Sergeant Who Charged Mayor, Police Chief, and Former Chief Fired

Fayette Advocate – by Derick Meyers

The New Holland Police Department has fired a police sergeant just mere seconds after he served charges on the mayor and police chief.  Sergeant Brad Mick was handed a termination letter — without a cited cause — and his last paycheck shortly before 6:30 p.m.

Before that happened, however, Mick walked into town hall where a meeting was about to get underway and handed a felony summons to Mayor Clair “Butch” Betzko and Police Chief David Conrad.   

You may recall the Advocate was the first to tell you that Mick executed a search warrant on his own department on Saturday.

Conrad is charged with a fifth degree felony count of forgery and the mayor is charged with complicity to forgery and obstruction of official business.

Betzko at first refused to accept the charges from Mick by throwing the paper back at the sergeant who was serving the mayor. Conrad took his charges without issue, but in return, handed Mick a final paycheck and termination letter.

Mick walked back into the lobby where there was standing room only and said, “Just so you know, people, if you do the right think around here, you get terminated.”

The crowd erupted into shouts calling for the resignation of the mayor.

Conrad is accused of illegally signing the name of former police chief Jason Lawless on a form that was faxed to the Ohio Attorney General’s office last week. Betzko is accused of backing up the signature as a witness and allegedly falsely giving Lawless the oath of office, despite Lawless reportedly being out of state.

Betzko is also charged with obstruction of justice in an unrelated matter. According to that complaint, Mick was interviewing a suspect inside the village building on July 10 when Betzko called him and ordered him to cease the interrogation. The suspect interview was surrounding possible wrong doing by the current police and former police chief, according to the affidavit filed with the court.

Conrad currently faces a second, unrelated charge along with Lawless stemming from a May incident where the Pickaway County Sheriff charged them.

Conrad and Betzko refused to comment to the Advocate on Monday night.

Derek Myers can be reached at dmyers@thefayetteadvocate.com

Fayette Advocate