Fremont police racist?

The Register is learning details about allegations of racism inside the Fremont Police Department involving at least two officers and a pattern of tolerating offensive language toward minorities.In at least one case, a police officer allegedly targeted a resident and provided the court false information but was not reprimanded. In another, a police officer was allegedly given a protection order against a resident after providing false information to the court. Fremont police under fireThe new round of complaints, which are being gathered by a concerned citizens group in Fremont, appear serious in nature. They follow similar complaints of misconduct reported by the Register last year, including a woman who said police allowed her rapist to go free because he was a confidential source for Sandusky County Sheriff's Detective Sean O'Connell.She said police treated her like a criminal from the start when she filed the complaint, a credible contention given the officer who interviewed her apparently lacked proper training for sexual assault investigations, a video of that initial interview shows. The officer asks the victim inappropriate questions and makes inquiries about her sexual preferences. Fremont police Chief Tim Wiersma declined to comment on her complaints about the investigation and her contention that police let a rapist go free. Rape victim not consentingOther residents also raised concerns last year that police never properly investigated the death of Lee Naus in 1999. Naus' body was discovered in the fully deployed compactor of a trash truck that emptied a dumpster outside a Fremont bar where he was last seen, according to a police report.His body had been placed in the dumpster earlier in the day after the bar closed, and police received numerous tips from the public about potential suspects who allegedly put him in there. O'Connell and the other detectives never followed up those leads, according to their 100-page report of the investigation, about 40 pages of which are probation reports about Naus related to a prior, minor drug arrest.It's not clear why detectives never followed up the leads they were given or what the probation reports had to do with how Naus ended up inside the dumpster. Officers in addition to O'Connell who were involved in some way in the Naus investigation included Fremont police Capt. Jim White, Richard Overmyer, Scott Rosenberger, Kenneth Buchele, Robert Schultz, Kevin Armbruster, Monte Huss, Samuel Derr, Michael Dohanos, James Reaster and Edward Garza, according to the report.But none provided information as to why the leads received from the public were never followed up. Chief Wiersma also refused to respond and Fremont Mayor Jim Ellis was adamant that no information be provided in response to obvious questions concerning the investigation and whether it was a valid probe."No one at the city is going to answer your questions regarding this matter," Ellis wrote to the Register back in March. "It is an old case, and so the prudent thing is to promptly provide you with the documentary record and have you refer to it."Another cold case?Ellis is right: It's an old case. But Lee Naus, who was just 21 when he was crushed to death in that trash compactor, is still dead. All these years later, police, and the city, still refuse to offer a reasonable response to legitimate questions from the community. Whether Wiersma, Ellis and Fremont law director Jim Melle opt for the same approach with allegations of racism in the police department remains to be seen. The Register will report the information from residents and will seek the public records to show how the city is responding to these new complaints.On Friday, they did not respond to an inquiry. *Note: Fremont Mayor Jim Ellis responded late Friday to the Register's inquiry after this column posted. His response is being reviewed for inclusion in a news article being prepared for publication.