HAMILTON - Because of “a disturbing pattern of continuing violence, both on- and off-duty,” according to a police department letter, Sgt. Joseph P. Booher was fired Monday by Hamilton Police Chief Neil Ferdelman.

        Sgt. Booher was arrested and charged with domestic violence against his wife earlier this month.

        In an 18-page letter to Sgt. Booher, requested by the Enquirer under Ohio's public records law, Chief Ferdelman said the behavior leading to Sgt. Booher's dismissal after 17 years on the force began in 1998, when Sgt. Booher was involved in two

        confrontations with lower-ranking officers, including a scuffle with Detective James Cifuentes at police headquarters that earned him a suspension and demotion that was later overturned by the Civil Service Commission.

        The chief's letter also said Sgt. Booher made “attempts to mislead law enforcement officials” about his whereabouts as they investigated an Aug. 8 domestic violence report. Further, according to the letter, investigators interviewed multiple witnesses who backed Joanne D. Booher's allegations of physical abuse throughout their eight-and-a-half- year marriage. Mrs. Booher told investigators she was reluctant to report the beatings because she feared her husband would lose his police job, and because he had warned her there were “places in Kentucky that he could get rid of her body and nobody would ever find her,” the letter said.

        Sgt. Booher's lawyer, Timothy R. Evans, did not return a telephone call seeking comment Monday.

        The letter said that the chief found Sgt. Booher guilty of departmental violations, including his third finding of conduct unbecoming an officer. “Consequently, upon consideration of the totality of factors, you are hereby terminated from employment, effective immediately,” the letter stated.

        The chief said in the letter that he saw Mrs. Booher after the incident, and “she had a plastic sandwich bag containing a large amount of hair which you pulled from her head.” Further, her documented injuries included “areas of impact in her right face, an associated abrasion to the right knee and pain in the right side of her neck,” the chief wrote.

        When a supervisor asked whether her past injuries were this severe, “she replied that this was minor. She stated that (Sgt. Booher) beat her really badly approximately two months ago and that she was bruised all over her body,” the letter said.

        The day after the incident, Sgt. Booher called the police station and told a supervisor he was away from home, the chief wrote. However, officers arrived at the Booher residence and found Sgt. Booher there, according to the letter.

        “Upon officers' entry, you yelled at them that you had a back injury and you could not get out of bed . . . One of your hands was concealed by a cover, and as Lt. (Gerald) Martin made an attempt to move the cover, you became angry at the lieutenant, slapping his hand away,” the chief wrote.

        The chief said in the letter that his decision to dismiss Sgt. Booher was based upon a “preponderance of the evidence,” regardless of the outcome of the misdemeanor criminal charge in Hamilton Municipal Court.

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