Columbus police Sgt. Steve Tarini once called off sick to coordinate officers who were serving a protection order against his brother. He also used his powers as a sergeant to sign an arrest warrant for his brother, Tommy Tarini. Steve's use of police powers in the family feud has recently spilled over into a federal lawsuit against the Columbus Division of Police.

Columbus police Sgt. Steve Tarini once called off sick to coordinate officers who were serving a protection order against his brother.

He also used his powers as a sergeant to sign an arrest warrant for his brother, Tommy Tarini. And, in a recorded phone call, the sergeant once threatened to put a bullet in Tommy�s head and secretly bury his body.

A Franklin County judge issued a protection order in 2012 that said the Tarini brothers could not come within 500 feet of each other.

On at least two occasions, police and court records show, Steve has wielded police powers in a family feud that has recently spilled over into a federal lawsuit against the Columbus Division of Police.

City records show that Steve has been investigated for lying, not showing up to work, leaving early and not following orders. In some cases, he was given a written reprimand or suspended. Once, the city fired him, but an arbitrator gave him his job back.

Now, Tommy Tarini has filed a federal lawsuit against his brother and the city of Columbus. Tommy and his attorneys say the city has treated him unfairly, not taken his concerns and threats on his life seriously and allowed Steve to continue to abuse his police powers.

�Sgt. Tarini has an excessive record of discipline,� said George Wolfe, Tommy Tarini�s attorney. �Sgt. Tarini threatened to put a bullet in my client�s head. ... The department hasn�t taken my client�s complaints serious enough.�

Steve�s attorney, Kerry M. Donahue, said Tommy has been the instigator and �has filed a frivolous lawsuit against Steven and has tried to get (The Dispatch) to write a negative story about Steven.�

Donahue and his client said they expect the lawsuit to be dismissed soon. The city attorney�s office said all criminal complaints against Steve have been reviewed, and he was not found to have broken the law. The office referred questions about his discipline to Police Chief Kim Jacobs.

The chief is named in Tommy�s lawsuit and said through a spokesman she didn�t think it was appropriate to comment for this story.

The family feud with potential taxpayer implications began around 2002 when Tommy bought Tarini Cement Co. Inc. from their father, Richard. Steve said Tommy �hosed� his father out of nearly $500,000 in the purchase.

�He left my father broke and heartbroken,� Steve said.

Tommy said his brother is angry that he was left out of the purchase.

�My Dad and I came to an agreement, and I did right by my dad. He had no issue with it,� Tommy said.

The men�s father, Richard Tarini, 81, said last week that Tommy �is worthless, and if his mother was alive she�d shoot him.�

Tommy acknowledges that he has fueled the decade-long feud at times with phone calls baiting his brother.

Tommy has been labeled by police as a chronic complainer because some of his complaints were unfounded or outlandish, police investigators said. Tommy has a reputation with police of stretching facts and making up stories, investigators said.

Tommy said he has also never been forgiven by his family for a felony drug conviction from the 1990s. He spent five years in prison.

His police officer brother tried to send him back into the legal system. In June 2002, after his brother took over their father�s company, Steve signed a criminal complaint made by a woman he knew through his father�s business. The signature authorized his fellow officers to arrest Tommy.

Tommy was later released, and the charge was dismissed, according to his attorney and court records.

Police rules state that, �When practical, sworn personnel shall avoid direct enforcement action in situations in which they have a personal interest.�

Steve said his superiors never questioned him about the warrant. It�s unclear whether the division knew of it until The Dispatch asked about it recently.

�That is the one critical mistake I made,� Steve said. �I was just promoted, and all I did was save a woman a trip Downtown to have the prosecutor or someone else sign it.�

Steve was the subject of a police internal-affairs investigation in 2012 for making recorded threats to kill his brother and secretly bury his body.

Lara Baker, a city prosecutor, determined in 2012, �While the conduct presented ... is egregious and well documented,� no criminal charges could be filed because the calls in which Steve made the threats were placed by Tommy from his residence in North Carolina. She didn�t think that Columbus has jurisdiction over a criminal case.

�The statements by Steve are inappropriate and unbecoming a police officer,� Baker wrote. �As such, I am referring this matter to the internal-affairs division of the Columbus Police Department.�

The matter was not investigated internally because it had occurred more than 60 days before the complaint was made, putting it outside the statute of limitations in the police union contract.

In December 2012, Franklin County Judge Kim Browne issued a cross-protection order that said the brothers must stay at least 500 feet from each other. The order is effective until 2017.

According to police records, Steve violated that order in April 2013. An internal investigation found that Steve called off from work sick. That day, he called the police radio room and asked officers to meet him. Steve wanted Columbus police to assist deputy sheriffs with serving a protection order against Tommy. Steve had filed the order on behalf of their father, Richard.

Steve waited in a small, black car outside a mobile-home park and watched as officers served Tommy the order. One officer told investigators that Steve then said, �I�ve got to go. I�m not supposed to be here.�

Steve told investigators he was in the area for 30 minutes and left. His supervisors noted that they were baffled as to why he never told them a judge had issued a protection order against him.

The Franklin County prosecutor�s office investigated the incident for possible criminal charges but determined that Steve�s actions did not rise �to the level of a criminal offense, yet it�s pretty close.�

Steve received a letter of reprimand.

Steve was placed on the Police Division�s dishonest-cop list in 2012 after an internal investigation found that he lied about taking photos of the buttocks of a man he had shot with a stun gun.

The city fired him for that, but he won his job back after an independent arbitrator ruled that, though his statements to investigators were misleading, he did not deserve termination. He has since been taken off the dishonest list.

In November, Steve tried to get the protection order against him lifted. Judge Browne denied the motion.

�This court would remind (Sgt. Tarini) that, if he had simply heeded this court�s initial warning (in) respect to his position as a public officer and refrain from his violently worded euphemisms, the instant (civil protection order) would have never been issued,� Browne wrote.

lsullivan@dispatch.com

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