DeLand, FL – The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office has fired a man in training to be a deputy after he was indicted by a grand jury for misusing a law enforcement database while working as a police officer in Ohio.
39-year-old Steven Korossy was terminated by VCSO on Wednesday after the Ohio Attorney General’s Office announced the 15-count indictment earlier in the day.
VCSO spokesman Gary Davidson says Korossy was hired on May 18th and was a month away from graduating from the law enforcement agency’s in-house training program before he was handed his pink slip.
“As is customary with newly-hired deputies, Korossy was placed on a probationary status for the first year of his employment,” Davidson added. “According to his employment application, prior to being hired by the Sheriff’s Office, Korossy had worked for the Put-in-Bay Police Department since May 2003.”
14 of the counts Korossy was indicted for by an Ottawa County [Ohio] grand jury were felonies for unauthorized use of the Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway. The other was a misdemeanor falsification charge.
According to prosecutors, Korossy’s alleged misconduct came to light while investigating claims of potential witness intimidation stemming from another case where 4 misdemeanor charges were filed against former Put-in-Bay Police Chief Robert “Ric” Lampela.
“Korossy is alleged to have accessed the statewide OHLEG database for non-law-enforcement purposes at least 14 times between November 2013 and January 2015,” stated a press release issued on Wednesday by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office. “Korossy is also alleged to have made false statements in March 2015 to investigators from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.”
DeWine’s office will be serving as special prosecutors in this case.
Korossy’s photo isn’t being released by VCSO due to a Florida statute where photos of current and former law enforcement officers are not subject to public records requests.
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.