Stringfellow signed an Employee Performance Improvement Plan (EPIP) on March 6, 2018 that was initiated due to “unsatisfactory performance.”
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The document noted that Stringfellow had been verbally counseled on June 21, July 26 and Aug. 22 in 2017 for “sub-standard performance for traffic contacts, house checks and business checks” and that his performance was still sub-standard in the first two months of 2018.
Stringfellow was arrested May 15 by Brookville police and jailed on a count of domestic violence for allegedly causing severe bruising on the face of an elementary school student with an open-handed slap, according to court records.
Stringfellow was alleged to have hit the child May 8 at a home in Brookville, according to court documents filed in the western division of Montgomery County Municipal Court.
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A Brookville officer was later dispatched to an elementary school to assist Children Services with a case of possible child abuse and to speak to the school’s principal, according to records.
A school counselor told police that the child at first denied how the injury occurred but later said the striking happened after the child got out of bed during the night to get a stuffed animal out of the closet, according to a complaint and affidavit.
Stringfellow admitted to spanking the child but said the slap to the face was unintentional, according to court records.
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Stringfellow has pleaded not guilty. His defense attorney has filed a motion to continue a scheduled June 4 hearing.
The firm representing Stringfellow has not returned messages seeking comment.
Stringfellow also had numerous commendations in his personnel files.
Those included his efforts in locating two suspects who had committed crimes in Huber Heights in February 2014, executing a search warrant with professionalism in 2011, assistance to an out-of-state officer in 2005 and quick investigation of a business breaking and entering in 2003, among others.
Stringfellow had completed an online “domestic violence refresher course” on April 13, 2017, according to his personnel records.
Clay Twp. police Chief John Van Gundy said Stringfellow is on administrative leave, but he wouldn’t comment on the officer’s performance.
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The EPIP followed a string of mixed work evaluations in the past few years of Stringfellow’s nearly 20-year career with the department.
His 2017 evaluation noted that Stringfellow is a “seasoned officer with vast knowledge, but at times doesn’t apply it,” that he has repetitive mistakes in daily paperwork and that, in evaluating subordinates, he does “poor evaluation with minimal documentation.”
Earlier evaluations noted his lack of attention in paperwork, giving the minimum effort and having disorganized records and evidence.
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Stringfellow signed a “last chance agreement” in 2013 in which he was supposed to improve in multiple areas.
Other performance evaluations were generally positive, but one in 2007 said Stringfellow “does not have respect of junior officers” and that he was issued an EPIP in 2006.
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