Fallen Hilliard police officer honored

Hilliard police Officer Sean Johnson — the first officer to die in the line of duty for the department — was honored last week.

State Rep. Jim Hughes helped get a stretch of Interstate 270 renamed in Johnson’s honor.

Johnson, 46, was killed on May 19 during a motorcycle training exercise. Johnson, who worked as an officer in Hilliard for 16 years, crashed a Victory Stealth motorcycle on the interstate ramp to Route 161 in Blendon Township.

Low high-rise

The call over the scanner almost had Saturday reporter Earl Rinehart dropping everything and running out the door.

“Working fire” and “high rise” the automated voice said.

Fortunately, the call from Mifflin Township about a fire in Gahanna was not as advertised.

Media, media, media

Columbus police dispatchers who fielded calls Sunday about drug overdoses at the Franklin County Work Release Center apparently didn’t have time to answer phone calls from the media.

But they did have time to record a joke about the calls, according to a police radio run obtained by reporter Alissa Widman Neese. The public record details interactions between dispatchers and police in the field.

“Media calling. Media calling again. Media keeps calling and calling and calling,” it reads, punctuated with a sarcastic “Guess who called ... again.”

Pilot grounded

The 132 parcels of cocaine were stacked too high for a federal magistrate to keep a Canadian pilot anywhere but jail until his trial.

That and a prior drugtrafficking conviction report, courtesy of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, means Sylvain Desjardins won’t be able to stay in a halfway house or wear a tracking device.

Defendants often don’t contest prosecution requests for detention, but Assistant Federal Public Defender George Chaney took a shot for his client Monday, according to reporter Rinehart, who also covers federal courts.

Chaney argued that just because Desjardins owns the plane that landed at Ohio University’s airport March 29 because of mechanical problems, it doesn’t mean that the 290 pounds of cocaine hidden in the plane’s tail section belonged to him.

“He may not have inspected the interior of the plane during a pre-flight check,” Chaney said, plus, the prior conviction was in 1998.

U.S. District Court Magistrate Norah McCann King wasn’t swayed. The cocaine, the magistrate said, “is extremely strong evidence,” against Desjardins, 47.

Plus, a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $10 million fine might be incentive not to stick around.

Assistant U.S. attorney Michael Hunter said Chaney’s argument might be moot. Hunter said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials want Desjardins for entering the country illegally.

“Even if he was released, ICE would detain him,” he said.

“It’s a two-story condo,” a dispatcher said. No one was injured.