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Student: Campus cop acted improperly
By Kimball Perry ? kperry@enquirer.com ? June 10, 2009
A female Cincinnati State student is suing the school and one of its police officers, accusing the officer of making her lift her shirt to get out of a bogus ticket and the school of not doing a proper background search when it hired him.
Sarah Vogerl, of Yellow Springs, Ohio, filed the suit Monday in Ohio?s Court of Claims, the court where suits against state agencies and state schools are filed.
It was filed against Robert Craig Elliott II and Cincinnati State Technical and Community College.
Elliott couldn?t be reached for comment. A Cincinnati State spokeswoman wouldn?t comment.
Vogerl was leaving the school?s Clifton campus June 20, her suit notes, when she was pulled over by a Cincinnati State police car driven by Elliott, who accused her of running a stop sign in a school parking garage.
He ordered her to drive back to the parking garage where he parked his cruiser behind her car in a way, the suit alleges, to block sight of what happened next.
Elliott, the suit alleged, wrote Vogerl two tickets, conducted a ?strip search? where he ?proceeded to unnecessarily and inappropriately pat her down,? the suit notes.
?He then ordered Miss Vogerl to turn toward him and pull up her shirt while he ogled her. He then ordered Miss Vogerl to keep her shirt raised and turn around.?
He then asked Vogerl to give him a massage and gave Vogerl his cell phone number and asked her to call him, the suit adds.
?He then promised that he would keep the tickets a secret, and if she called and met him, he would tear up the expired tags ticket,? it alleges.
When she got home, Vogerl told her parents what happened and they contacted the school?s public safety office to complain. That?s when ?they learned that Elliott had engaged in similar improprieties with another female student that same day,? the suit alleges.
Elliott ? on the job about 11 months ? was fired 11 days later, the suit adds, but questions why Elliott wasn?t given additional training or supervision following previous, similar allegations.
That incident happened, the suit alleges, even though Elliott?s co-workers had reported him, months before, for pulling students over in their cars and not writing reports or tickets about the incidents. ?As early as January 2008, Elliott?s inappropriate conduct on the job was questioned by his co-workers and/or superiors at Cincinnati State,? the suit alleges.
Vogerl?s suit suggests Elliott has a troubled professional career ? it accuses the school of not doing a proper background check before hiring him ? but doesn?t specify what problems Elliott may have had. Elliott previously was a police officer in Silverton and the College of Mount Saint Joseph as well as an armed security officer for Cincinnati?s First Choice Security, the suit notes.
Elliott?s ?background and lack of qualification for the position was negligently and/or deliberately ignored,? the suit alleged.
Vogerl?s suit hints she may not be the only student who could implicate Elliott.
?(F)ollowing Elliott?s termination, his employee locker at Cincinnati State was emptied, and it was discovered Elliott had written a large number of tickets to Cincinnati State students, almost exclusively female students, that were never turned in,? Vogerl?s suit notes.
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