FRANKFORT, Ohio — Citizens in Ross County voiced their concerns Tuesday night after a fire department settled allegations of sexual harassment with their own.
Paperwork uncovered by the Guardian shows that Concord Township Trustees, which is the area that surrounds the small village of Frankfort, authorized a settlement for $10,000 with a female paramedic. The settlement came after the woman accused Fire Chief Shawn Harper of sexual harassment.
It was alleged that the chief groped the woman on several occasions and made inappropriate comments toward her in a sexual nature; the medic filed a complaint with the state about the claims before reaching the financial settlement.
“Shawn came over and smacked me on the butt with a fly-swatter,” the woman wrote in her complaint. She said that when she complained about the incident to her boss, EMS supervisor Rhonda Cheesebrew, she was suspended for two weeks. Fast forward to later last year and the sexual harassment continued, she said.
Once the complaint with the state was filed, the township said they handed the issue over to their insurance company, who hired a law firm to negotiate a settlement deal. In the deal, the female medic would leave her job and never return to the fire department again, including any fundraisers or functions as a citizen. In exchange, she was given $10,000 and had to sign a non-disclosure agreement agreeing to never speak about the issue publicly. The township — on their part — would not admit wrongdoing and the fire chief would keep his job.
During their regular meeting Tuesday night, citizens approached the trustees about the settlement, with concerns that a sexual predator was on the loose inside the fire department.
In a strange turn of events, Cheesebrew, who was sworn into the position of trustee earlier in the afternoon after the resignation of another, spoke up and said that the allegations were unfounded and that “anyone” could say “anything.”
“I can tell anyone on Facebook that he did something to me sexually,” she said. “I could make that up …. anybody in this room can make up anything they want ….”
She went on to say that false allegations are made against people all the time.
Another trustee, Steve Core, said the sexual harassment claim was investigated by the township’s lawyer and was “unfounded.” When the Guardian asked if the lawyer’s findings were bias in an effort to protect the government, the fiscal officer referred all questions to their legal counsel.
Efforts to reach Fire Chief Shawn Harper for comment on this story were not successful.