A 39-year-old Mansfield police officer with more than a decade on the force was pulled from his shift Saturday over suspected on-duty drinking, then arrested by a neighboring department that same night on charges including operating a vehicle impaired. Officer John Meyer reported for duty at 1:30 p.m. and was sent for drug and alcohol testing before being placed on administrative leave — and by 9 p.m., he was in handcuffs roughly eight hours later, just a few miles away.
According to the Mansfield Police Department, Meyer was immediately relieved of duty after allegedly reporting for his shift under the influence of alcohol, as reported by WSYX. Department timeline records reported by Richland Source show he was tested at OhioHealth before being placed on leave, and was then arrested by Ontario police at approximately 9 p.m. that same Saturday. The rapid sequence — a workplace intervention followed by a criminal arrest within the same day — left the Mansfield Police Division managing two entirely separate processes at once.
Traffic Stop Turns Up Empty Bottles
Ontario Police stopped Meyer for suspected drunk driving, and an arrest report relayed by 10TV detailed what officers found. Officers reported observing an open bottle of Tito's vodka on the rear passenger floorboard of his vehicle, along with slurred speech and glassy eyes, and the same report says several bags of empty alcoholic beverage containers were removed from the car. The station's report notes Ontario Police handled the stop off-duty and independently of Mansfield command staff, while Mansfield had already addressed the earlier workplace suspension on its own.
Meyer now faces an OVI charge along with open container, marked lanes violation, and improper lane change charges, per WSYX. He was booked into the Richland County Jail. Online court records reviewed by the same outlet show he posted bond the following Monday and was scheduled for a preliminary arraignment in Ontario Mayor's Court on Thursday morning, which handles misdemeanor traffic and municipal offenses originating within Ontario city limits.
Two Cities, Two Separate Processes
Ontario sits directly adjacent to Mansfield in Richland County, with shared commercial corridors like Park Avenue West making cross-jurisdictional stops like this one routine — a detail that explains why a neighboring department, not Mansfield's own force, made the arrest. Meanwhile, Mansfield Police Chief Jason Bammann initiated administrative proceedings under the city's collective bargaining agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police and municipal workplace policies as soon as the alleged on-duty intoxication came to light, according to River News Network. That contractual framework sets out strict procedural steps for internal investigations and drug testing before a unionized officer can face discipline or termination.
Mansfield City Council approved a new three-year labor contract with the FOP in April under Bammann, who took over the more than 100-member police division in early 2024 after previously serving as assistant chief. Meyer, for his part, has a long history with the department: personnel records show he was appointed to the Mansfield Police Division on January 28, 2014, giving him more than 12 years of service before this month's suspension and arrest, and WSYX reports he began his law enforcement career after graduating from the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy that same January.
What Meyer Could Face in Court
Under Ohio Revised Code 4511.19, a standard first-offense OVI conviction is a first-degree misdemeanor carrying a mandatory minimum three-day jail sentence or a 72-hour driver intervention program, fines between $375 and $1,075, and a court-ordered license suspension of one to three years, according to Godinsky Law. Ohio law does not allow OVI convictions to be expunged or sealed from a person's criminal record. The open container charge, meanwhile, falls under Ohio Revised Code 4301.62 and is classified as a minor misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $150, per LHA — a violation that does not carry jail time on its own unless paired with consumption or impaired driving charges.
Separately, Ohio's implied consent law under ORC 4511.191 can trigger an immediate administrative license suspension through the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles for OVI arrestees who refuse chemical testing or register a prohibited blood-alcohol concentration, independent of any court trial outcome. The Koffel Law Firm notes those administrative suspensions can range from 90 days for a failed test up to one year for a refusal on a first offense. It remains unclear whether Meyer submitted to breath or blood testing during the Ontario stop, what his OhioHealth test results showed, or how he plans to plead at his Thursday arraignment, as Meyer now faces both a pending criminal case in Ontario and an active administrative investigation within his own department.
