Chaffee City Council fires officer facing criminal charge

A Chaffee, Missouri, police officer was jailed, then fired over a charge he violated a protection order for a Chaffee councilwoman who is his wife and is divorcing him.

The Chaffee City Council voted to immediately terminate Timothy Warner last week upon the recommendation of the town’s police board.

Warner’s wife, Leah, was absent from Monday’s meeting, according to closed-session minutes obtained by the Southeast Missourian through a Sunshine Law request.

According to the minutes, police chief Jim Chambers told the council Warner had been suspended since June 4.

The 41-year-old Warner, who resides in the Whitewater area in Cape Girardeau County, was arrested July 10 after being accused of violating a protection order and could face other charges, including driving while intoxicated and damaging property, according to a probable-cause statement filed in Scott County Circuit Court.

The protection order was issued June 19 at the request of Leah Warner.

In a document, filed in court June 5, Leah Warner expressed concern the Chaffee officer could hurt her, himself or others.

She wrote her husband experienced mood swings and often consumed a lot of alcohol.

She wrote he was “a well-trained police officer and has used his position to stalk me and any visitors in my home” by checking registrations of visitors’ vehicles while off duty.

Leah Warner wrote to the court her husband was found to be “under the influence of alcohol” the night of June 4 and “in the possession of his personal weapon and his department-issued weapon along with approximately nine boxes of ammunition, after being spotted by a fellow officer stalking my home.”

Scott County sheriff’s deputy Stephen Pind wrote Warner’s arrest came after his wife reported at 4:50 p.m. July 10 he “had made statements over the phone that he was going to harm himself.”

Pind said Leah Warner showed him the call log of her cellular phone, which showed T. Warner had made calls to her. According to the statement, she told the deputy he sounded intoxicated and “stated that he was going to let himself ‘bleed out.’”

At 5:17 p.m., farmer Marty Priggle reported to the sheriff’s office he found a red pickup truck trespassing on his property at Route EE and County Road 249, just inside the Cape Girardeau County line, Pind said in the statement.

Pind said officers went to the scene and found Warner driving his pickup truck. Officers tried to stop the vehicle in a cornfield access road.

Pind, who was driving a patrol car, said Warner tried to drive around him.

“I placed my patrol car in the path of T. Warner’s vehicle and blocked the exits at which time he stopped his vehicle,” Pind said.

Warner was placed in handcuffs, Pind said.

“During the course of arrest, I detected a strong odor of intoxicants from T. Warner’s person that intensified as he spoke and observed two bottles of Fireball cinnamon whiskey,” Pind wrote.

Officers with the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff’s Department and the Missouri State Highway Patrol went to the scene.

State trooper Ron Eakins transported Warner to the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff’s Department for “processing for driving while intoxicated,” Pind said.

According to the probable-cause statement, Warner subsequently was taken to the Scott County Jail pending the filing of formal charges.

On July 11, the Scott County prosecutor’s office filed a charge of violating an order of protection. The Class A misdemeanor carries a maximum fine of $2,000 and/or one year in jail.

Cash bond was set at $1,000.

On Wednesday, Warner pleaded not guilty in Scott County Circuit Court. Judge Scott Homan released him on his personal recognizance. The judge ordered Warner to have no contact with his wife and to not consume alcohol.

Warner is scheduled to return to court Aug. 15.

If DWI or property-damage charges are filed against Warner at a later date, they would be filed in Cape Girardeau County Circuit Court, according to the Scott County Sheriff’s Department.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573 388-3641

Pertinent address:

Charleston, Mo.