MAINEVILLE, Ohio -- Maineville Police Chief John Reynolds was fired for using the village's Amazon account to make personal purchases, the village solicitor said.
Kevin McDonough, an attorney with Wood & Lamping LLP, said Reynolds had Amazon deliver the items to his home.
Reynolds used his own credit card but was able to avoid paying taxes on the items because of an exemption for municipalities, McDonough said. The total savings was about $13.
"This was nothing more than an inadvertent mistake made by Mr. Reynolds because the village Amazon account and his personal Amazon account were linked," a statement from his attorney, Cori Besse, said. "He used his own credit card to make purchases of personal items, and did not realize that the 'tax exempt' box from the village Amazon account had been checked when making them."
According to a letter from Mayor William Shearer to the village council, an employee noticed a purchase in April, but Reynolds assured her it was a mistake. She noticed more purchases over the summer, Shearer's letter said.
Besse said Reynolds plans to appeal his termination in the Warren County Court of Common Pleas, saying it's wrong on both the law and the facts.
VShearer declined to comment.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Reynolds had been village police chief since January 2006; before that, he worked for the Hamilton Township Police Department and the Warren County Sheriff's Office.
