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Governor defends drug sting halt

Public safety chief made ‘judgment call’ to stop contraband interception, he says.

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By John Nolan, Staff Writer Updated 3:55 AM Saturday, May 1, 2010

TROY — Gov. Ted Strickland defended the decision of high-ranking state public safety officials to cancel a planned effort to intercept a contraband package for an inmate assigned to work at the governor’s home.

Strickland said he reached different conclusions than state Inspector General Thomas Charles, who concluded in a report released Thursday that “avoiding political embarrassment to the governor was a key factor.”

Cathy Collins-Taylor, Strickland’s appointee as Ohio’s director of public safety, canceled the State Highway Patrol’s planned Jan. 10 operation to intercept the package after consulting with the governor’s lawyer and chief of staff, Charles concluded. He wrote that when his staff questioned Collins-Taylor under oath about what had happened, “Collins-Taylor did not tell the truth about her decision to shut down the operation, nor was she truthful about the timing of her decision.”

Strickland, in Troy on Friday, April 30, for a ceremony to start construction of an expansion at a ConAgra Foods Inc. plant, said he supports Collins-Taylor as public safety director.

“I think she’s fully capable of carrying out those responsibilities,” Strickland said. “I believe the people who made the decisions acted in good faith, were in no way trying to do anything wrong or nefarious. I believe they did what they thought was right. It was a judgment call, obviously.”

Strickland, a Democrat, is running for re-election in November. A spokesman for Strickland’s Republican opponent, John Kasich, questioned Strickland’s position.

“Given that the inspector general determined that a Cabinet member lied under oath, how can Ted Strickland immediately say he continues to have confidence in her?” Kasich campaign spokesman Rob Nichols wrote in an e-mail response.

The inmates will no longer be allowed to leave the grounds of the governor’s residence unsupervised and will be searched for contraband before they are returned to prison after working at the residence, Strickland said Friday.

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