A Cuyahoga County grand jury has decided to charge Cleveland Police Officer David Mindek with dereliction of duty for his part in the July 4th shooting of Dan Ficker in Parma. The other Cleveland Officer on the scene, Matthew Craska, has been cleared in the shooting.
According to a release from the prosecutor's office, Mindek is accused of "negligently failing to prevent or halt the commission of an offense or to apprehend an offender, when it is in the law enforcement officer's power to do so alone or with available assistance." Dereliction of duty is a second degree misdemeanor.
As Scene documented in our recent cover story, Mindek and Craska crossed over to Parma in order to confront Ficker about jewelry allegedly stolen from Mindek's residence during a July 4th party. Mindek was off-duty at the time; Craska and Ficker became involved in a physical altercation that ended in the shooting.
The charge comes after a long wait for Ficker's family, who've vocally questioned why the officers approached their son in the first place. Scene spoke briefly this afternoon with Ficker's mother, Bernadette Rolen; she said the grand jury results did not come to as a surprise and that the family plans to file a suit in federal court.
