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Ex-Vienna police officer ordered to repay $1,000

Auditor finds money taken from Mathews athletic department

VIENNA — The state auditor issued a $1,000 finding for recovery against a former Vienna police officer serving a six-month jail sentence for various crimes including improperly taking money from the Mathews Local School District’s athletic department.

The finding against Michael Sheehy, who was the school system’s resource officer, was included in a Tuesday audit of the district. When Sheehy was sentenced Dec. 3, 2019, in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, he was ordered to pay back the $1,000 he stole from the athletic department’s petty cash fund. Because Sheehy hasn’t done so, Auditor Keith Faber said he issued the finding for recovery.

“Petty cash accounts are not personal ATMs,” Faber said. “Those funds belong to the students and taxpayers who deserve to be repaid.”

Sheehy resigned Feb. 6, 2019, as a Vienna police sergeant and as resource officer after being indicted a few days earlier on multiple charges related to taking money from the school district as well as $700 and two M4 rifles, worth $2,400, from the police department.

Sheehy pleaded guilty Aug. 13, 2019, to two counts each of breaking and entering and theft in office, and one count each of possessing criminal tools, petty theft and aggravated possession of drugs.

At his sentencing, Jonathan P. Morgan, Sheehy’s attorney, said his client became addicted to Percocet about a year-and-a-half after being prescribed it following a surgery. After he could no longer obtain the drug, Sheehy turned to other means “in an act of desperation,” Morgan said.

Sheehy was hired as a school resource officer in September 2018. Among his responsibilities was conducting drug-use prevention programs in the school district.

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