Charges filed against officer for working bar security while employed as Tri-State police chief
Cincinnati OH Jan 11 2023 A man fired from two local police departments now faces charges in Hamilton County for acting as a security officer without a license.
Darnell Pate, formerly the New Vienna chief of police, is charged with prohibited security services. Ohio Revised Code requires security guards to be licensed.
The charges, filed by the Ohio Department of Public Safety, relate to incidents that happened May 2022 at Showcase Bar and Grill in Springdale and November 2022 at the Heat Event Center in Mt. Healthy.
Allegations surrounding Pate’s work as a security officer first surfaced in June 2022. While still working as New Vienna’s police chief and while driving his New Vienna PD SUV, Pate was also allegedly working security at a bar at Hilltop Plaza in Mt. Healthy. The job supposedly included Pate picking people up and then releasing them after sitting stationary for a short period of time.
Mt. Healthy Police Chief Vince DeMasi described it last year as “odd” but not criminal. “It’s odd to be driving an unmarked from a police department multiple counties away for personal business.”
Pate is currently a reserve officer with the New Holland Police Department. He has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation, according to the New Holland chief of police, who says he was not aware of the allegations against Pate prior to hiring him despite a background check.
Pate served as New Vienna’s police chief for just a few months before he was terminated in early 2022. A judge found Pate acted without legal authority in arresting a man, towing his vehicle and “holding it for ransom.”
Concerns were also raised about the department towing vehicles for minor infractions and charging late fees for citizens to recover their cars, a trend the judge derided as “policing for money.”
Pate worked previously for the Addyston Police Department, according to Addyston Police Chief Eric Pennekamp. Pate was fired in May 2021 after he falsely represented himself as a K9 officer to get free dog food from a pet store, Pennekamp says.
That allegedly happened as Pate was serving a three-day suspension without pay for inappropriately tasing a man in April 2021. FOX19 obtained bodycam footage of that alleged tasing.
Pate sued Addyston PD claiming he was terminated because of his race. That suit has been dismissed.
We have made every attempt to get in contact with Darnell Pate but he was not home when we knocked on his door and he has not responded to our messages on social media.
WXIX
