outside investigator who was not directly or indirectly involved in any of the cases. They gave their findings to city officials in late September.
City officials said Flynn was given tips by the state’s Internet Crimes Against Children Unit but never followed through. He had been on paid administrative leave since March 25, 2021.
One of the cases referred to Flynn was ultimately taken over by federal prosecutors. The defendant pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 27 years in federal prison.
Flynn had been with the department since 1998 and a lieutenant since 2011. He was promoted to lieutenant from detective sergeant, a rank he achieved in 2006.
Flynn has a pretrial hearing in his case at 2 p.m. Jan. 13.
