Two Chillicothe Police Officers are on leave, one of which is under criminal investigation after allegations of rape and mishandling of a domestic violence case.

UPDATE: April 21

10TV has learned Officers Brandon Mather and Tad Franklin have resigned from the Chillicothe Police Department.





Original Story

A Chillicothe Police Officer is off the job and under investigation, accused of sexual assault.

His accuser: a woman who ran to officers to report she had been the victim of domestic violence.

She says her boyfriend assaulted her at a Chillicothe hotel, and she ran to police for help.

After her boyfriend was arrested, she says an off-duty officer sexually assaulted her.

Police say it started at Patrick’s Pub, a bar inside a Chillicothe Quality Inn, in the early morning hours of Sunday, January 17.

Chillicothe Police Officer Brandon Mather was off-duty, drinking with a friend.

He called a fellow officer, Tad Franklin, for a ride home. Franklin, who was on-duty, responded to the hotel.

That's when they were approached by a woman who told them her boyfriend had just assaulted her inside their hotel room.

Officer Franklin called for back-up, and Officer Jeff DeMint responded.

They took the woman's boyfriend into custody.

Three hours later, this 911 call came into Chillicothe Police.

"Yes ma'am,” the caller told the police dispatcher. “I don't know how to really explain this. My wife and I have been separated for a little bit. She's texting me saying she's at a cop or policeman's house named Brandon Mathers (sic) up in Chillicothe? Is there a cop named Brandon Mathers (sic)?”

When the police dispatcher said there was, the caller said, “Ok well she needs help then. There are two guys trying to rape her, has her pants undone, is what she is texting me."

Investigators say after Officers Franklin and DeMint left with the woman's boyfriend, Mather and his friend took her back to his friend's home.

They say that’s when she texted her estranged husband for help.

"But she's texting me saying, 'Please help, I'm at a police officer's house by the name of Brandon Mathers (sic). There's two guys trying to persuade me, and they're taking my pants down.' And she's trying to get away from them and she's saying, 'Help me please.'"

Officers responded, and the woman ran out, telling them Mathers and his friend had sexually assaulted her.

“It's a very bad situation,” said Chillicothe Police Chief Keith Washburn.

He says immediately after he was notified of the allegation that morning, he asked the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation to handle the matter.

"I want people to have confidence in this police department and this office that we're going to do the right thing, and I think having an outside agency investigate this was the best way."

He says he takes the allegations, and the public's trust, very seriously.

"A police officer is a position of trust. And the community gives you that. It's a privilege, and you have to show the community that you deserve that."

BCI is investigating the sexual assault allegations against Officer Mather and his friend, whom 10tv is not identifying because he has not been charged with a crime.

BCI is also investigating possible criminal mishandling of that domestic violence call by Officer Tad Franklin.

Both Mather and Franklin are on paid leave.

Officer Jeff DeMint's response to that domestic violence call is also under investigation- but there are no allegations of criminal wrongdoing on his part. He remains on duty.