QUOTE
After Cinnamon's calls, Gov. Taft's top guard is toast
Highway Patrol demotes lieutenant, citing absences, antics with women
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Ted Wendling
Plain Dealer Bureau
Columbus- The head of Gov. Bob Taft's security detail has been demoted after an investigation found that he attended strip clubs in New York, tried to pick up a woman at a bar during Taft's trade mission to Asia and received phone calls at his office from a go-go dancer in Columbus.
A State Highway Patrol report issued Wednesday says the dancer even left her name when she called the governor's Executive Protection Unit in the Riffe Center: "Cinnamon, from Columbus Gold."
Cinnamon was searching for former Patrol Lt. Craig Seitz, who headed Taft's security detail until Friday, when he was busted down to trooper.
If she's still looking for Seitz, she can find him at the patrol post in Granville, 25 miles east of Columbus.
Seitz, 43, could not be reached for comment, but he denied most of the allegations when confronted by a patrol investigator, blaming them on his second-in-command, Sgt. David Durr. Seitz has worked for the patrol since 1985 and was making $73,715 a year before his demotion.
The report contains devastating interviews with Durr and others on Taft's security detail, all of whom described Seitz as a detached administrator.
They said he rarely provided schedules, forced others to transport Taft to events when Seitz overslept, and blamed subordinates when he forgot to gas up the car.
The investigator quotes Sgt. Janet Mulder-Yeagley as saying she once "pretty much got chewed out all the way to Cleveland" by Taft because he wanted to be driven in a Ford Expedition and the vehicle wasn't ready because Seitz had neglected to fill the tank.
"When Craig's in charge, it's chaos," Trooper Gregory Cunningham is quoted as saying.
The report reserves much of its criticism for Seitz's antics with women. It discusses a visit he and two troopers made to a pair of strip clubs in New York while doing advance work this year for a visit by the governor.
Seitz acknowledged in the report that he had been warned by a supervisor to stop going to strip clubs, but he blamed the visit on his subordinates.
"I didn't drag them into these places," Seitz said. "I know my spending was very minimal. I know they spent quite a bit and had a good time."
Asked by the investigator whether he'd ever given his state business card to a stripper, Seitz answered: "In the past, I probably have, somewhere down the line."
A trooper and an Ohio Department of Development employee who accompanied Taft last fall on a trade mission to Japan and Taiwan said Seitz also embarrassed the governor's entourage by spending the last two days of Taft's visit to Taiwan "pursuing" a woman in a bar.
The report says Seitz bought the woman drinks and made inappropriate physical contact with her.
It quotes Trooper Derek Walker as saying that Seitz "made statements indicating he and the woman had sexual relations." Walker also quoted Seitz as saying, "What happens in Taiwan stays in Taiwan."
Seitz denied the allegations in his interview.
Seitz couldn't find Taft so often in Taiwan, the report says, that "some of the private sector businessmen on the trade mission were laughing at Seitz on the last day of the trip . . . because Seitz kept losing track of the governor and did not know where he was."
Mark Rickel, the governor's spokesman, declined to discuss that and other issues in the report other than to say, "This is a Highway Patrol matter, and the governor's safety was not an issue."
The investigation did not substantiate allegations that Seitz was a member of the "Noe Supper Club," the bacchanal hosted by Republican fund-raiser and coin dealer Tom Noe, who is under criminal investigation.
It also found no wrongdoing in the award this year of a $250,000 janitorial contract from the Ohio Expositions Commission to Seitz's wife, Veronica.
Highway Patrol demotes lieutenant, citing absences, antics with women
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Ted Wendling
Plain Dealer Bureau
Columbus- The head of Gov. Bob Taft's security detail has been demoted after an investigation found that he attended strip clubs in New York, tried to pick up a woman at a bar during Taft's trade mission to Asia and received phone calls at his office from a go-go dancer in Columbus.
A State Highway Patrol report issued Wednesday says the dancer even left her name when she called the governor's Executive Protection Unit in the Riffe Center: "Cinnamon, from Columbus Gold."
Cinnamon was searching for former Patrol Lt. Craig Seitz, who headed Taft's security detail until Friday, when he was busted down to trooper.
If she's still looking for Seitz, she can find him at the patrol post in Granville, 25 miles east of Columbus.
Seitz, 43, could not be reached for comment, but he denied most of the allegations when confronted by a patrol investigator, blaming them on his second-in-command, Sgt. David Durr. Seitz has worked for the patrol since 1985 and was making $73,715 a year before his demotion.
The report contains devastating interviews with Durr and others on Taft's security detail, all of whom described Seitz as a detached administrator.
They said he rarely provided schedules, forced others to transport Taft to events when Seitz overslept, and blamed subordinates when he forgot to gas up the car.
The investigator quotes Sgt. Janet Mulder-Yeagley as saying she once "pretty much got chewed out all the way to Cleveland" by Taft because he wanted to be driven in a Ford Expedition and the vehicle wasn't ready because Seitz had neglected to fill the tank.
"When Craig's in charge, it's chaos," Trooper Gregory Cunningham is quoted as saying.
The report reserves much of its criticism for Seitz's antics with women. It discusses a visit he and two troopers made to a pair of strip clubs in New York while doing advance work this year for a visit by the governor.
Seitz acknowledged in the report that he had been warned by a supervisor to stop going to strip clubs, but he blamed the visit on his subordinates.
"I didn't drag them into these places," Seitz said. "I know my spending was very minimal. I know they spent quite a bit and had a good time."
Asked by the investigator whether he'd ever given his state business card to a stripper, Seitz answered: "In the past, I probably have, somewhere down the line."
A trooper and an Ohio Department of Development employee who accompanied Taft last fall on a trade mission to Japan and Taiwan said Seitz also embarrassed the governor's entourage by spending the last two days of Taft's visit to Taiwan "pursuing" a woman in a bar.
The report says Seitz bought the woman drinks and made inappropriate physical contact with her.
It quotes Trooper Derek Walker as saying that Seitz "made statements indicating he and the woman had sexual relations." Walker also quoted Seitz as saying, "What happens in Taiwan stays in Taiwan."
Seitz denied the allegations in his interview.
Seitz couldn't find Taft so often in Taiwan, the report says, that "some of the private sector businessmen on the trade mission were laughing at Seitz on the last day of the trip . . . because Seitz kept losing track of the governor and did not know where he was."
Mark Rickel, the governor's spokesman, declined to discuss that and other issues in the report other than to say, "This is a Highway Patrol matter, and the governor's safety was not an issue."
The investigation did not substantiate allegations that Seitz was a member of the "Noe Supper Club," the bacchanal hosted by Republican fund-raiser and coin dealer Tom Noe, who is under criminal investigation.
It also found no wrongdoing in the award this year of a $250,000 janitorial contract from the Ohio Expositions Commission to Seitz's wife, Veronica.