Ohio town pays $94,000 for $30 dispute

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CLEARCREEK TOWNSHIP, Ohio, June 11 (UPI) -- Officials in Clearcreek Township, Ohio, said they paid more than $94,000 in public funds to settle a $30 dispute.

The township paid $63,000 to former police Sgt. Steve Reynolds, who, along with Trustee Cathy Anspach, was under investigation for criminal and ethics charges, the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News reported Monday.

Another $31,000 went to two lawyers who worked on the case.

Anspach gave Reynolds $30 in November 2009 for what she thought would settle a dispute over damages from a fight between her son and a relative of city police Chief John Terrill, the Daily News reported.

The fight actually involved another officer's relative and Anspach mistakenly accused Terrill of pressuring her for money during an April 2011 conversation with township administrator Dennis Picket. The accusation triggered an investigation into ethics charges against Anspach and Reynolds, who was terminated for his involvement.

Investigators closed the case without filing charges and settled with Reynolds if he agreed not to try to get his job back, the newspaper reported.

"Evidence in this matter was insufficient to prove by the required legal standard a finding of either a criminal ethics violation and/or a separate criminal violation," prosecutor Andrew Berghausen said.