SARDINIA, Ohio — A Cincinnati-area police officer is back in uniform after a domestic violence arrest for throwing a bourbon bottle at a woman through a mirror, striking her in the chest and covering her in glass shards.
Mt. Orab police arrested Zachariah Smith after a woman called 911 and said he was very drunk and had thrown a bottle at her on May 29, 2024.
Days later, Smith resigned from the Union Township Police Department and pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct in July 2024.
But eight months after his arrest, Smith returned to law enforcement in the rural Adams County village of Manchester. He switched departments in September 2025 and now works as a part-time officer for the villages of Sardinia and Russellville.
“I was a good officer prior to my arrest,” Smith said. “From my training records and everything that I’ve been through, you can see that this is an isolated incident.”
But some disagree with his redemption story and question whether he should still be a police officer.
“There still has to be a standard, and I feel that standard has sadly, especially in rural areas, kind of evaporated due to lack of manpower. It’s a shame,” said Marcus Callahan, police chief of the private, gated community of Lake Waynoka in Brown County. “It puts everybody at risk and makes us all look more incompetent.”
Watch: Why an officer arrested for domestic violence was hired at another police department
The WCPO 9 I-Team has been tracking police accountability since 2017, with dozens of stories about use of force, disciplinary matters and best practices that shed light on how local departments operate.
For this story, the I-Team spent three months collecting public records and conducting interviews to determine whether problems exist in the rural counties east of Cincinnati.
Smith’s career is one way to answer that question.
After his May 2024 arrest, Union Township police placed Smith on leave while they conducted an internal investigation that ultimately recommended his firing. Instead, Smith resigned in June 2024.
Lt. Scott Blankenship noted in his report that Smith was disrespectful, rude, and unprofessional to Mt. Orab police officers on the night of his arrest. Smith drank a Miller Lite beer while they questioned him. He told one Mt. Orab officer to fix his name badge and called another officer a “jealous f***er,” according to police records.
Smith also gave conflicting accounts of how the mirror got broken on the night of his arrest. He told Mt. Orab police that an electrician had dropped a ladder, hitting the mirror a week earlier.
But Smith told Union Township police that he threw the bourbon bottle through the mirror, “because he was disgusted with himself … I remember looking at myself in the mirror and my stomach hanging out, being subconscious about my weight,” according to police records.
The victim told Mt. Orab police he “wouldn’t stop pacing around, calling her names, belittling her, blaming her for every issue … she said Mr. Smith threatened to hurt her … she believed at that moment, with Mr. Smith just feet in front of her, he was about to choke her,” according to the police report.
“She stated that in the past, he has choked, punched and slapped her on multiple occasions, and he was drunk every time … she stated he held his breath, making his head turn red, and both his fists were balled up and raised in front of him. Then he began to charge towards her … she said if she had not gone into the room, he would have choked her like he had in the past,” according to the police report.
While she was in the other room, Smith threw a bourbon bottle through a mirror, crashing through the glass, striking her in the chest and leaving a visible and palpable bump, according to the police report.
“I observed that (she) had small glass shards all over her, from head to toe, including inside her shoe and bra … I placed Mr. Smith under arrest for domestic violence and transported him to the Brown County Jail. Once inside the booking area, Mr. Smith told me I f***ed up, stating ... she had slapped him,” a Mt. Orab police officer wrote in his report.
When WCPO asked Smith how the mirror broke, he said: “I don’t believe I knew she (the victim) was still present in the building. But I just don’t remember. I can’t comment on it because I don’t remember the whole incident.”
Nearly a year later, then-Manchester police chief Dakotah Brown felt that Smith deserved a second chance. He hired him in March 2025 to patrol a community along the Ohio River with 1,800 residents that was struggling to revive its police department after it had been defunct for several years.
“At the time, I think they wanted me to hire officers at $15 an hour, and I tried to explain to them that the applicants just aren’t coming. It’s not happening,” Brown said. “I had an open position for like eight or like nine months and had no applicants because they probably saw the pay scale and just laughed, and I don’t blame them.”
When Smith applied for a police officer position, Brown said he was reluctant to hire him.
“I honestly wasn’t going to hire him, because I was like, 'This looks like a lot of drama, I’m not dealing with this,'” Brown said. “Even though I got the sense that he was an upstanding person of moral character, and basically, he had a bad day.”
Brown changed his mind after speaking with the woman who was hit with the bourbon bottle. She said she had forgiven Smith, Brown said.
Life at Lake Waynoka
One day after his arrest, Lake Waynoka Police Chief Marcus Callahan sent an email to Union Township police about Smith’s conduct in the private, gated community where he lived.
“I would like to start off by apologizing as I have never had to contact an officer’s department in my career due to problems and personal conduct issues,” Callahan wrote in the May 31, 2024, email.
His email outlined a list of scathing complaints about Smith’s behavior, often while wearing his Union Township police uniform.
“Since moving into the POA at Lake Waynoka, Smith has violated numerous rules at the gated community … I am also still investigating numerous disorderly conduct complaints as Smith is regularly verbally hostile to female front gate employees,” Callahan wrote.
Callahan told WCPO that Smith was friendly to male employees but rude to female workers.
“Incredibly rude, borderline belligerent,” Callahan said.
Callahan provided surveillance video and audio to Union Township police, which WCPO obtained, showing Smith’s interaction with a female employee as he tried to enter a gate with an apparently inoperable vehicle sticker.
“Here’s your faulty ass sticker,” Smith said, and then added, “Because I told you for the last f*****g three days it hasn’t worked,” according to the video and police reports.
“Smith is highly aggressive toward women and also uses your department and his occupation to intimidate workers and residents,” Callahan wrote.
“Smith also lies repeatedly to residents and front gate employees when he violates (or attempts to further violate) POA rules and regulations, claiming that he has spoken to me personally and that I have supposedly okayed his actions.”
“Smith has difficulty speaking the truth and uses his occupation and my name to further intimidate residents and my employees,” Callahan wrote.
When WCPO asked Smith about his interaction with front gate employees, he said, “I had conversations with individuals there. Some were heated. Because … you pay a fair sum of money to be part of that gated community … yet they kept having issues with their gates.”
“After several months of them not fixing the situation, we did have heated conversations; they needed to contact the police chief because this is crazy, I live here, you know who I am, here’s my sticker on my car. Why are you not giving me access to my home?” Smith said.
Callahan said he also encountered Smith professionally when he was an assistant police chief in Aberdeen, and Smith was a police officer in nearby Ripley several years ago.
“To be blunt, Officer Smith had a presence of thinking that this (badge) made him bulletproof, and … made him able to do things that nobody else could,” Callahan said. “And there weren’t repercussions for that.”
The Manchester file
The WCPO 9 I-Team reviewed Smith’s personnel records since he became a police officer in 2019 and did not find any disciplinary actions. He worked for police departments in Ripley and Newtown, as well as the Brown County Sheriff’s office, before being hired by Union Township Police in 2023.
But Smith was convicted in Adams County in 2013 for spotlighting wildlife. This is generally defined as the use of high-intensity lights to stun animals, causing them to freeze and making them easier to hunt.
Ohio Department of Natural Resources officers spotted a vehicle casting a ray of light into farm fields along Betty’s Creek in November 2013.
“The defendant admitted to me that he and the passenger were searching for animals, namely coyotes and deer. The vehicle was found to contain several firearms, one of which was a loaded .22 caliber rifle located on the front seat between the driver and the passenger seats. Also located inside the vehicle 1-million candlepower spotlight,” an Ohio wildlife officer wrote in his report.
Smith pleaded no contest and forfeited the AR-7 Explorer .22 rifle and the spotlight as part of his conviction, according to court records contained in his Manchester personnel file.
That Manchester personnel file also contained the police report from Smith’s arrest, in which the victim said he had choked, punched, and slapped her on many occasions. She said she didn’t report it because he told her no one would believe her because he is a police officer.
“This happens more than just what occurred tonight,” and she told Mt. Orab police she was “possibly” worried about something worse happening when Smith was released from the Brown County Jail, according to the police report.
She said her bedroom window lacked a screen because she had tried to climb out in the past to get away from Smith, and her garage door trim was gone, “from where he busted the door open because I had to lock the door,” according to the police report.
But Brown said he has no regrets about hiring Smith as a Manchester police officer.
“Honestly, that was one of the best hires that I ever made,” Brown said. “He was an outstanding officer; he didn’t have any complaints. He actually got a commendation for outstanding work in the village from the mayor.”
Brown also filed an appeal to the Ohio State Highway Patrol to reinstate Smith’s access to the LEADS database. This allows law enforcement to search private information such as criminal records and home addresses.
The state suspended Smith’s access to LEADS after his arrest, but accepted Brown’s appeal and reinstated it in June 2025.
"OSHP does not judge the facts of an individual case, as that process is conducted in court. OSHP also does not evaluate the hiring decisions of a local law enforcement agency, as Ohio is a home-rule state. If a court determines that an individual may still serve as a peace officer in Ohio and the administrator of a law enforcement agency attests that LEADS access is in the public interest and that they take responsibility to ensure LEADS is used properly and lawfully … OSHP has no grounds to withhold LEADS access,” according to a statement from Ohio State Highway Patrol Sgt. Tyler Ross.
OSHP audits departments to ensure LEADS is being used lawfully, and Ross said there have been no complaints about Smith.
‘With great power comes great responsibility.”
Police officers in Ohio can’t have felony convictions. Federal law also bans anyone convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence from having a gun.
Since Smith pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of misdemeanor disorderly conduct, he can still legally work as a police officer.
However, each agency has its own hiring standards, and some police and sheriff’s departments won’t hire anyone with a recent misdemeanor conviction.
“Obviously, they have to have a clean record,” said Union Township Police Chief Anthony Rees. “I’m not saying we wouldn’t hire somebody with a misdemeanor on their record, but there would have to be an explanation behind it. We’d have to know all the details. How far removed are they from that? Did it happen when they were a teenager or in their young twenties?”
Before hiring an officer, Rees said his department conducts polygraph tests, mental health evaluations and extensive background checks where neighbors, teachers, past employers and family members are interviewed.
“What we cannot and will not tolerate is dishonesty,” said Rees, who declined to comment on Smith but spoke generally about his department’s high standards.
“With great power comes great responsibility … I’ve got to know that I’m hiring a quality person,” Rees said. “Don’t do anything that’s going to cause disrepute to you or bring bad press or a bad look to the police department. That is just something we won’t tolerate here either.”
WCPO asked Callahan if he would hire Smith as an officer in the Lake Waynoka police department.
“Absolutely not. I’ve passed over applicants for much less,” Callahan said.
But Smith said he quit drinking alcohol after his arrest, attended counseling and has worked hard to become a better person. He said he used alcohol to cope with anxiety and the stress of policing, and wants to help other first responders with mental health issues.
“I knew that I needed to change who I was as a person,” Smith said. “I think only now that I’ve been on the other side can I understand what people are going through, so I may have more empathy for certain situations.”
A Brown County judge sentenced Smith to two years of probation and ordered attendance of anger management classes, a mental health assessment, and not to drink alcohol, according to court records.
Smith’s court-ordered probation is set to end in July.
In September 2025, Smith switched police departments, leaving Manchester to become a part-time officer in the neighboring Brown County villages of Sardinia, with roughly 1,100 residents, and Russellville, where approximately 550 people live.
“I’ve tried my best, and I will continue to do the best that I can do to serve, wherever I’m at,” said Smith, who now works with Brown in Sardinia and Russellville, where both are patrol officers.
Brown said he left the Manchester police department, where he was the chief, because the village council was unwilling to hire more officers or boost pay.
“I had taken the department as far as I could … it was time to expand, and I needed more officers to get night coverage,” Brown said. “I was making $18,000 less than any chief in the county with a higher call volume.”
Sardinia hired Brown at a rate of $21 an hour to work full-time, and Smith, as a part-time officer, earned $19 per hour, according to village council records from September 2025.
"If you are a smaller department like some of our departments out east, our villages where there are only four or five officers ... they can’t afford to have a lot of officers. They can’t afford to pay you a lot, and more importantly, they can’t afford to offer you a lot of training," said Rees, noting that hiring is a challenge even at larger departments.
"It’s tough to be a police officer in this day and age. The eyes are always on you," Rees said.
Brian Perry, police chief for both Sardinia and Russellville, said Smith was an officer in good standing with no disciplinary action on file, as of early February, when WCPO first reached out to him.
“I’m glad that he’s a cop because he’s a good guy,” Brown said. “He doesn’t do anything immoral or unethical, and he’s doing a good job.”
But not everyone is convinced that Smith should continue to wear a badge.
“Am I the deciding factor, without knowing all the information, if he should be law enforcement? I’m not that,” Callahan said. “However, would I be comfortable knowing that he patrolled around where I reside? Not at all. For mine or my family’s safety.”
