Cheek said the village is currently operating under a self-insurance plan. He was advised by village officials to operate his police department under a “don’t drive unless you have to” policy since the village became self-insured earlier this month.
New Miami used the Ohio Government Risk Management Plan, a state insurance plan that more than 700 local governments belong to, for property, liability, law enforcement, automobile and bond coverage up until earlier this month.
The mayor and attorney for the village couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
Cheek said excessive lawsuits and insurance claims led to the village, which is home to more than 2,200 residents, being dropped from its insurer.
“The police department is not why this happened,” Cheek said. “Trust me, the police department wasn’t even one-fourth of the money that’s been paid out.”
Just last month a Butler County Common Pleas judge ordered the village to stop the use of its controversial speed cameras. The village has collected more than $1 million in revenue since officials installed the cameras 16 months ago, but the judge hasn’t ruled if the village will have to repay the money to drivers who were cited.
The Journal-News also discovered that Cheek has been at the center of two lawsuits against the police department and village that have resulted in out-of-court settlements within the past year.
One civil lawsuit claims Cheek and another officer working at the department, Adam Smith, slammed one of Cheek’s relatives to the ground over a family dispute. The lawsuit also alleged that when the relative tried to call the Butler County Sheriff’s Office for help, Cheek thwarted her efforts and told dispatch not to arrive because he had the situation under control.
The lawsuit was settled out of court in April of last year.
Another lawsuit, settled out of court in February — just a month before the village lost its insurance coverage — claimed Cheek and New Miami officer Tyrone Sims used excessive force while apprehending a fleeing suspect, who had an outstanding warrant for his arrest. The lawsuit alleged that Sims repeatedly punched and kneed the suspect, then Cheek moments later choked that same suspect.
Cheek called the lawsuits “frivolous” and said the village’s insurance company made the decision to settle the lawsuits for “economical” reasons. He acknowledged that the lawsuits might have impacted the village’s insurance coverage.
“I’m sure, in the long run, it has something to do with why our insurance was canceled,” Cheek said of the lawsuits against him and the department.
But he also argued that other insurance claims and lawsuits against the village as a whole greatly impacted the village’s ability to keep its insurance coverage. Cheek wouldn’t elaborate on those claims, and the village itself doesn’t have any other court cases that have resulted in payments or out-of-court settlements within the last decade, according to online county court records.
Cheek said he’s been doing administrative work at the police department this week, but neither him nor the 22 volunteer officers who work for the department have responded to calls.
A Journal-News reporter tried to enter the New Miami Fire Department building Thursday afternoon but the door to the office was locked.
Dispatch records show the New Miami Police Department last responded to a call on March 17, according to Chief Deputy Anthony Dwyer of the Butler County Sheriff’s Office. Dwyer said the sheriff’s office often responds to calls for the village and has been doing so this month as well.
“We were contacted by New Miami in the recent past and they said they wouldn’t be available to take calls for service,” Dwyer said.
Cheek denied that he contacted the sheriff’s office. Cheek said he was on vacation last week and wasn’t at the office to respond to calls, but he said he would be on the road again Friday morning to respond to calls.
New Miami resident Lindsey Garrison, 27, said she became concerned about the village’s operations when she recently saw the sheriff’s office and police crews from neighboring communities respond to criminal incidents but didn’t see any signs of the New Miami police on the scene.
She said rumors have swirled about the village’s insurance situation in recent days.
“I don’t think it’s right, they should let people know,” Garrison said of the changes in the village’s insurance policy.
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