By Bruce Cadwallader
The Columbus Dispatch
GROVE CITY, Ohio — A former Grove City police sergeant who was seen masturbating in a North Side store was sentenced yesterday to the maximum 60 days in jail and fined $250.
Steven J. Howard, 55, of Zuber Road in Jackson Township, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of public indecency in Franklin County Municipal Court in January.
Judge James E. Green said Howard could be spared jail time if he gets counseling and commits no crime by the time he is to report to jail June 10.
Howard “lost a 261/2-year career because of the impulses and activities that were occurring in (his) life,” his attorney, Mark C. Collins, told the judge. “He’s looking forward to confronting those issues.”
Howard was detained by a Kohl’s security officer about 5 p.m. July 2 after someone reported that a man was exposing himself in the store at 1700 Morse Rd. Columbus police spoke with Howard outside the store, charged him and released him on a court summons.
The former DARE officer resigned from the police force two weeks later.
A tearful Howard apologized to his wife and family and to the community.
“I let them down because some of them looked to me as a role model,” he said. “And to my fellow officers, I am sorry I tarnished the profession I loved.”
Copyright 2010 The Columbus Dispatch