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The Bay City Times - MLive.com
27 December 2007

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Iosco County Sheriff's Departm

Iosco deputy fired for his rol

It took three months to investigate an Iosco Sheriff's deputy's intervention in his son's burglary, but on Wednesday county officials said the extra wait, and expense, were necessary to head off a potential lawsuit.

Sheriff Michael Fischer fired Deputy Anthony Eno on Dec. 12 for ''substantiated charges of misconduct,'' according to a department statement. The misconduct relates to Eno's involvement in his teenage son's break-in at Hale Hardware last September.

In it, the youth and a friend stole at least 25 guns after cutting a hole through the store roof. But Michigan State Police investigators dropped the case when store owners chose not to prosecute the two teens.

Even so, the sheriff's department pursued an internal probe because of Eno's role and allegations that he'd covered up his son's involvement. The county hired Detroit-based labor lawyers to handle the special investigation.

''They found 10 or 12 violations of sheriff's department policy,'' Undersheriff Gary VanRiper said Wednesday of Eno's actions. All the violations, he added, relate to Eno forgoing chain of command rules.

''Even for a simple traffic accident, you immediately call in another agency'' for back-up, VanRiper added. ''In Eno's case, he was responding to a 10-year felony. There was a Michigan State Police officer on-call that night 12 miles away...''

Eno's policy neglect, the basis for his firing, included failing to write appropriate reports until pressed to do so some eight days after the break-in, the undersheriff added.

The Times was unable to reach Eno on Wednesday. The former deputy argued early on that he had answered his son's call for help as a father, not a police officer, VanRiper said.

''You never investigate something a relative is involved in,'' the undersheriff said.

Eno, meanwhile, filed a grievance with the local police officer's union asking for job reinstatement last week.

Eno had been on paid administrative leave since late September until his termination two weeks ago.

Sheriff's officials, meanwhile, said this week that they pursued a third-party investigation through the county's labor law firm because Eno was no ordinary employee. He had federal ''whistle blower'' status because he'd acted as a witness in a criminal eavesdropping case against former Iosco Undersheriff Michael C. Bridson.

''We took ourselves out of the situation,'' to avoid any suggestion of retaliation, VanRiper said.

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Article sourced from

The Bay City Times - MLive.com27 December 2007

Iosco deputy fired for his rol

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The Bay City Times - MLive.com
27 December 2007