The City of Twinsburg has settled a lawsuit filed by a group of police officers over allegations of sexual harassment, records tampering and retaliation.
Officers Daniel Fidoe, Olivia Bartulovic and Matthew Pfeifer filed the lawsuit in April 2024, alleging Police Chief Thomas Mason allowed sexual harassment to "run rampant" in the department, falsified police records to keep his family members' names out of police reports and did not fill records requests related to the lawsuit. The city fired all three officers in the following months, which the officers claimed was retaliation for the lawsuit.
"It's not really about the settlement for them nearly as much as it is about getting the truth out," their lawyer, Brian Bardwell, said.
Twinsburg agreed to pay more than $150,000 to settle the suit with Fidoe and Bartulovic this week, Bardwell said. Pfeifer dropped out of the lawsuit after winning a settlement through arbitration after being fired from the department.
"They're really elated that, through the court process, we were able to prove that everything they were saying all along was perfectly correct," Bardwell said.
The suit alleged Mason, the police department and the city failed to respond to numerous records requests from the plaintiffs and their counsel.
"When we initially filed the lawsuit, I think (we) had received precisely zero pages of responsive records," Bardwell said. "Over the next almost two years now, we received thousands and thousands of pages."
The suit further alleged Mason directed officers to keep his family members' names out of police reports, including by removing his son's name from a report that detailed underage drinking at a Halloween party, removing his daughter's name from records of a K-9 operation targeting students bringing drugs to school and intervening when his wife was caught for allegedly speeding.
"The chief of police just admitted very openly during his deposition that in fact the records had been tampered with," Bardwell said.
During his deposition, Mason admitted he had recently learned that the responding officer, Rodney Gist, did include his son's name in the original police report the night of the Halloween party, but that Sgt. Alan Ternosky later removed it. Mason did not assign anyone to investigate how or why Ternosky changed the record, he said. Gist was subsequently promoted to detective, and Ternosky was promoted to lieutenant, according to the deposition.
"Is Lt. Ternosky on administrative leave?" Bardwell asked during the deposition.
"No," Mason said.
"Is Lt. Ternosky still free to suit up with a badge and gun today?" Bardwell asked.
"Yes," Mason said.
"Is Lt. Ternosky still free to go into your CAD (computer aided design) system and tamper with records today?" Bardwell said.
"No, he's not free to tamper with records. He does have access to the CAD system," Mason responded.
"Are there any restrictions in place that would prevent him from doing that again 鈥� what he did with your son's name?" Bardwell asked.
"Not at this time," Mason answered.
Gist was also involved in the alleged incident that led to the firing of Pfeifer. According to Gist's witness testimony taken right before all three officers were placed on administrative leave, Pfeifer allegedly drew his weapon and pointed it at the ceiling after some joking banter between him and Gist.
Gist reportedly said, "Is that a threat? Do you guys see this? That looks like a threat to me." As Pfeifer lowered the weapon, Gist stated he was in the line of fire. He interpreted the act as a show of force or intimidation, he stated.
Pfeifer contested that the event even occurred, stating in an investigatory interview that he at no point removed his weapon from his holster, nor did he place it in the high-carry position while speaking with another officer.
The city moved to settle the lawsuit immediately after depositions from Mason and two other city workers, Bardwell said.
"This was purely a cost-benefit decision, not an acknowledgement that any of the dismissed claims had any merit in the first place," Mayor Sam Scaffide said in a statement. "The city continues to vigorously dispute their dismissed allegations, even after the cases have been concluded."
Pfeifer and Bartulovic have both received settlements through labor arbitration for their firings, but Fidoe is still waiting for an arbitrator to rule if his termination was wrongful and pretextual, Bardwell said. The city claimed Bartulovic and Fidoe were engaging in an "inappropriate workplace relationship" that "interfered with normal work operations." Both officers denied the allegations.
Although Bartulovic and Fidoe have both moved on from the department and are working full-time at different area police departments, they still plan to sue Twinsburg again for violating their First Amendment rights by firing them in retaliation for filing the original lawsuit, Bardwell said.
"Officer Fidoe and Officer Bartulovic have records that we received throughout this litigation proving that this investigation into them was complete nonsense," Bardwell said.
That lawsuit has not yet been filed.
