How to um....lose your pension

Man pleads no contest for masturbating in Kohl's store
Wednesday, January 6, 2010 3:18 AM


A former Grove City police sergeant will be sentenced March 9 after he pleaded no contest to a public-indecency charge yesterday.

A security officer at the Kohl's store on Morse Road confronted Steven J. Howard on July 2 after someone complained he was masturbating in the store.

Howard, 54, of Zuber Road in Jackson Township, resigned from the police department before he could be investigated. He was a 26-year veteran whose last assignment involved the supervision of a crime-prevention bureau and school resource officers.

Howard declined to comment through his attorney, Mark C. Collins.

By pleading no contest to the misdemeanor charge, he was found guilty without admitting guilt. He could be sentenced to 60 days in jail and fined $500 by Franklin County Municipal Judge James E. Green.

-- Bruce Cadwallader

bcadwallader@dispatch.com