Area resident Zyrian Atha-Arnett is expected to be in court Thursday afternoon, Nov. 21, to plead to charges related to the stabbing death earlier this year of Yellow Springs resident Leonid “Lonya” Clark.

A grand jury last week indicted Atha-Arnett, 26, on two counts of murder and one count of felonious assault in connection with Clark’s death.

Greene County Sheriff Gene Fischer announced the indictments at a press conference Friday afternoon, Nov. 15, at the county courthouse in Xenia. Bond for Atha-Arnett, who was originally held on a $750,000 security, was set by the grand jury at $900,000, with the full amount required, Fischer said.

The announcement came a week after Sheriff’s deputies arrested Atha-Arnett on suspicion of killing Clark, a former schoolmate and friend since childhood. Atha-Arnett, who most recently was living in Enon, has been in custody at the Greene County Jail since his arrest.

Sheriff Fischer said Friday that the case has been assigned to Judge Michael Buckwalter, while Greene County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney David Hayes, who attended the press conference but did not speak, will lead the prosecution as chief trial counsel, Fischer added.

Counsel for the defense was not discussed, but Atha-Arnett’s family was this week soliciting financial help from two local faith communities to retain a criminal attorney.

On Monday, the defense filed a motion requesting that Atha-Arnett be allowed to wear street clothes and appear unrestrained at his Nov. 22 arraignment.

The investigation

In attendance at the Nov. 15 press conference, in addition to the sheriff and Hayes, were Greene County Prosecutor Stephen Haller, Yellow Springs Police Chief Brian Carlson and Sheriff’s Capt. Sean Magateaux.

“Thousands of hours were put into this investigation,” which included “hundreds of interviews and multiple search warrants,” Fischer said.

County Prosecutor Haller said that many of the search warrants were related to cell phone records and internet usage.

According to court documents, investigators examined Atha-Arnett’s phone calls and text messages as well as his online search history, in addition to using phone location technology, to compile a timeline for what they think occurred in the days and weeks around Jan. 13, the last date Clark was reportedly seen alive.

The 26-year-old Clark’s fully clothed body was found three months later, on April 12, in Glen Helen Nature Preserve, on the bank of the Little Miami River, just west of Grinnell Road.

At the time, authorities conjectured that his body may have been submerged in water or under ice through the winter, and that is why trained dogs didn’t find anything during a search of the Glen after Clark was reported missing in early February.

The preliminary autopsy listed multiple stab wounds as the cause of death.

The sheriff said investigators think Clark was killed at or near the location his body was found. In response to a question from the News, Fischer also said they think Atha-Arnett was solely responsible for Clark’s death.

Asked by the News about a murder weapon, the sheriff deferred to the county prosecutor, who said authorities were withholding some evidence-related information from the public.

“We’re not going to try this case at a press conference. We’re not going to try it in the media,” Haller said. “We are somewhat limited in what we can tell you today.”

The prosecutor also declined to speak about a possible motive, which he said would come out in the trial.

The charges

Haller said that charging Atha-Arnett with two counts of murder, a first-degree felony, provides different ways for the jury to consider the alleged actions.

One count charges that the defendant caused Clark’s death “as a proximate result of … committing or attempting to commit an offense of violence that is a felony of the first or second degree, to wit: Felonious Assault,” while the second accuses that the defendant “did, purposely cause the death of another, to wit: Leonid A. Clark.”

Each murder charge is punishable by a prison term of 15 years to life. No specified term is attached to the felonious assault charge.

The prosecutor said his office is not pursuing the death penalty.

For his part at the press conference, YS Police Chief Brian Carlson thanked the Sheriff’s office; the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which assisted in pursuing the case; and the village of Yellow Springs for tips and efforts in searching for Clark after he was reported missing in early February. He also offered condolences to the Clark family, who were in attendance, “for enduring what must be the most terrible reality a parent [could] ever face.”

Remembering Clark

The press conference fell the day before Clark’s 27th birthday, Nov. 16.

In honor of that date, the Clark family hosted a public gathering Saturday evening at a memorial tree planted in Clark’s name just south of the Women’s Park on Corry Street.

About 40 people formed a candle-lit circle around the small pawpaw tree to sing “Happy Birthday to You” and share some stories about Clark’s life, while camera news crews from two area television stations filmed the gathering.

Clark’s father, Eric Clark, noted the clear, star-filled sky and suggested that everyone keep an eye out for shooting stars as part of the annual Leonid Meteor Shower, which was at peak this past weekend.

The family brought cupcakes for everyone, and family friends contributed hot cocoa and cider. A laptop computer showed video of Clark singing and playing guitar.

The memorial tree is one of two planted in Clark’s name. The other was recently added to a small group of trees on the Mills Lawn campus where three other members of Clark’s 2011 graduating class are also remembered. All died within the last three years.

Local connections

Atha-Arnett had been a member of the same 2011 class from kindergarten through 10th grade. According to school district records, he withdrew before the start of the 2009–10 academic year.

Although he has lived outside the village in recent years, he and his extended family have many local ties.

As a boy, he was a member of the Cub Scouts, and he attended the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship with his father, Stacy Arnett, a Yellow Springs High School graduate.

Stacy, who acquaintances say had been living with his son in Enon after suffering a stroke several years ago, was a longtime business owner and manager in Yellow Springs.

Atha-Arnett’s uncle, Tony Arnett, served multiple terms on the Yellow Springs School Board and then Village Council before moving to Wisconsin more than a decade ago.

Thursday’s arraignment, originally announced for Friday, will be at 12:45 p.m. in Courtroom 2 of the county courthouse in Xenia, according to the prosecutors office  Wednesday.

An ad hoc citizen committee is reviewing a disciplinary matter involving two officers of the Yellow Springs Police Department.

The possible discipline stems from the actions of Cpl. Mark Charles and Officer David Meister when they responded to a domestic violence call in the village on Aug. 28.

The use of a citizen committee is a departure from the discipline process outlined in the Village’s personnel policy. Village leaders have called the committee a pilot.

The committee first met on Nov. 2 and was not announced publicly until Nov. 4, when Council briefly discussed the group and its role in response to inquiries from the News.

“I just wanted to bring it to your attention that this happened and that this is happening,” Council member Lisa Kreeger said at the meeting. “It happened quickly.”

In a later interview, Kreeger said the new process is an attempt to bring more public participation into police disciplines and that the current process is a “case study.”

“We thought of it as a way to have community members more engaged in these complicated situations,” she said.

Kreeger and the three citizens make up the committee, which will review the facts in the case and present its findings to Village Manager Josué Salmerón. Salmerón will then decide on any disciplinary action to be taken.

The names of the three citizen participants have not yet been released.

The committee has met twice this month to review documents and hear testimony from the two officers, along with Sgt. Naomi Watson, the supervisor who  completed the initial discipline review in the case. The committee has yet to submit a report.

New process initiated

After Watson’s initial report documenting possible policy violations, YSPD Chief Brian Carlson reviewed the matter and referred it to Salmerón. In communication with Village Council members and Village Solicitor Chris Conard, Salmerón then developed the citizen review committee to advise him. Conard shared with Village leaders that other municipalities have used community advisory groups in a similar way, according to Kreeger.

On Oct. 1, both officers signed documents agreeing to the voluntary process. They did not waive their rights to the discipline procedure outlined in the Village’s employee handbook, according to Village documents.

The existing process involves progressive discipline, which starts with a verbal warning and written reprimand, both of which may be issued by a supervisor. The next two steps are a suspension or demotion and a termination, which may only be completed by the Village manager. The process starts over after 24 months.

When it comes to those more serious disciplines, the employee has a right to a “pre-disciplinary conference,” according to the Village’s personnel manual. The purpose of that conference is “to give the employee an opportunity to offer an explanation of the alleged misconduct.”

Under the new process, those steps, including the pre-disciplinary conference, may still be taken. What’s different is that instead of the Village manager relying on either an internal investigation by a YSPD supervisor, or an external investigation, such as one completed by another law enforcement agency, he is relying on citizen input.

“What I’m expecting from the committee are the facts,” Salmerón explained in an interview. “There is a lack of clarity on who did what. When it is less clear it requires an investigation, which can be done internally or outside. This is another option.”

Kreeger, who is also pushing for a standing Citizen Review Board to take citizen complaints against officers, said she was supportive of testing out a new approach.

“I’d like to keep trying new things, to try to improve the trust that we have between the community and the police department,” Kreeger said.

Carlson also said that he was open to the new process.

“We’re all hoping for a positive solution for dealing with difficult internal situations,” he said.

Citizen participants

According to Salmerón, the three citizen participants were selected by Salmerón, Kreeger and Village Solicitor Chris Conard.

“It was a collaborative effort identifying qualified, respectable individuals with expertise who would be sensitive to the values of the village and the protection of employees,” Salmerón said.

In recent weeks, Village leaders have declined to release the names of the citizen participants of the committee. Salmerón cited possible backlash against the participants or “reputational harm” as reasons for keeping their identities confidential. Kreeger stated that she believed that the names would be released once the report was completed.

Kreeger added the group was composed of “very active community members who bring a variety of opinions.” Salmerón said that the three citizens are all older and reflect the “demographics of the village.”

“The individuals who are reviewing the facts are representatives of the community and the community’s values,”  he said.

In response to questions from the News,  Salmerón said that none of the participants has a “known negative bias” against the officers in question, while at least one of the participants knows one of the officers well and may have a positive view of them.

Also sitting in on the meetings, but not participating, are Conard and Village HR coordinator Ruthe Ann Lillich.

Incident in question

Around 1:46 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 28, Yellow Springs dispatch received a 911 call from a woman in the village who said she was being attacked and needed to hide. The call was then disconnected.

Meister and Charles were dispatched to the scene and, according to the incident report submitted by Meister, the primary officer on the call, found “two people were involved in a domestic dispute that became physical.”

The officers spoke with both parties and another witness and took photographs of physical injuries on both individuals. A friend came to pick up the suspected offender, while the suspected victim went to a nearby friend’s house. No one was arrested. And during the call, another domestic violence in progress call came in.

Contrary to policy, the offender was neither arrested, nor the victim pointed toward available resources. YSPD leadership became aware of a possible policy violation the following day when the Greene County Sheriff’s Office inquired about the lack of documentation of the call in the countywide data sharing program, according to Chief Carlson. That morning, Charles, the supervising officer on the call, had also informed leadership of his possible error in how the call was handled, Carlson added.

Sgt. Watson reviewed the incident and completed a Disciplinary Action Record for Charles on Sept. 16, noting the type of violation as a “Violation of Village Policy/Procedure.”

Watson wrote, concerning Charles’ oversight of Meister’s actions, “… at the conclusion of this call, Officer Meister did not make an arrest, he did not file any charges, he did not offer any medical care, nor did he offer any victim assistance.”

Watson also raised concerns about both officers’ actions in light of the suspected offender’s pending case at Fairborn Municipal Court, where he faces charges of domestic violence, assault and aggravated menacing.

“You immediately agreed that the call should have been handled differently, with charges along with a lock-up being the proper resolution,” Watson wrote of Charles in the document, currently part of Charles’ personnel file.

Carlson added that, according to YSPD policies, the officers should have informed the victim of her right to pursue a temporary restraining order and given her a handout, “Ohio Crime Victim Rights.” Additional steps in the policy manual state that the officers should alert the victim to available victim advocates, shelters and community resources. Ohio Revised Code further sets out various standards for arrest during a domestic violence incident.

According to the YSPD’s policy manual, “calls of reported, threatened, imminent or ongoing domestic violence and the violation of any court order are of extreme importance and should be considered among the highest response priorities.”

Watson suggested an oral warning for Charles, with additional consequences should the incident occur again.

No Disciplinary Action Record was included in Meister’s personnel file. In response to a question from the News about that record, a Village representative said it is not yet available because it is still in progress.

Following YSPD leadership’s involvement in the case, the suspect, who lives in the village, was eventually charged with two offenses from the incident — domestic violence and assault, both first degree misdemeanors.

Charles, who lives in Dayton, joined the local force in 2014 and was promoted to corporal in late 2018. According to a review of his personnel file, he has no previous disciplines. However, his file contains three citizen complaints about his actions as an officer, along with several notes praising his police work.

Meister, who lives in Yellow Springs, started at the YSPD in 2010 and is now the second longest-serving full-time officer on the local force.

Meister was last disciplined in late 2018, after an internal investigation concluded he violated department policy in two incidents by not ensuring public safety. In that case, he was demoted from the position of corporal. Meister was also investigated earlier this year for not accompanying an officer on a call soon after going off duty, but was found to not have violated department policy in that case. His file also contains several notes from citizens commending his police work.

Contact: mbachman@ysnews.com

In arraignment proceedings Thursday afternoon, Nov. 21, at the Greene County courthouse in Xenia, defense counsel for area resident Zyrian Atha-Arnett entered a plea of not guilty to two counts of murder and one count of felonious assault in the stabbing death earlier this year of local man Leonid “Lonya” Clark.

Atha-Arnett, 26, who appeared in Judge Michael Buckwalter’s courtroom wearing a light blue shirt and dark pants, has been held in the Greene County Jail since his arrest Friday, Nov. 8.

He did not address the judge except to verify the pronunciation and spelling of his name.

Andrew Schlueter, of the Greene County Public Defender’s Office, entered the not guilty plea on Atha-Arnett’s behalf, with no additional comment on the charges. Schlueter informed the judge that Christopher Beck, also with the public defender’s office, is representing the defendant as well.

In response to the not guilty plea, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Bill Morrison, on behalf of the prosecutor’s office, asked that bail be set at $900,000, with no percentage payment. The judge agreed, noting that the amount was the same as previously set at Atha-Arnett’s indictment, and so would continue unchanged.

The prosecution is not pursuing the death penalty. A sentence of 15 years to life is attached to each of the two murder counts. Sentencing on the felonious assault charge is unspecified.

Buckwalter set a jury trial for Jan. 27, but such cases are frequently pushed back by a variety of possible requests from either side.

The formal arraignment proceedings Thursday took less than five minutes.

Approached after the hearing, defense attorney Schlueter said he wasn’t “at liberty to speak about the case.”

Several people close to Atha-Arnett were present in the courtroom, but a family friend in attendance said they didn’t want to comment.

Members of Clark’s family also attended. Later Thursday afternoon, Clark’s father, Eric Clark, said he and his wife had been prepared by the prosecutor’s office to anticipate the possibility of a not guilty plea, which isn’t unusual at the beginning of a case, especially if a defendant hasn’t secured counsel.

He said they also had been asked in advance if they opposed Atha-Arnett’s request earlier this week to appear in court unrestrained and wearing street clothes and if they opposed keeping the bail at $900,000.

Eric Clark said they didn’t object to any of the requests.

“Our family has decided that he should be granted some human dignity,” he said.

He added that he also didn’t feel any animosity toward the people who attended on Atha-Arnett’s account, and appreciated meeting those who were unfamiliar to him.

“It puts the human side to it all,” Clark said.

Atha-Arnett, who attended Yellow Springs Schools through 10th grade, was in the same grade as Lonya Clark, and the two had maintained a friendship since childhood. In recent years Atha-Arnett has lived in Enon, and Clark lived with him briefly several years ago, according to Eric Clark.

Lonya Clark, who would have turned 27 on Saturday, Nov. 16, was reported missing in early February after not being seen since Jan. 13. His fully clothed body was found three months later, on April 12, by mushroom hunters in Glen Helen Nature Preserve, on the bank of the Little Miami River near Grinnell Road bridge. The coroner’s office ruled the cause of death as multiple stab wounds to his head and neck.

UPDATE, Dec. 5, 5:20 p.m. — Antioch College has received the “all clear” signal from public safety, allowing the college community to return to campus, according to spokesperson Reedy. The situation involved an interpersonal dispute and was not related to Antioch College, she said.

Antioch College closed this afternoon, Thursday, Dec. 5, after the campus community was alerted to a “credible threat.” The initial alert came via email from President Tom Manley at 3:11 p.m., followed by public safety alerts at 3:24 p.m. and 3:44 p.m., according to college spokesperson Christine Reedy. No other details were provided in the alerts.

Members of the campus were asked to leave immediately, Reedy said.

According to Yellow Springs Police Chief Brian Carlson, reached by phone on the scene, the situation involved an “argument between friends.” One friend, who according to Carlson was located in Dayton, called in a shooting threat to the college as part of a dispute with another friend. The shooting threat was what prompted the college’s closure.

The threat was not related to ongoing controversy over the Antioch College lambs, according to Carlson.

Reached again just after 4 p.m., Carlson said that local police had made contact with all involved parties, and had de-escalated the situation. Four Yellow Springs police officers were involved in responding to the threat, including Carlson, with three physically present on campus.

As of this posting, the college remains closed.

The News will update this post as more information becomes available.

A citizen group investigating a Yellow Springs Police Department disciplinary matter has completed its work, according to the Village last month.

The process ended with two local officers being disciplined for their actions when responding to a domestic violence call in the village in August 2019.

The disciplines followed a review of the case by three citizens and one Council member, who met three times in November. The group then submitted its  findings to Village Manager Josué Salmerón, who decided on the final discipline.

An initiative of Council, the ad hoc citizen committee engaged in a fact-finding process that diverged from the way discipline has been previously handled at the YSPD. It was referred to by Village leaders as a pilot.

“This was an alternative to the typical project, which would have been to engage an external entity, but instead involved community members,” explained Council Member Lisa Kreeger at Council’s Dec. 16 meeting.

Participating in the committee were citizens John Gudgel, Kate Hamilton and Jeff “Pan” Reich, along with Kreeger. The citizens’ names were originally withheld to protect their identities during the course of the pilot.

In the end, Cpl. Mark Charles was verbally reprimanded and Officer David Meister given an eight-week training requirement in lieu of his regular duties for not following state and local policy on the call, according to a December 2019 memo from Salmerón.

The officers had failed to arrest the suspected perpetrator and to offer various resources to the victim, Sgt. Naomi Watson found in an initial disciplinary review.

In a written “debrief” of the process, group members agreed it was a positive step for the Village, according to Kreeger.

“The participants agreed that this was a process that did seem to be headed in the direction of restorative justice,” she said.

At the same time, the group struggled to complete the task in a timely manner due to scheduling conflicts, Kreeger added.

“We wanted to give everyone who participated the time to tell their stories,” she said, noting that it took three to four times longer than the group anticipated.

Testifying to the group were both officers and Sgt. Watson.  Also present during the process were Village Solicitor Chris Conard and Village HR Director Ruthe Ann Lilich. The officers agreed to the pilot, and did not waive their rights to the existing disciplinary policy.

At Council, Salmerón expressed his gratitude to the committee, noting that the group helped with what was a complex case.

“There were some facts that were discovered in the process that I, or someone else on the team, might have not seen,”   Salmerón said.

Looking ahead, Village leaders suggested the process be formalized in policy and the pool of citizens on the committee be broadened.

Council Vice President Marianne MacQueen added that she hopes the local police disciplinary process can be aimed at changing an officer’s behavior, not just punishing them.

“The impact of this is to move toward learning and changing behavior, which doesn’t necessarily come out of being punished,”  she said.

Citizen committee findings

In the early morning of Aug. 28, 2019, Charles and Meister were dispatched to a local residence after the YSPD received a 911 call from a woman who said she was being attacked. There the officers found “two people were involved in a domestic dispute that became physical,” according to the incident report, and investigated further.

However, during the call the officers disagreed about whether the suspected perpetrator’s actions met the legal criteria for domestic violence, according to the ad hoc committee’s report.

While Charles found there was probable cause to justify arresting and charging the suspect with domestic violence and assault, Meister said the facts did not support such a charge because “the individuals involved did not meet the legal definition of family or household members,” the report stated.

“Our assessment is that the situation came down to a lack of clarification and common understanding about the policies…” the ad hoc committee found, referring to state and local policies related to domestic violence cases.

Also complicating the matter was that during the call, another domestic violence in progress response came in, the report noted.

“This could have created a distraction and appeared to leave the discussion between the two officers unresolved,” the ad hoc committee report stated.

After Charles left, Meister, believing his supervisor agreed to his plan to charge both people with “simple assault” at a later time, allowed them to leave the scene.

Charles, for his part, did not direct Meister to arrest the suspect or file charges that evening, the ad hoc committee noted. However, at the end of his shift, Charles shared with his supervisor, Sgt. Watson, that he should have handled the case -differently.

“Commendably, Corporal Charles reported the events through the chain of command,” the report stated. “He took responsibility for the decision to not file charges that evening.”

Following YSPD leadership’s involvement in the case, Meister eventually filed domestic violence and assault charges against the suspect, a village resident.

In addition to interviews, the citizen group also reviewed narrative reports and policy documents and watched the cruiser video, according to its report.

Officer disciplines

After the ad hoc citizen committee submitted its report to Salmerón in early December, the Village manager rendered his final disciplines in the matter.

The first discipline, for Charles, came down in early September. It was then that Watson gave Charles a verbal reprimand, which is the first step in the Village’s “progressive discipline” process. Charles had not previously been disciplined during his five years at the department.

In his December letter to the corporal, Salmerón affirmed that the reprimand was appropriate, citing Charles’ “admitted lack of supervisory assertiveness with Officer Meister in assuring that he filed the proper charges …”

Charles will also be assigned supervisory training in 2020,  Salmerón noted.

Meister, however, was not disciplined in September, as several disciplines accumulated in the last two years would have led to more severe consequences for the officer, according to YS Police Chief Brian Carlson this week.

According to YSPD policy, following a verbal reprimand is a written reprimand, then a suspension or demotion and finally a termination, which can only be completed by the Village manager. The process starts over after 24 months. In lieu of that process in Meister’s case, the citizen committee was formed.

In Salmerón’s letter to Meister, he noted that Meister took too long interpreting Ohio law on domestic violence.

“As a 10-year veteran officer with the Yellow Springs Police Department, I expect that you would have clearer understanding of the Ohio Revised Code and of your responsibility to take the appropriate actions,” he wrote.

“As a result of your failure to take the appropriate action on this incident,” Salmerón continued, “it is evident that you are in need of further training.”

In lieu of his regular patrol duties, Meister will participate in an eight-week “refresher training” with a Field Training Officer. That type of training is standard for officers who are new to the department or who have had “a lapse of judgement,” according to Carlson.

Carlson has assigned Meister to train with YSPD Cpl. Jeff Beam,  who Carlson said, “exemplifies the philosophy of compassionate decision-making within logical policing protocols.”

Salmerón also noted that Meister’s status change was only temporary and would not affect the officer’s pay rate or benefits.

“I hope you will embrace this opportunity for additional training and will work to improve your skills to provide the best service that you can to our residents,” Salmerón concluded.

Citizen committee reflections

In a written document presented to Council, the ad hoc committee reflected on the strengths and weaknesses of the process, and how it should be changed if it were used again.

On the strengths, the participants noted that not only was the committee a “sounding board of diverse citizens,” it also provided community members with “insights into the different challenges, policies, and processes” of the YSPD.

The group also developed a sense of “comradery” and benefitted from legal counsel’s advice on the “scope of our work,” they wrote.

“Provides a transparent process to our community and inclusion of YS village values,” one participant noted.

The length of time, lack of clear guidelines and the sensing of “a bit of anxiety, or perhaps, distrust, from all officers” were suggested as challenges and weaknesses.

Asked if the process had “a positive value,” one participant wrote, “I feel the community will trust the findings of a group of fellow villagers … over an outside investigator, especially a police officer from a conservative community.”

Another comment was that the process could be useful to “to prevent any accusations of favoritism by employees, or being ‘targeted,’ by supervisors.”

Negatives involved the potential conflicts of interest in a small town and the perceived distrust from officers, as well as the fact that “confidentiality was breached while the process was underway.”

Finally, participants agreed that the process could be a useful tool for the Village manager moving forward. A larger group of citizens rotating into small groups when needed was suggested, along with continued clarity around the group’s “scope of practice.”

An ex-wife of the property owner on Grinnell Road, where a shooting Wednesday morning, Feb. 12, left two people dead, was one of the fatalities, according to Greene County Sheriff Gene Fischer.

The second person killed was an as yet unidentified male “companion” of the woman, whose name has not been released, according to a video of the sheriff addressing media at the scene, just south of Yellow Springs, late Wednesday afternoon.

Earlier in the day, Fischer said the shooting occurred after 11 a.m. outside the gate of the driveway to a private home across the road from the former Camp Greene. Online records list the address as 3443 Grinnell Road. Authorities did not identify the homeowner, who lives at the address.

Fischer said the sheriff’s office was notified of a “shoot-out” by one of the home’s residents at about 11:15 a.m. The shooting “was going on when we got the phone call,” he told the News at the scene about 12:30 p.m.

Later in the day, he gave reporters a sketch of the shooting’s sequence of events as told to investigators by the homeowner and his current wife.

Fischer said that according to the couple’s statements, they had pulled into their driveway late Wednesday morning after being out — the wife driving and the husband in the passenger seat — when “they were confronted … by a man with a gun.”

The couple said the man “threatened to kill them,” and the homeowner, whom the sheriff said had a conceal carry license and was armed, “exited the car with [his] gun and a shoot-out occurred.”

Fischer said the ex-wife apparently then drove by, “saw what was going on,” stopped “and pulled a gun on [the homeowner}, and they exchanged gun fire, and she was shot.”

“The male homeowner did fire shots in defense, it appears,” Fischer concluded.

Investigators reported retrieving three guns and a number of shell casings at the scene. The sheriff’s office and the Ohio Bureau of Investigation, which was called in early Wednesday afternoon, will be working to determine the number of shots fired and where they originated.

The sheriff’s office also had requested warrants for the cars and the house, Fischer said. He did not say how many cars were involved. He noted that there may be security footage from the house that captured images of the shooting.

Greene County Coroner Kevin Sharrett said the bodes of the deceased were transported to the Miami Valley Regional Crime Lab in Dayton, where autopsies will be conducted.

The News will continue to update this story as details are released.

Lindsey and Molly Duncan, the residents of the home on Grinnell Road, where two people were killed in a driveway “shootout” Wednesday, Feb. 12, held a press conference Friday afternoon in the meeting room at Yellow Springs Library.

The couple, who live at 3223 Grinnell Road, just south of Yellow Springs, appeared with attorney Gregory Lind and a handful of unidentified supporters to give brief statements about Wednesday’s altercation in which Lindsey Duncan’s ex-wife, Cheryl Sanders, and her husband, Robert “Reed” Sanders, died in an exchange of gun fire with home resident Lindsey Duncan.

The Greene County Sheriff’s Office and the Ohio Bureau of Investigation are continuing to investigate the case, which Sheriff Gene Fischer on Thursday said appeared to have been an “ambush” planned by the ex-wife and her husband.

Lindsey Duncan on Friday said Fischer’s description of the incident as an ambush is accurate.

“Sheriff Fischer used the exact right word,” Lindsey Duncan said at the conclusion of the press conference, which lasted less than eight minutes.

“An ambush is exactly what it was,” Molly Duncan said. “We were caught off guard. They said nothing and then they started shooting at us,” she said of the Sanders.

Previous statements to the press by Sheriff Fischer indicated that the Duncans reported immediately after the shooting that the man identified as Robert “Reed” Sanders was on foot and carrying a gun when he approached them in their car after they pulled into their driveway late Wednesday morning. According to the Duncans’ initial statements, Lindsey Duncan, who was in the passenger side of the car, got out with his own gun and exchanged words with Reed Sanders before shots were fired. Fischer, who likened the event to a “shootout,” said the Duncans told deputies that the ex-wife then pulled up in a car and got out with a gun, yelling and threatening to kill Molly.

On Friday, Lindsey Duncan told reporters that he and Molly had been in downtown Yellow Springs getting coffee and breakfast Wednesday morning before returning home, when “all of a sudden, hell began.”

He said that the man who approached their car wore a “camo” ski mask and held his gun “about 10 inches from [Molly’s} head.”

Duncan described his own reaction “as pure instinct.”

“Whatever happened wasn’t me, it was instinct,” he said.

A tearful Molly Duncan said she was grateful to be alive.

“I’m a mother, and I still get to see my children grow up,” she said.

Lindsey Duncan, who headed the Genesis Today health and wellness company and promoted green coffee bean weight loss supplements on such television shows as “Dr. Oz” and “The View,” has two college-age daughters from his marriage to Cheryl Duncan.

The ex-wife, also known as Cheryl Wheeler and Cheryl Dixon, was a spokesperson for health and fitness products and a movie stunt woman, working on more than 70 films, according to her IMDb, Internet Movie Databased, profile.

Sheriff Fischer said on Thursday that deputies found a pair of small cameras mounted on a stump across the road from the Duncans’ home that were supplying an image feed to a cell phone found in the ex-wife’s car. In addition, he said the car had counterfeit Ohio temporary tags.The ex-wife and her husband most recently were living in North Carolina, the sheriff said.

Officials anticipate that the investigation into the case will continue for at least three weeks. Final autopsy reports are expect to take six weeks, according to Greene County Coroner Kevin Sharrett.

Greene County authorities say that the investigation into the double fatal shooting outside a home on Grinnell Road, just south of Yellow Springs, on Wednesday, Feb. 12, could take weeks to complete.

Sheriff Gene Fischer last week likened the altercation in the driveway of 3443 Grinnell Road, the home of Lindsey and Molly Duncan,  to a “shootout.”

Dead at the scene were Lindsey Duncan’s ex-wife, Cheryl Sanders, 59, and her current husband, Robert Reed Sanders, 56.

Greene County Coroner Kevin Sharrett said last week that preliminary autopsies showed the pair died of multiple gunshot wounds.

At a press conference Thursday, Sheriff Fischer described the incident as a “domestic situation” that may have had something to do with money, though the circumstances that led to the Feb. 12 confrontation were still being determined, he said.

A 911 call at about 11:07 a.m., Feb. 12, from an agitated-sounding woman, later identified as Molly Duncan, reported that someone was shooting at her husband.

Less than a minute into the call, she screams, “Oh, my god,” and then can be heard saying, “It’s his ex-wife,” as gun shots are heard in the background. After another approximately 30 seconds, a man identifying himself as Robert Lindsey Duncan got on the call and reported that he had shot a man and a woman who had come at him and his wife with guns.

When asked if they knew who the people were, Molly said the woman was Duncan’s ex-wife. They said they didn’t know who the man was.

“They’ve been trying to kill us for years now,” Molly told the 911 operator.

The call lasted a little over eight minutes, during which time Lindsey Duncan can be heard telling a distraught Molly that “you’re safe now.” The call ended when the first responders, Cedarville police officers, arrived.

A sheriff deputy’s body camera and cruiser video showed deputies arriving at the scene, across from the former Camp Greene, at about 11:18 a.m. An ambulance arrived about the same time.

Four other 911 calls came in from neighbors and passersby while the Duncans remained on the line with the 911 operator.

A neighbor on nearby Glen Road called at 11:08 a.m. to report hearing “people yelling” and “multiple shots.”

At 11:09 a.m., a neighbor on Grinnell reported “I just heard a bunch of gunshots … [and} “a bunch of screaming.”

A local woman called at 11:10 a.m. to describe driving by and seeing “a man shooting at a woman right across from the opening of Camp [Greene]. … I saw a woman jump out of her car. A guy told her to stop and shot her … three or four times.”

Another motorist who drove by the scene called at 11:15 a.m. to report, “I’m on Grinnell Road and I just passed two cars and two people lying on the ground and a man with a gun.”

Initial description of events

Sheriff Fischer last week said the altercation appeared to have been an “ambush” planned by the ex-wife and her husband.

“The male homeowner did fire shots in defense, it appears,” Fischer said, speaking to the reporters about 90 minutes  after the shooting Wednesday.

He said investigators’ preliminary understanding of the sequence of events, based on their initial observations of the scene and the Duncans’ statements to deputies, begins when the Duncans pull into the driveway of their gated home after being out Wednesday morning.

A man, later identified as Robert Reed Sanders, reportedly approached the car on foot, carrying a gun. Fischer said Lindsey Duncan, who was in the passenger side of his car, got out of the vehicle with his own gun, exchanged words and then gunfire with Sanders. Fischer added that Duncan has a conceal carry license.

Lindsey Duncan’s ex-wife, Cheryl Sanders, then pulled up in a car, got out yelling and carrying a gun, and also exchanged gun fire, Fischer said.

Reed Sanders apparently crossed the road at some point during the altercation, according to authorities. Redacted cruiser video of the scene appears briefly to show a figure lying on the ground by the entrance to Camp Greene. Cheryl Sanders’ body was found lying near the driver’s side of the Duncan’s vehicle, according to reports.

Neither Lindsey nor Molly Duncan were injured. The pair are seen in the heavily redacted video hugging, with Lindsey appearing to comfort Molly, while standing near a dark SUV parked by their driveway. A white SUV is seen pulled into the driveway, outside the gated entry.

On Thursday, Fischer said deputies found a pair of small cameras set up on a stump across from the Duncans’ home, as well as a cell phone in ex-wife Cheryl Sanders’ car that appeared to be monitoring images from the cameras. In addition, the car the ex-wife was driving, which authorities say belonged to the Sanders, had counterfeit Ohio temporary tags. Also, Robert Sanders, who went by Reed, was carrying multiple forms of identification, Fischer said.

He also said that Lindsey Duncan had contacted the sheriff’s office about five years ago to report that he believed his ex-wife was trying to hire someone to kill him.

Duncans address press

On Friday, the Duncans invited members of the press to the meeting room of the Yellow Springs Library, where they appeared with Springfield-based attorney Gregory Lind and a handful of unidentified supporters to give brief statements about the shooting.

Lindsey Duncan opened his remarks by thanking the sheriff’s office for its sensitivity in handling the case, describing deputies as using “kid gloves” in their interactions with him and his wife.

At the conclusion of the gathering, which lasted less than eight minutes, he added that the sheriff’s description of the incident as an ambush is accurate.

“Sheriff Fischer used the exact right word,” Duncan said.

“An ambush is exactly what it was,” Molly Duncan said. “We were caught off guard. They said nothing and then they started shooting at us,” she said of the Sanders.

Lindsey Duncan told reporters that he and Molly had been in downtown Yellow Springs getting coffee and breakfast Wednesday morning before returning home, when “all of a sudden, hell began.”

He said that the man who approached their car wore a “camo” ski mask and held his gun “about 10 inches from [Molly’s] head.”

Duncan described his own reaction as “pure instinct.”

“Whatever happened wasn’t me, it was instinct,” he said.

A tearful Molly Duncan said she was grateful to be alive.

“I’m a mother, and I still get to see my children grow up,” she said.

Backgrounds

Lindsey Duncan, 57, who has been called a “celebrity nutritionist,” is the former head of Genesis Today, a multi-level marketing health and wellness company whose products included green coffee bean extract weight-loss supplements and other nutritional supplements, which he promoted on such national television shows as “Dr. Oz” and “The View.”

In 2015, he settled a suit with the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, where he agreed to pay $9 million after being accused of “deceptively” touting “the supposed weight-loss benefits of green coffee bean extract through a campaign” that included television appearances, according to a Jan. 26, 2015, FTC statement.

He reportedly left Genesis Today soon after the settlement, and his current corporate affiliations are unclear.

He has two college-age daughters from his marriage to Cheryl Sanders.

Duncan’s ex-wife, also known as Cheryl Wheeler, Cheryl Dixon and Cheryl Duncan, was a spokesperson for health and fitness products — at one time promoting Lindsey Duncan’s products — and a movie stunt woman, working on more than 70 films, according to her IMDb, or Internet Movie Database, profile.

Cheryl Sanders’ neighbors, colleagues and friends have expressed shock and incredulity on social media that she died under the circumstances described by authorities. Reed Sanders, who reportedly married Cheryl in 2015, is similarly remembered. The pair appear together in online videos promoting health and wellness products.

Sheriff Fisher said last week that Reed Sanders had a criminal record, but declined to elaborate.

Records located online show that Lindsey Duncan sued his ex-wife in 2016 for defamation of character, accusing her of spreading false claims about his background and products.

Lindsey Duncan’s current wife, Molly, 37, grew up in Clark County. Her maiden name was Blair, and she has two minor-age boys from a previous marriage, which ended in a dissolution in 2013. Their names and the name of her ex-husband are being withheld by the News as  they appear to have no connection to last week’s shooting.

The Duncans’ Grinnell Road house was built on land purchased from the Oldham family in October 2014. The Greene County Auditor’s Office shows the current property owner as FATY LLC.

Ohio Secretary of State records list the LLC’s original agent, in August 2014, as Dean Ray Blair. The agent listing changed in April 2015 to Darla A. Northup, wth R. Lindsey Duncan signing as an authorized representative of  FATY LLC.

The house and property have been on the market since this past September with an asking price of just under $4 million.

Continuing investigation

Although authorities think they have an understanding of what happened Feb. 12, the investigation will continue for at least several weeks, according to Fischer and Greene County First Assistant Prosecutor Suzanne Schmidt, who also attended the Thursday press conference.

Coroner Sharrett said final results from the full autopsies could take up to six weeks as well.

The sheriff’s office and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, or BCI, which was called in immediately after the shooting, will be working to determine the number of shots fired and where they originated.

Investigators reported retrieving three guns and a number of shell casings at the scene. They declined to specify the gun types or the number of casings found. BCI also is looking into communication and contact history between the couples.

As part of their investigation, the sheriff’s office also requested warrants for the house and the two vehicles involved — the Sanders’ and the Duncans’. Fischer said there may be security footage from the house that captured images of the shooting. A security camera mounted on the property fence, however, was not turned on, he said.

First Assistant Prosecutor Schmidt said that the prosecutor’s office would wait until the investigation was complete before determining whether there would be any charges filed.

She noted that Ohio’s stand-your-ground law, which allows for deadly force in self-defense in one’s home or car, could play a roll.

The Sheriff Department’s incident report of the shooting lists the altercation as “justifiable homicide,” but Schmidt cautioned against interpreting that description as definitive.

“That’s a legal term,” she said, and it does not discount the possibility of charges being filed later.

On Monday, March 22, the YS Police Department sent out an alert via Hyperreach, reminding all villagers to lock their cars after a string of cars were rifled through on Sunday night.

“Nothing was stolen, but we had six cars that were opened and looked through last night,” said Chief Brian Carlson via phone. “We’re reminding people to lock their cars, lock the doors to homes and keep their garage doors down.”

To stay up-to-date on village matters, tune in to the Village’s Monday, Wednesday and Friday “Village Town Hall” meetings, which are streamed live on YouTube. Click here to be taken to the page for tonight’s meeting, which will begin at 7 p.m. All live meetings are archived on the YouTube page to be watched later.

According to the Yellow Springs Police Chief Brian Carlson, in the early afternoon on Tuesday, April 21, the YSPD  received a call that there was an unresponsive person in the Glen Helen Nature Preserve.

Local police responded to the scene, located in the North Glen, and found that the person had died. There was no indication of suspicious activity or foul play, according to Carlson.

The Miami Township Fire-Rescue squad and the Greene County Coroner also responded to the scene. The coroner will be conducting an autopsy, Carlson confirmed.

The Yellow Springs News will report more information as details are available.

According to the Yellow Springs Police Department, at around 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 24, YSPD  officer Doug Andrus responded to a call about an unresponsive male at the cascades in the Glen Helen Nature Preserve.

There Officer Andrus found an 18-year-old man trapped under a rock plateau below the waterfall at Birch Creek. He attempted CPR, as did medics from Miami Township Fire-Rescue, who arrived soon after. The man was pronounced dead at 2:48 p.m.

According to the YSPD, the death was likely an accidental drowning, and there were no signs of foul play. The man’s identity has not been released, but according to the YSPD, he was not a resident of the village. According to police, a friend called the police after the man became trapped under the water while the group was swimming in the Glen, which has been closed to the public since March 26.

Miami Township Fire-Rescue posted an account of the incident on their Facebook page:

“MTFR responded with YSPD this afternoon to a report of a drowning at the Cascades in Glen Helen. First arriving YSPD Officer located the patient in the water under a log, jumped in, pulled him to shore and started CPR. Fire personnel arrived on scene and worked with PD and bystanders to bring the patient up a steep incline to the trail, where ALS resuscitation efforts were started. After a lengthy attempt, the 18-year old male patient was pronounced deceased at the scene. C80, M82, R81, YSPD, Glen Helen Ranger and the coroners office responded. MTFR and YSPD remind everyone that Glen Helen is currently closed to the public for the foreseeable future.”

A photo showing MTFR responding to the scene of a drowning in the Glen on Sunday, May 24 (Photo by MTFR)

This week, Yellow Springs Police Chief Brian Carlson and Yellow Springs Schools Superintendent Terri Holden released statements addressing the recent death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis, and the ongoing issues of police brutality against people of color in the country. They discussed the impact of the week’s events on their respective institutions and their efforts to be actively “anti-racist.”

Carlson wrote, “the murder of George Floyd is a blatant demonstration of abuse of power and the result of systemic racism within the United States.” He adds: 

The continued practice of targeting is due to deeply ingrained problems through poor law enforcement practices. Frankly, we, law enforcement officers, have to undo the toxicity present within the Law enforcement and judicial system. It is unacceptable to be complacent in any act of oppression; thus making it quintessential and our civic duty to undo the evident inequities and oppression to move towards a world in which all are safe.

Carlson said the the recent national incidents may lead to additional training for local officers on de-escalation tactics, nonviolent methods of restraint and “competency in race relations and knowledge of disparities that others face, especially those outside of our own.” “Instances of improper and discriminatory policing and practices that are created by implicit biases and prejudice will never be tolerated in Yellow Springs,” Carlson adds.

In her statement, Holden addresses the idea that “educators are not neutral:”

Educators are often told not to talk about politics or highly controversial public events. Some argue that we teach all children and our own personal beliefs should not get in the way. But teaching is a personal act. Education is not neutral. How do we teach our children if we cannot talk to them openly and honestly about issues and problems they see with their own eyes? We cannot be neutral about the death of another person of color at the hands of law enforcement. We cannot be neutral about the injustices that we see, about the injustices in a system of which we are a part, about the injustices our very own fearless thinkers of color face every day. Honoring the humanity in all of us is our responsibility. Teaching children to be better humans, through word and action, is our responsibility. The teachers, staff, and administrators take very seriously the responsibility to teach the children of Yellow Springs to be future ‘upstanders,’ activists, and empowered, engaged citizens.

Holden says that it is the responsibility of the local school district to “look inward, examine, and then dismantle any practices that reinforce racist attitudes and beliefs, however unintended and unconscious they may be.” This summer, local teachers will participate in a book study to explore inherent biases, followed by a community-wide book study.

Read the full statements at the links below.

Chief Brian Carlson Statement on the Death of George Floyd & Policing in the Village of Yellow Springs, June 1, 2020

Statement from Superintendent Terri Holden, June 4, 2020

“Black Lives Matter.” “No justice, no peace.” “Defund the police.”

Last Saturday, protesters gathered along Xenia Avenue for the third straight week with signs calling attention to police brutality, the targeting of people of color by police and the need to work against racism.

Amid national calls for policing reform following the most recent wave of killings of Black people by police officers, villagers are once again raising their voices for change in the Yellow Springs Police Department.

On Friday, June 12, some spoke at an emergency virtual Council meeting called, in part, to discuss ways to address racism in the village. The discussion largely centered around police reform, in addition to ways villagers can engage in anti-racist work.

“It’s clear there is a whole paradigm shift that has to happen in policing,” local counselor Louise Smith, a member of The 365 Project, said at the meeting.

“[Policing] has to be focusing more on services and serving the community, rather than enforcing against some threat,” she added.

Proposed changes range from minor reforms to sweeping overhauls. On one end of the spectrum, some urge increasing the local social worker position in the department from a part-time to full-time position. On the other end are calls to defund the police, at least partially.

Matthew Carson, for instance, suggested at the meeting that the Village prioritize social services rather than policing, which currently makes up about half the local general fund budget.

“We should really be shifting resources away from policing and towards public health,” he said.

Other proposed reforms look at ways to bring citizens into the work of hiring and evaluating officers, reviewing citizens’ complaints against the police and policymaking.

Yet another group of reforms is focused on improving relations between officers and citizens through in-person dialogues. There is also talk of helping officers better understand systemic racism, bias and antiracism through local book groups, discussions and trainings.

“We have to continue to strengthen our relationship with our police department,” said Angela Allen, who grew up in the village and went on to earn a degree in criminal justice. She is now working with The 365 Project.

“The police are the community and the community are the police,” she added at the virtual meeting. “The only difference is a badge and a paycheck.”

This week and next, the News will look at past efforts to improve local policing in recent years, along with what is now being proposed. This article focuses on six years of reform at the YSPD.

Earlier reforms, 2013-2016

The latest calls for police reform in the village came after several years of collaborative work between citizens and Village government to create a less aggressive, more progressive department here.

Efforts began in earnest after a resident was shot and killed by police in 2013 following a standoff with area SWAT teams. The police killing of a Black man at a Beavercreek Walmart, and other high-profile police shootings of Black men in the summer of 2014, added urgency to local reform work.

Following several town halls organized by the Human Relations Commission, in 2015, Council voted to withdraw the YSPD from the county’s SWAT team and its drug task force. Commission members also successfully lobbied for new training for officers in de-escalation and dealing with those with a mental illness, training which continues to this day.

In 2016, after more national attention on recent police killings of Black people, two parallel police reform efforts began here. The Justice System Task Force of Council was organized with a two-year charge to review local policing policies. And The 365 Project, a local nonprofit that engages the community on issues of racism and diversity, organized a subcommittee to draw new guidelines for the department.

Gavin Devore Leonard, a member of The 365 Project subcommittee, said this week while the task force was looking at specific policy changes, their group wanted to “take a step back.”

“We wanted to look at not what someone is allowed or not allowed to do, but instead, how do we decide who the police officers are and how they should act,” he said.

The resulting “Guidelines for Village Policing” describe four principles: safety-centered, resolution-oriented, locally minded and demonstrably inclusive. The guidelines were officially incorporated two years later and included bold language about racism.

“The Village of Yellow Springs aims to be not simply tolerant, but proactively inclusive and antiracist,” reads a section of the guidelines. It adds that the Village and police, “commit to identifying, challenging and changing the values, structures and behaviors that perpetuate systemic racism.”

Devore Leonard said the inclusion of the term “anti-racist” was important to him, but that he isn’t sure the Village is actively dismantling systems of oppression.

Louise Smith, who crafted the guidelines along with Devore Leonard and Janet Mueller, said anti-racism work is a “tall order.” Officers, like all citizens, she believes, need to commit to the practice of recognizing their biases, as racism is deeply ingrained.

“Racism is a mental illness, and we are all in recovery from it,” she said at the virtual meeting.

According to Smith, the guidelines were crafted with the understanding that they would be used in the hiring and evaluation of officers, tasks undertaken in collaboration with local citizens. That has not yet happened. But at least there are strong principles in place to begin that process, which would improve local police accountability.

“These are the stakes in the ground,” she said.

Justice System Task Force, 2016–18

A policing incident on New Year’s Eve 2016–2017 sparked additional reforms in the community. After local police dispersed the crowd at the annual celebration downtown a few minutes after midnight, nearly 250 villagers showed up at a community meeting to speak out against what they perceived as an overly aggressive and hostile response.

Pat Dewees, who chaired the Justice System Task Force, said that incident was a major “wake-up call” for the community.

“That was a peaceful community tradition that people felt attached to, and to have it disrupted and become violent with Taser use on the crowd, people were like, ‘What’s going on here?’” Dewees reflected.

The Justice System Task Force then picked up steam, proposing a series of reforms that Council went on to pass. Among them were new regulations limiting local officers’ use of Tasers and surveillance technology on citizens. Regarding Tasers, the new policy stated the weapons should be used “only to protect life or prevent serious injury,” and not for compliance, as had sometimes been the case previously.

As of a 2017 News update on its progress, the Justice System Task Force included Dewees, local attorney Ellis Jacobs, Kate Hamilton and Steve McQueen of the Human Relations Commission, Pastor William Randolph, John Hempfling, Cyndi Pauwels, Ayanna Madison and Mia Stewart. Alternates were David Turner and Al Schlueter and Council liaison was Judith Hempfling, with Marianne MacQueen the alternate.

Also after the New Year’s Eve incident, former police chief Dave Hale stepped down and Brian Carlson, then an officer, became the interim chief. That summer, Carlson was named chief after an internal search. At the time, Council members said he was selected because of his skills of community engagement.

The task force also proposed a part-time social worker at the department. Florence Randolph was hired in the role as the police department’s “community outreach specialist” in 2018. The task force crafted a policy to increase the number of cases heard at the local Mayor’s Court, to which officers had been citing fewer cases in recent years. And following a review of police data, it released a report showing that Black residents were receiving more citations than whites.

Reviewing the efforts of the JSTF, Dewees believes significant change was made, from “beefing up Mayor’s Court,” to hiring a social worker, to new policies on the use of force.

“Those are huge reforms,” she said.

The task force disbanded after two years, with the understanding that Council would create a standing commission in its place. Later, Council pivoted to setting up a less formal Village manager’s advisory committee.

But that group never came to fruition after several changes in Council leadership, according to Council member Lisa Kreeger this week. In addition, only three citizens responded to a call last year to participate in the committee. A separate proposal for a citizen review board, which would handle citizen complaints against officers, has not moved forward either.

The work of the task force did make an impact, Dewees believes.

“I don’t think everything is fixed in Yellow Springs, but we have made a lot of changes in a 10-year period, and we should feel very positive about where we’re at,” she said.

Recent efforts, 2019

Recent efforts for police reform have included new training, a community meeting and an assessment of the YSPD.

Toward the end of 2018, Council member Kevin Stokes championed implicit bias training for all 50 employees of the Village, including its police officers and dispatchers, with three half-day trainings over a six-month period. The idea was originally proposed by the task force.

While some participants shared in an anonymous survey that they were grateful for the training, which they called “eye-opening ” and “engaging,” others were critical. One comment singled out “victims wanting to be victims or ‘victims’ seeking oppression,” and another wrote, “‘Black Lives Matter?’ — No, all lives matter!”

In early 2019, Carlson started scenario-based training at the department, which he said was aimed at helping local officers with better “decision-making in the moment,” with an eye toward de-escalating situations.

Also last year, after a controversial disciplinary process involving a local officer, the second in as many years, Council paid a consultant $36,000 to assess the local department. As part of the assessment, a forum was held in May, at which about 50 villagers were invited to share positive experiences with police officers. A few YSPD officers participated in the discussions as well, sharing positive experiences they’d had with community members.

The recommendations in the 50-page report, released in October, were largely around improved transparency and management and the implementation of community policing strategies such as neighborhood “beats.” Council members criticized the report for taking too long and being too vague.

And following a domestic violence call that a police supervisor deemed was handled poorly, two officers participated in a pilot citizen review process in lieu of a formal disciplinary evaluation.

Next steps, 2020 and beyond

So what’s next for the Yellow Springs Police Department? Local officials still see much room for growth. And villagers are once again joining the conversation.

Council member Kreeger is eager to get a citizen review board and justice system advisory board organized, along with reviewing the police budget.

“I want our officers to serve and protect, not hunt and enforce,” she said.

Village Manager Josué Salmerón is focused on creating a culture at the police department that “represents the values of the community,” along with more policies and procedures that reinforce community policing.

“It is ongoing work,” he said.

Carlson wants to focus on accountability for officers who are overly aggressive, and to encourage officers to step in if a fellow officer is misbehaving.

In response to the recent attention on policing in the U.S., Carlson said that while it is unfortunate every department is pulled into the discussion, “there does need to be reform.”

“Racism is alive and thriving in this country, and even though we’re in the spotlight, it goes beyond police,” he added.

Smith agrees that anti-racism work is “bigger than the police department,” but that the village should also commit to making changes within the YSPD.

“I think it’s time to recommit to citizen oversight and a collaborative approach to keep community policing in this town,” she said.

Next week’s article will explore the latest proposals for reform at the YSPD.

Read a more comprehensive piece from this week’s paper: Prosecutor determined Grinnell attacked was planned

No charges will be filed in the double fatal shooting that occurred Feb. 12 outside a home on Grinnell Road, just south of Yellow Springs, the Greene County prosecutor has announced.

Greene County Grand Jurors determined last week that Robert “Lindsey” Duncan, of 3443 Grinnell Road, acted in self defense in the shooting deaths of Duncan’s ex-wife, Cheryl Sanders, 59, and her husband, Robert “Reed” Sanders, 56.

The Sanderses, who most recently lived in North Carolina, died in what authorities in February called “a shootout” with Duncan, after he and his wife, Molly, pulled into their driveway at about 11 a.m., having returned home from breakfast in town.

Molly Duncan, who was driving the Duncans’ car that morning, called 911 while the shooting occurred. The couple told investigators that when they stopped outside their closed driveway gate, a masked man approached their vehicle with a gun and threatened them. According to the Duncans’ account, Lindsey Duncan, who was in the passenger’s seat, subsequently got out of the car with a weapon — for which authorities confirm he has a conceal carry permit. The two men exchanged words and then gun fire. The Duncans reported that Lindsey’s ex-wife then pulled up in a car, got out and also threatened them with a gun before being shot by Duncan.

The Greene County coroner said in February that the apparent cause of death for Cheryl and Reed Sanders was multiple gunshot wounds. Investigators reported finding three weapons at the scene and multiple shell casings.

A nearly four-month investigation — slowed considerably by the COVID-19 pandemic — ended last week with the presentation of the case to the grand jury.

A press release from Greene County Prosecutor Stephen K. Haller said that the jurors’ determination of self-defense was based on evidence indicating that the Sanderses had planned the confrontation, which the prosecutor called an “assault.”

“Both assailants were armed and determined to do harm to Mr. and Mrs. Duncan,” according to Haller.

Greene County Sheriff Gene Fischer told reporters in February that advance planning was suggested by the fact that the Sanderses were driving a car with counterfeit temporary Ohio plates and Reed Sanders was carrying multiple forms of identification. Sheriff’s deputies also found two small cameras mounted on a post across from the Grinnell Road home with a live stream of the property going to a cell phone found in the Sanderses’ car.

According to the prosecutor’s office, the Sanderses “drove to Ohio [from their home in North Carolina] with the intent to kill Robert Lindsey and Molly Duncan.”

“Greed and hatred” are believed to have been the motivation for their actions, according to the press release from Haller. Given the grand jury’s findings, “my office considers this case closed,” Haller wrote to conclude his release.

Investigators in the case included the Greene County Sheriff’s Office, the state’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Cedarville Police Department, the prosecutor’s office and authorities in North Carolina and Texas, where the Sanderses and Duncans had previous ties.

Lindsey Duncan is the former head of Genesis Today, a multi-level marketing health and wellness company founded in Texas.

Ex-wife Cheryl Sanders, who once worked with Duncan in Genesis Today, and continued in partnership with Reed Sanders in promoting various health and fitness products, was also a movie stunt woman who appeared in more than 70 films. The shooting generated national media attention as well as shock among the Sanderses’ friends and colleagues.

For follow-up coverage on the Grinnel shooting story, and to read about the the Greene County Grand Jury’s recent conclusion concerning the matter, go here.

The Greene County Grand Jury’s recent conclusion concerning the double fatal shooting Feb 12 outside a home on Grinnell Road — which the county sheriff described at the time as a “shootout” — confirmed the initial impression of law enforcement at the scene that gray winter morning: self-defense.

Evidence previously not released publicly was among materials that led investigators to believe the deceased, Cheryl Sanders, 59, and her husband, Robert “Reed” Sanders, 56, had driven to Ohio from their home in North Carolina with the intention of killing Cheryl Sanders’ ex-husband, Robert “Lindsey” Duncan, and Duncan’s wife, Molly, at the Duncans’ Grinnell Road home.

“They had a checklist,” Greene County Prosecutor Stephen K. Haller said in a phone interview last week.

The prosecutor’s case file, provided by his office through a public records request, includes a hand-written note — which Haller said investigators confirmed as belonging to the Sanderses — found in the couple’s vehicle and detailing their intentions.

A piece of lined notebook paper bears the handwritten heading, in all uppercase letters, “Be prepared prior to leaving for Y.S.”

Under that, also in all uppercase letters is written:

—Objective: Cause pain for Lindsey
Primary: Kill him
Secondary: Burn house down
Third: Kill him/her

A couple lines down, in a mix of upper and lower case letters, is written:

—A: Have alibi
—B: Cheryl is out of danger / ability to drive back to Asheville

A numbered, nine-point to-do list follows and includes such details as “Have camera operational,” “Call AA prior to departure to verify Lindsey location,” “Purchase airplane fuel,” “Testosterone injection,” Purchase car/truck prior to leaving for Y.S.,” “Phones are charged from Verizon.”

The confrontation

Multiple 911 calls, including a distressed call from Molly Duncan, reported the shooting shortly after 11 a.m. Feb. 12. The other calls came from neighbors who heard the shots or drivers on the road who passed the scene while it unfolded and afterward.

Cedarville Police units were first to arrive, followed by Miami Township Fire-Rescue medics and Greene County Sheriff’s deputies. Cheryl Sanders was lying in the Duncans’ driveway, and Reed Sanders was on the ground across the road, by the entrance to the former Camp Greene. Medics were unable to resuscitate the pair, and the coroner was called.

While the exact details of what transpired outside the Duncans’ home changed slightly with the documentation of different retellings, the following scenario has emerged based on the Duncans’ statements, evidence from the scene and investigators’ findings.

The pair pulled into their gated driveway at 3443 Grinnell Road shortly after 11 a.m., having gone for coffee and breakfast in downtown Yellow Springs. Investigators later confirmed the couple’s activities with the relevant downtown proprietors. Molly Duncan was driving and Lindsey was in the passenger’s seat. Lindsey said he got out of the vehicle to check for mail in their mailbox, and it is unclear whether he was back inside the vehicle, getting back in, or still outside, when a man wearing a camouflage mask approached Molly’s side of the car with a gun.

According to the transcript of his Feb. 12 interview with sheriff’s deputies, Lindsey said he owns a gun, but had left it in the house earlier, and so he asked Molly if her gun was in the car. Both Duncans have Ohio conceal carry permits, which they told investigators they had obtained out of fear that Cheryl Sanders wanted to do them harm. They obtained the permits when they moved about four years ago to the area, where Molly has family nearby.

With Molly’s gun in hand, Lindsey said he exchanged fire with the man later identified as Reed Sanders. Lindsey said his ex-wife then pulled up in a vehicle, got out and also threatened them with a gun before being shot by Duncan.

The Greene County coroner said in February that the apparent cause of death for the Sanderses was multiple gunshot wounds. Investigators reported finding three weapons at the scene and multiple shell casings. The Duncans were not physically hurt in the altercation.

The investigation

The nearly four-month investigation — slowed considerably by the COVID-19 pandemic — ended with the presentation of the case to the grand jury on June 17.

Just a day after the shooting, however, Greene County Sheriff Gene Fischer had already told reporters that advance planning was suggested by the fact that the Sanderses were driving a car with counterfeit temporary Ohio plates, and Reed Sanders was carrying multiple forms of identification. Sheriff’s deputies also found two small cameras mounted on a post across from the Grinnell Road house with a live stream of the property going to a cell phone found in the Sanderses’ car.

In the course of the inquiry, investigators traveled to North Carolina, where the couple most recently lived, and to Texas, where both couples had longterm ties.

Lindsey Duncan is originally from Austin, and it was there that he began a career marketing health and nutritional supplements. The former head of Genesis Pure and then Genesis Today, he promoted his company’s products on such national television programs as “Dr. Oz” and “The View.” He left the company after settling a 2015 suit with the Federal Trade Commission in which he agreed to pay $9 million after being accused of “deceptively” touting “the supposed weight-loss benefits of green coffee bean extract.”

His ex-wife was at one time affiliated with the company as well, and she later continued in partnership with Reed Sanders in promoting various health and fitness products. She also was a former movie stunt woman with credits in more than 70 films.

Documented acrimony between Cheryl Sanders and Lindsey Duncan includes a suit filed by Duncan in 2016 seeking between $200,000 and $1 million from Cheryl and Reed Sanders and accusing Cheryl of breach of contract.

Investigators also confirmed Lindsey Duncan’s claim that his ex-wife made inquiries about hiring a hit man to kill him about five years ago.

Also in contention, according to Greene County Prosecutor Haller, were $400,000 trust funds for each of the former spouses’ two college-age daughters. Lindsey Duncan has sole legal control of the funds, Haller said.

“If he was gone, then Cheryl would be able to control those trusts,” the prosecutor said.

There was also at one time a life insurance policy from the period they worked together in Genesis Today that named Cheryl as a beneficiary. The prosecutor said investigators found that it was no longer in effect, but Lindsey, and possibly Cheryl, had thought it was still binding.

All these reasons led Prosecutor Haller to conclude that Cheryl and Reed Sanders were motivated by “greed and hatred” in seeking to kill the Duncans.

Going to the Grand Jury

Although investigators found evidence to support justifiable homicide, Haller said he chose to take the case to the grand jury in large part because of the gravity of the situation.

“Two people were killed,” he said. “We take that very seriously. It deserved a review by the grand jury.”

The autopsy found that Reed Sanders was shot five times, with one bullet in his back and another in his buttocks; and Cheryl Sanders was shot four times.

In a statement to the  press two days after the shooting, Lindsey Duncan said he’d acted “on pure instinct.”

Haller said that going to the grand jury gave the Duncans “the opportunity to tell their story [to the jurors], and it gave the grand jury the opportunity to ask them questions.”

While the prosecutor’s office had a pretty solid sense that Lindsey Duncan had acted in self-defense, Haller said he was aware of some sentiments in the public suggesting that the Duncans’ stories didn’t add up, that the shooting was a set-up of some kind.

Letting the grand jury make the decision about culpability helps “put this to rest once and for all,” he added.

“As I see it, this is a traditional, classic self-defense case.”

Ohio’s self-defense legislation, passed in 2008, gives individuals the right to lethal action in self defense when confronted at their home or in their car. The same legislation also shifted the burden of proof from a defendant to the prosecution, Haller noted.

“I have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it’s not self-defense,” he said.

As far as the prosecutor is concerned, “this case is closed.”

Body cameras worn by every Ohio police officer. Psychological evaluations of those who hope to become an officer. More training in implicit bias and de-escalation. Requiring officers to report on another officer’s misconduct.

Those are a few proposed law enforcement reforms Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced at a press briefing last week in response to national outrage after high-profile killings of Black people by police in recent weeks.

Not on the list: the removal of qualified immunity for police officers, who are shielded from being held personally liable for constitutional violations, or defunding police departments, which DeWine called “absurd” in response to a question.

Instead, DeWine and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said some individuals should be kept from joining the ranks of the police, or removed quickly if they misbehave.

“There are some police officers who shouldn’t be police officers,” DeWine said, such as those who show obvious racial bias. Addressing the issue of racism, Attorney General Yost added, “this isn’t a law enforcement problem, this is a societal problem that has a law enforcement dimension.”

“Police officers are heroes,” he said. “Exceptions to that general rule have not been dealt with in our society and this is the hour for that to stop.”

Yellow Springs Police Chief Brian Carlson agrees that the problem with law enforcement is not systemic, but the fault of a small number of officers who need to be removed from departments. He’s hopeful that the proposed reforms will help the YSPD continue to improve, along with other efforts to create a different policing culture in Yellow Springs.

“You mold a department so that you don’t have individuals that behave like that,” he said of officers like those involved in recent police killings.

Yellow Springs, Carlson believes, is different from other communities struggling with citizen concerns over policing.

“We are not those cops. We’re not beating up people, we’re not killing people,” he said. “We are what other agencies want police to be.”

But accountability for police officers who behave badly has been difficult to achieve, even in Yellow Springs.

Pat Dewees, the chair of the former Justice System Task Force, said that accountability was a challenge for the group to address. For example, officers could rely on the defense that they simply “followed their training.” In addition, there is currently no independent body to which citizens can report misconduct by local police.

“One thing we weren’t able to complete is figuring out how citizens can make complaints about officers,” Dewees said.

And few incidents in recent years in which local officers were deemed to be overly aggressive ended in disciplinary action, even if the officer left the department.

“It’s much easier for an entity to agree to resignation as opposed to termination,” Carlson explained. Instead of long, protracted disciplinary investigation, “resignation can be instant,” he added.

As national and state officials prepare the latest round of reforms to policing, what specific changes are being eyed for Yellow Springs?

One initiative is already moving forward after Council resolved, at its June 15 meeting, to create a Justice System Advisory Committee, a citizen group that will work with the Village manager on policymaking and funding priorities for local police as well as “address systemic racism in a transparent and open forum.”

Citizen review, body cameras

Last week’s article looked at six years of reform at the YSPD. In recent years, Yellow Springs left the countrywide SWAT team and drug task force, passed new policies limiting the use of surveillance technology and Tasers, increased the use of the local Mayor’s Court, instituted new training for officers in implicit bias and de-escalation and hired a social worker.

But more still needs to be done, Council member Lisa Kreeger said in a recent interview. Specifically, she wants policies around local expectations to be “clear as glass,” and for citizens to have a way to share their concerns about specific officers or incidents.

“I want our officers to serve and protect, not hunt and enforce,” she said. “They are trained to be hunters and to look for evil-doers, and as a result bad things happen. But if someone’s tail light is out, they should just ignore it.”

Creating a citizen review board is a priority, Kreeger said. Dewees agrees that it would help to have an independent citizen group that looks at police behavior. Currently, complaints are taken by the YSPD itself and, in some cases, outside agencies are called in to review them.

“Particularly for people of color who perceive and report on experiences of being targeted, and for young people who say the same thing … there has to be some way that this gets addressed,” Dewees said.

Carlson said he is open to the idea, although there are many “minor complaints” that he fields from citizens who don’t want to pursue a formal complaint. In some cases, they involve how an officer made a citizen feel, even if that officer’s actions followed policy, which Carlson follows up by coaching the officer.

“I’m frequently having one-on-ones with staff to help them improve,” Carlson said.

Another step, which had been proposed by a 365 Project subcommittee, was for a citizen review board to hire and evaluate police officers using the Village guidelines for policing that the subcommittee drafted. Those guidelines describe officers who are “safety-centered, resolution-oriented, locally minded and demonstrably inclusive.”

“We really wanted these guidelines so that you had a way of holding accountable someone you hire, someone you fire and someone you terminate,” said Louise Smith, a subcommittee member.

Another step in the direction of accountability may be the use of body cameras, which are not currently worn by YSPD officers. Jen Boyer, who has helped organize anti-racism rallies in town the last three Saturdays, wants to see a policy passed requiring local police to wear them.

“If they could wear body cams, it would not only protect them while doing their job, it would protect us as citizens as well,” she said.

Carlson is in favor of body-worn cameras. Village Manager Josué Salmerón added at a recent town hall that “more audio, more video is better” but that there will be significant costs to purchase cameras and store footage. There are also privacy concerns when officers enter homes or interact with juveniles, he said.

Defund the police?

At a special virtual Council meeting on June 12, local resident Matthew Carson honed in on the local police budget as another area to address.

“We spend $1.5 million on our budget on policing, but only $10,000 for the Youth Center,” Carson said. “I think we really need to talk about what we’re prioritizing in terms of what we’re spending our money on.”

Carson suggested that the Village use more social workers and fewer officers, since many calls to local police are to address issues such as mental health crises or homelessness.

Activists and community groups around the country are calling for similar steps to “defund” police departments and shift some of their resources to social services such as healthcare, education and affordable housing, which advocates say would be more effective at contributing to a safe community than policing as it is currently practiced.

For Dewees, the idea of “defunding the police” is about “reducing the police budget and funding those services they perform which are outside of policing.”

“There are ways of approaching crises without the policing mentality,” she explained.

How much money could potentially be shifted? In 2020, Village Council budgeted $1.57 million for public safety, which accounts for close to 40% of the Village general fund.

The overwhelming majority of expenses, $1.35 million, or 86%, was for police personnel expenses, including wages, healthcare, overtime and pensions. Meanwhile, current staffing levels are based upon having two officers on duty at any given time, which Carlson said was his preference for both officer and community safety.

At present, there are 10 sworn officers in the YSPD and 21 total full- and part-time employees in the department, including its social worker. Locally, officer staffing is on par with national and regional averages. Using 2018 figures from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Yellow Springs, with 2.6 officers per 1,000 residents, has more officers per person than the national average, 2.4 per 1,000, but less than the average for a Midwestern town under 10,000 people, which is at 2.8 officers per 1,000 residents.

Looking at staffing levels and the increased demand for social services, Carlson earlier this year stated in a report his desire to move the YSPD’s lone social worker, Florence Randolph, from part-time to full-time. Randolph assists local police on calls involving crisis or mental health interventions, and follows up with residents in need by referring them to various agencies that can help provide food, housing, healthcare or other services.

“The work that Florence does is transformative for us,” Carlson said.

But Carlson is wary of having fewer officers on duty, or separating Randolph’s work from the police department, as officers are critical to “clearing the scene” to make it safe for Randolph to do her work, he said. And officers are still needed to respond to violent crimes in the village, or to arrest “serious felons on the lam.”

“Police officers are there to make a situation safe,” he said. “I don’t know what we would do otherwise.”

Police-community relations

One area in which there seems to be widespread agreement is that local police and citizens should spend more time getting to know each other and building trust.

Police consultant Bob Wasserman, contracted by the Village to complete an assessment of the YSPD last year, said what he heard most from villagers was that they wanted to know their officers, and for their officers to know them.

John Gudgel of The 365 Project reflected that, historically, YSPD officers lived in the village they served. Currently, two of the YSPD’s 10 sworn officers live in Yellow Springs, and four of its 21 employees do.

“Back in the day, we knew our officers because they lived in the community,” he said. “That’s difficult today.”

Gudgel has witnessed progress in recent YSPD efforts to visit Mills Lawn School, where he is a counselor. There, they field questions from young children about their profession and “personalize the relationship between officers and students.” He hopes that a similar program is instituted at the local high school.

“The biggest takeaway is the kids see the officers as people, and the officers see them as young people, not as adversaries or violators of the law,” Gudgel said of the elementary school program.

Angela Allen, a 2013 Yellow Springs High School graduate who earned a criminal justice degree and now lives in Dayton, is working with The 365 Project on ways to bring the police and community together for dialogue. Allen said she worries that recent protests against police brutality could “bring in tension” from other communities, while Yellow Springs has a “unique situation” when it comes to policing.

“I think it’s time to get out of the streets and have a sit down,” with officers, she said of protests, in which she has also participated.

“The cops are the community,” she added. “They may not live here but they are here just as much. It’s only us versus them because we don’t know them.”

To move forward, Allen believes that the police and the community should “hold each other accountable for the safety and the quality of policing.” That includes increased transparency during officer disciplines, so that the community sees how officers are held accountable.

But it also includes more accountability from villagers, who sometimes call the police on Black people for no reason. In that regard, Allen sees a difference between the community today and the village in which she grew up.

“Growing up, Yellow Springs was a safe place of genuine community and trust among one another. I feel we are starting to stray from that a bit,” she said. “That’s in large part because of the implicit biases, the racism and the prejudice throughout the community.”

Carlson said calls that could have a racial motivation continue to take place in Yellow Springs, and that he is working to address them.

“We are trying to train dispatchers to screen the calls,” Carlson said. “They can ask, ‘Is there something going on other than they’re wearing a hoodie?’”

And though many times callers want to remain anonymous, Carlson added, “We need to hold people accountable who want to call the police on someone.”

Carlson added that he has implemented several new initiatives to increase police presence locally. Before the pandemic, officers had been attending local social and school events, helping youth with their homework daily at the Youth Center, and increasing their foot patrols. After adding a new code for “community engagement” in the local dispatch software, such activities increased from 208 events in 2018 to 469 in 2019, he reported.

Looking ahead, Carlson is hopeful that the latest rounds of police reform at the state and national level will help the local department improve oversight and accountability. Still, Yellow Springs expects more than the minimum.

“We need to go way further,” he said.

Yellow Springs Police Chief Brian Carlson was cleared of wrongdoing by an outside investigator in June after a formal complaint was lodged against him by a village resident in May.

The complainant, Zo Van Eaton-Meister, contended that the police chief verbally accosted her during an incident that occurred downtown on May 22.

In a May 26 email to Village Manager Josué Salmerón lodging a formal complaint, Van Eaton-Meister wrote that Carlson impeded her ability to enter Tom’s Market and spoke to her in a tone that she found “blatantly condescending” and “insincere.”

“The smug interference with my ability to run a simple errand downtown was in the poorest of taste,” she wrote in the complaint. She added that she attempted to “disengage multiple times” but was “unable to escape.”

In response to the complaint, Salmerón requested an outside review from Greene County Sheriff Gene Fischer, who assigned Captain Brad Balonier to investigate.

On June 18, Balonier concluded in his final report to Salmerón that Van Eaton-Meister’s complaint was “unfounded” and that Carlson, who “simply said hello” to her, did not violate any YSPD policies.

Balonier added that although there was no probable cause for a criminal complaint against Carlson, he found probable cause that Van Eaton-Meister engaged in disorderly conduct and reckless operation during the incident, a conclusion he based upon a YSPD officer statement claiming that Van Eaton-Meister nearly struck Carlson with her car while yelling obscenities.

The Village will not be pursuing any discipline against Carlson, Salmerón confirmed last month. And no charges stemming from the incident were filed against Van Eaton-Meister.

However, Carlson sought and was granted a temporary restraining order against Van Eaton-Meister on May 28. Van Eaton-Meister is planning to contest the order at a hearing scheduled for August 31 at the Greene County Court of Common Pleas.

Van Eaton-Meister, who is the wife of longtime YSPD officer David Meister, previously lodged a formal complaint against Carlson in 2013, when Carlson was a police officer. In that case, the complaint was reviewed by the Greene County Prosecutor’s Office and dismissed by then-YSPD Chief Anthony Pettiford.

Officer Meister has been the subject of three highly visible public disciplinary investigations into his professional actions in recent years. During those cases, numerous citizens have spoken up in support of the popular officer, the only full-time officer who lives in Yellow Springs.

The News has chosen to release the name of the complainant because she is related to an officer and has made her grievances with the local police department public.

Carlson started as a part-time YSPD officer in 2010 and has been the Yellow Springs police chief since 2017. He was most recently renewed as police chief in June, entering into a three-year contract with the Village. According to a review of his personnel file, the Village has received no other formal citizen complaints against Carlson during his tenure, while he has been disciplined twice for inaccuracies in filling out accident reports.

Summary of the incident

According to Balonier’s summary of the incident, at 1:29 p.m. on Friday, May 22, Carlson was hanging signs about face masks on lamp posts downtown with YSPD Officer Doug Andrus when Van Eaton-Meister parked nearby with the intention of shopping at Tom’s Market.

According to Van Eaton-Meister’s email complaint, while walking from her car to Tom’s with a “toddler on her hip” she greeted Officer Andrus. Carlson then “instantly began taunting” her, she wrote.

“From the outset he was blatantly condescending in his tone so I requested for him not to address me altogether, “ Van Eaton-Meister wrote.

Although she told Carlson multiple times to stop speaking to her, he continued, Van Eaton-Meister reported.

“Repeating myself, I requested that he not address me in any way, shape or form. To no avail.”

According to Balonier’s report, Carlson said hello and addressed Van Eaton-Meister by name, and she “took personal offense to this greeting.”

“Chief Carlson simply said hello. This type of interaction would be expected in public servants, especially in a small village like Yellow Springs,” Balonier wrote.

According to a witness statement from the Village employee who was downtown, Carlson responded to alleged comments from Van Eaton-Meister that included “you’re the worst kind of creep,” and “you’re a f*****g freak,” by saying, “I’m sorry you feel that way,” and “I hope you have a nice day. Have a nice day, Ma’am.”

When Carlson and Andrus then continued down the street hanging flyers, Van Eaton-Meister retrieved her cell phone and began taking pictures “from a close proximity,” according to Balonier’s report. In her complaint, Van Eaton-Meister wrote she took photos of Carlson “for evidence.”

Seven minutes later, YSPD Officer Dennis Nipper had pulled up next to Carlson on Short Street and was speaking to Carlson when Van Eaton-Meister drove by and nearly struck Carlson with her vehicle while yelling expletives at him, according to Nipper’s account in an incident report. According to Van Eaton-Meister, Carlson was blocking the road.

During the incidents, Carlson instructed both officers to not take law enforcement action against Van Eaton-Meister, but to officially document the incidents, Balonier noted in his report.

In the end, Balonier concluded that although Van Eaton-Meister reported that she was “‘accosted’ and ‘her ability to enter the store was impeded,’” the evidence does not support her claim.

“In fact, Zo Van Eaton-Meister made a decision to stop and engage Chief Carlson,” Balonier wrote. “According to all eye witnesses, she was the aggressor.”

Balonier additionally found that Carlson’s actions were in line with the YSPD mission statement and core values, as he acted in a “demonstrably inclusive” manner toward Van Eaton-Meister.

“Regardless of the fact that she has personal and professional disdain towards him, Chief Carlson was mindful of his primary obligation to serve the community courteously,” Balonier wrote.

In reaching his conclusion that Carlson violated no policies, Balonier reviewed three witness statements written by villagers who were downtown when the incident occurred. He also reviewed the two incident reports filed by YSPD officers Andrus and Nipper and the YSPD policy manual, and interviewed Van Eaton-Meister, Carlson, Andrus and Nipper. No security camera footage from downtown businesses captured the incident and cruiser dash cam footage was not available as the cruiser was parked too far away, according to Balonier’s report.

Context for the investigation

Salmerón received Van Eaton-Meister’s formal complaint a few days after the incident, and based upon the advice of then-Village Solicitor Chris Conard, sought out a “third party investigator” to review it, he said in a recent interview. Salmerón contacted Greene County Sheriff Fischer, who assigned Balonier, a captain in the law enforcement division of the Greene County Sheriff’s Office. Balonier began his investigation on June 3.

Asked why a law enforcement agency was chosen for the outside review, Salmerón said the agency has the “investigative skill-set and expertise” needed to review such a case. The investigation was completed free of charge as a “professional courtesy,” Salmerón explained, as police departments routinely seek each other’s assistance to review internal complaints.

In response to a News question about why a citizen review committee, such as the pilot process used to investigate officer misconduct last fall, was not used to investigate this citizen complaint, Salmerón said that he chose a more formal, and outside, review due to the complexity of the complaint.

“The nature of the complaint was not a specific violation of a specific policy,” Salmerón said.

In addition, Salmerón decided upon an outside review due to the fact that Carlson had previously documented problematic encounters with Van Eaton-Meister. For instance, in an email to Village officials in January, Carlson wrote that he needed to take “proactive steps to protect” his family in the wake of two incidences in which Van Eaton-Meister came to his wife’s workplace and began “ranting” about his family.

Nearly a week after the downtown incident and a few days after Van Eaton-Meister’s complaint, Carlson petitioned a judge at the Greene County Court of Common Pleas for a civil protection order against Van Eaton-Meister, which was granted on a temporary basis on May 28. The order, which also  covers Carlson’s wife and teenage daughter, states that Van Eaton-Meister is permitted to call the local police department for help or to report a crime.

In Van Eaton-Meister’s 2013 complaint against Carlson, she argued that Carlson should have arrested and charged a man she claimed chased her on the bike path north of town with the intention of harming her. Although then-Acting Village Manager Kent Bristol found the complaint against Carlson’s actions had some merit, an outside review by Greene County first assistant prosecuting attorney Suzanne Schmidt found that Carlson, the officer who responded to Van Eaton-Meister’s 911 call, did not have probable cause to believe that a crime had been committed.