September 4 was about one thing: right of first refusal.
My ex had someone else watching our son during her parenting time. Our divorce decree, signed by a judge, gives me first option in that situation. Not second. First. The exact language says the time has to be offered to me before it goes to “family members, sitters, day care facilities, or other collaterals of the family.”
So I tried to pick him up. She said no. I documented it. One stop, a few minutes, just to have proof for court that someone else was watching him when I should have been offered the time first.
Then she called the police. My phone rang at 4:46 PM.
The Call
Officer Dennis Mohan. Badge 2738. Warren Township Police Department. CAD/Event #25-0010503. I wrote it down because something felt off from the first minute. I also recorded the call, and the transcript is linked at the bottom of this post.
He told me I was “showing a pattern of stalking.” One documentation drive-by, to him, was a pattern.
He told me, in his words, “if there’s even one message from you not involving the child, I’m going to charge you.” One text about anything other than pickup times, and he was ready to file criminal charges.
That isn’t how the statute reads. R.C. 2917.21 requires a purpose to harass, or contact that continues after someone’s been told to stop. A single off-topic message doesn’t meet it. I said as much. It didn’t change the direction of the call.
“It’s Not a Court Order. It’s a Decree.”
The line that stuck with me most: “The decree, it’s not a court order. It’s a decree.”
A decree issued by a court is a court order. It’s enforceable by contempt. That’s the whole point of it. I told him that. He then told me we needed to start doing custody exchanges at the police station, because my ex didn’t feel safe. There was no new court order for that. No judge, no hearing, no agreement from me. Just a request, repeated to me as if it were a rule I had to follow.
His Own Report Called It Civil
Here’s the part I didn’t have when I first wrote about this, and it’s the most important piece.
In the narrative supplement Officer Mohan wrote himself, under incident #25-0010503, dated the day it happened, he documented that he advised me this was a civil matter and that I should contact my attorney and/or the court. He wrote that my ex claimed I sent her nasty texts and had been told to stop contacting her except about the child. He wrote that I told him I wasn’t harassing her, and that I told him I had a court order giving me the right to get my child off the bus.
So by his own hand, on the day of the incident, this was a civil custody dispute that he told me to take to court. That’s his characterization, not mine.
What I Did Next
The next day, September 5, I went to the station in person to get the officer’s name, badge number, and incident number for my custody case. They told me to email Chief Benjamin Harrell to file a formal complaint. I did, that same day. The complaint laid out the quotes from the call, the CAD number, and a request for a complaint number and an assigned investigator.
I followed up three more times by email: September 9, September 20, and October 14. The emails are the part I can document, and they’re linked below. I also called the department on more than one occasion. I never received a written response to any of it. No complaint number, no investigator, no acknowledgment that the complaint existed.
I also filed a public records request for the call audio, CAD logs, and any communications referencing me.
The Charge
A week and a half or so after I filed the complaint, the same Officer Mohan came to my door, with another officer for backup, and personally handed me the charging paperwork for telecommunications harassment.
The charge wasn’t built on the bus incident. It was built on a single text message from more than two years earlier, where I called my ex a bad mother after she did something that hurt our son. Not nice. I own it. But one two-year-old text doesn’t meet Ohio’s definition of harassment, and it was already past the statute of limitations.
Across two years of messages there’s nothing I’d call harassment. There are stretches where I sent a few texts in a short window trying to sort out a pickup. That’s logistics with someone who’s hard to coordinate with, not a crime.
The Timeline
- Sept 4: I exercise a court-ordered right. My ex calls police. Mohan threatens me, tries to move exchanges to the station, and writes a report calling the matter civil and telling me to go to court.
- Sept 5: I file a formal complaint about Mohan with Chief Harrell.
- Sept 8: Mohan signs a criminal complaint against me over the same incident.
- Sept 9, 20, Oct 14: I follow up with Harrell three more times. No written response.
- Nov 25: The prosecutor dismisses the case. It was past the statute of limitations and didn’t meet the definition of harassment.
A civil matter became a criminal charge only after I complained about the officer handling it. I believe that sequence speaks for itself, and I’ll let the reader draw their own conclusion from it.
Why This Is Bigger Than Me
This is what can happen when police step into civil custody disputes they aren’t equipped to read. When the first person to call is believed, and the parent trying to enforce a court order is treated as the threat. When a complaint to the department goes unanswered while a charge moves forward in the background.
Plenty of parents go through some version of this and give up, because pushing back is exhausting and feels pointless. I understand why. I’m choosing to document it instead.
For Anyone Else Going Through This
If Officer Mohan threatened you with charges over normal custody enforcement. If Warren Township PD ignored your complaints. If they tried to change your custody arrangement through pressure rather than a court order.
Email me: derek@omgitsderek.com
Not for a class action. Not for internet points. For the record. The more people who document the same pattern, the harder it is to ignore.
Documents
- Call transcript from 9/4/2025 [Available Upon Request]
- Call audio recording from 9/4/2025 [Available Upon Request]
- Complaint to Chief Harrell [Available Upon Request]
- Public records request [Available Upon Request]
- Court records, Case No. 25 CRB 001589, available on request
- More proof available on request for any news/media
Last updated: 6/26/2026. Warren Township PD: still silent on my complaint. My resolve: still here.
These are my opinions, based on my documentation, public records, a recorded phone call, and the officers’ own written reports. Officer Dennis Mohan and Chief Benjamin Harrell are welcome to respond publicly at any time. If new information changes the picture, I’ll update this post.