Sandusky police on Tuesday released a heavily redacted internal report detailing an alleged love triangle involving two officers and a wife.
Sandusky police Officer Todd Smith did, in fact, text a picture of his penis to Jennifer Ritterbach, the wife of Sandusky police Sgt. Steve Ritterbach, according to the report.
And Ritterbach also threatened Smith, the report said.
Smith originally told investigators he texted only a picture of his chest, according to earlier police reports.
Ritterbach and Smith have been on paid administrative leave since March 8, after administrators learned about the alleged scandal.
Investigators found no criminal actions occurred in the course of the conflict, but both men violated department policies.
City officials plan to make a decision soon on the fate of both men.
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Read the full 38 page report below.
Comments
What? An SPD Officer LIED? No Way!
Sounds like conduct unbecoming to me. Should've just shot the wife!
Why does Chief Lang have such low regard for the integrity of himself and his department that he keeps authorizing the release of this type of personal information? Internal investigations should be kept internal.
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I was wondering when this would pip back up in the news. To bad for Steve's wife, having to go around town being known as a loose woman. They both should be fired since they both acted like chidlren when they are suppost to be officers of the law and be leaders. My 2 cents, a bunch of new people are looking to be police let them have a chance these two blew their's.
Can the city get a " do over " ?
Throw the whole bunch out and start over with a new crew. The chief through patrolmen.
It's not funny anymore, just sad.
I swear you couldn't dream this stuff up ! Put them all on Jerry Springer and let them have the time of their lives !!!!!!
such a shame, all around. maybe we should let the sherriff's department look into things..oh yeah they are no better over there. no use in complaining, they wont do anything about it cause it is at the "discretion" of the department. i have family who are officers and this tarnishe them all..
Sit n Spin has it right that you couldn't dream this stuff up. Do they have ethics training? Sounds like they need to mingle with the general population a little more and not stay sequestered at the "lodge" WOW
i am speechless and shaking my head. some things can no longer be private or sacred. i agree with dgmutley that some things should be private. will they be releasing private medical records next for all to read? the sandusky police department is being torn apart one person at a time. i haven't read the 38 page report yet.
Neither Officer is gonna lose their job. They would have already been fired. The City knows they would lose both these cases in Arbritation, not that the city abides by what the arbitrator says, just more money thrown away by the idiots at City Hall. these Officer's have been off work, getting paid, for 6 weeks, a decision should have been made 6 weeks ago. There isn't enough cause to fire them, or they already would be gone.
I feel nothing but embarrassment for my city and the good police officers that have to endure this embarrassment as well. This is such a shame that our Police Department continues to be in the news. Both these officers need to be fired ASAP. No union should be protecting them over such conduct whether personal or not. To keep these two officers around will be a big liability for the city because at anytime the situation could become very explosive to the point that one or more people in the department might be injured at any given time. The city needs to protect its employees from any harm if these two officers should to try to duke it out while at work and kill other innocent people in the process. The situation is very serious for the city and the city has no choice but to fire them.
Like I said, IF the city had just cause, they would have been fired already.....Not gonna happen. They will both get suspended and have to sign a "last chance agreement".
Police are never off duty in my mind, So act like it and lead by example.
I can not belive just how crazy the chief of police must be.These police are a joke and they wonder as to why nobody has any respect for them.We send our kids to school and they read the paper and what do they see but a bunch of so called want to be officers.How do you put the uniform on ,every time i open the paper its another one in there and the worst part is they are using tax payers money for paid leave! I wish I could get paid to be a screw up. Seriously its a disgrace to the badge and uniform and any Real chief would have had them packing.Air your dirty porn so the children know what a real cop is not supposed to do on or off duty.Your dept. has no morals. Never in the last 40 yrs have you ever read so much about how dirty cops are as you have in the last 8 yrs.everytime you turn around there is another one whether it is a chief in perkins n by the way he should be on his way out ,but as he would have said he would have put you under the jail not in it,to pissing cop on their oqwn dash cams to peek a boo cops waiting to watch his old lady getting it on with his comrad,kool but wouldnt you slap the cuffs ona regular person and look at them like dirt for the same thing? Sure ya would, why cuz you have a badge! I cant believe the bunch we have in there with badges and guns and this one in the paper basically is waiting to shoot his peeper from the peepee picture he sent. NICE ! lETS SEE IF YOU IDIOTS CAN THINK OF WHAT WILL GO THROUGH THE MINDS OF THESE KIDS AS YOU GO AND LECTURE THEM ON HOW TO BEHAVE WHEN YOU YOURSELF HAVE NO CLUE OR CONTROL OF YOURSELF!
Here is the problem.
NO ONE HAS ANY RESPECT FOR THE SANDUSKY POLICE DEPARTMENT !
They can't do their job without some respect. You have to throw the whole bunch out and start over.
Is anyone in charge at Meigs Street?
does anyone know if Rittebach tossed his trashy wife to the curb? the officer should have tried to keep his cool and let the nasty sexter lose his job...did Smith send texts on duty then he should lose his job. Otherwise Ritterbach is a damn good looking guy and a hero (see other articles) he doesnt deserve this...
i BET kIM NEUSE had more balls then the weak chief they have now,well its the good ole boys club just like much of sandusky already is.Getting pulled over now is going to be a real joke because thats how they have created the dept. of police to be a joke! Someone said somethijng about loose wife ,well if you dont advertise how wll others know whats on sale,and not to mention her old man wanted to watch ,cute real classy!
i BET kIM NEUSE had more balls then the weak chief they have now,well its the good ole boys club just like much of sandusky already is.Getting pulled over now is going to be a real joke because thats how they have created the dept. of police to be a joke! Someone said somethijng about loose wife ,well if you dont advertise how wll others know whats on sale,and not to mention her old man wanted to watch ,cute real classy!
Where does the city commission stand? I can't imagine Ard or Lang handling this debaco.
I am sure we all have done something we aren't proud of. Imagine that being made public. They are police officers but they are human. And not all of the police officers can be lumped into the same category. This is unfortunate. I hope they have learned from their mistakes.
Editor070911,
So with your logic of all policemen can't be lumped into the same catagory, does that mean I pick and choose which policemen I show respect to? Thanks for the insight.
Donusthopguy-
That's not what it means. It means if one police officer makes poor choices it doesn't mean we can say the whole SPD is garbage.
Editor070911,
Again, lets review.
One police officer?
For cripes sakes you need to keep a scorecard of the misdeeds of the SPD over the last few years.
People were taught to respect and trust the whole institution of law enforcement. How can you do that anymore? The institution is fraught with individuals who have no respect for the law. They have lost our trust.
If you don't clean house we are always left with the question of which cops stayed, the good or the bad? So again no trust which equates to no respect by the general public.
Ms. Ard is AWOL. If anyone sees her let her know her police department is imploding.
We fired Nuesse WHY? Where is the commission? SOMEONE take CONTROL or we will bring Big Wadd back! Smitty has to be real PROUD !!
I can tell you why we fired Nuesse. Because she was attempting to take control of this department and no body liked how it was going down - so it became this big anti-nuesse campaign and the police was first in line to push her downfall.
I'm betting that if she was still here, this wouldn't be happening at all. One of the biggest issues at the SPD is that she isn't here to keep things working right. And no other Chief will be able to do it either without getting pushed out just as well. Ard needs to take control of things there - she is over the Chief I thought. In fact, I haven't seen or heard anything out of her since she took office - where is ARD?
Ha ha ha only in Sandusky!
To Jethro: Last chance agreement is a joke. If the city allows these two officers to continue to work with each other with guns strapped to them at work, it may be the last chance for one or more employees caught in the cross fire while the two officers go postal. If that happens, there will be lawsuits all over the place because the city failed to protect the rest of the employees knowing what they know about these officers and they failed to take procautions to protect against any postal situation.
Darkhorse: I know the" last chance agreement" is a joke. I'm just saying, I think if the city had just cause to fire them, they would have done so. I do agree with you that the city is taking a HUGE risk if they allow them to stay employed!
Ahh, Sandusky's finest. So much to be proud of.
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