Cliff Pinckard
Cleveland.com
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Columbus Police Department has fired two police officers and suspended two others for their actions during the arrest of adult film star Stormy Daniels during an appearance in 2018.
ABC 6 reports officers Stephen Rosser and Whitney Lancaster were fired Thursday. Lt. Ron Kemmerling was suspended for 240 hours and Sgt. Scott Soha was suspended for 120 hours, WBNS Channel 10 reports.
Daniels, who says she had an affair with Donald Trump before he was president, was arrested in July 2018 while appearing at Sirens Gentlemen’s Club in Columbus. Daniels was accused of inappropriately touching customers. She claimed the arrest was politically motivated.
Columbus’ city attorney later dropped the misdemeanor charges against Daniels and two others arrested the same night. An investigation conducted by the police department’s internal affairs unit did not sustain an allegation of political motivation by the officers involved, but investigators found the arrest was improper.
In November, the city agreed to pay Daniels $450,000 to settle a lawsuit resulting from her arrest. Trump’s lawyers are trying to get $293,000 from the settlement for lawyers fees and sanctions for a defamation lawsuit she filed against the president. Daniels’ former lawyer, Michael Avenatti, has filed a lien that says Daniels owes him more than $2 million for fees and expenses for when he represented her.