COLERAIN TOWNSHIP, OH — If you follow the "Stop the Stink" signs in Harrison, you'll eventually arrive at Michael Brandt's home near the Bond Road Landfill.

The landfill's owner, Rumpke Waste and Recycling, wants to expand the landfill and increase the amount of solid waste stored there.

"It's just going to make this place smell terrible," Brandt said. "I don't want to wake up every morning, come out here to where we live and work, smelling garbage."

Comments like that got the attention of the Hamilton County Commission.

On Dec. 16, the commission approved new rules for landfills in the county that will give commissioners more oversight and the public more input into how landfills operate.

Now, the county commissioners must approve new landfills and modifications for current landfills.

According to Hamilton County's resolution, 43% of the waste in Rumpke's Hamilton County landfills comes from outside the county.

The resolution also mentions that more than 20 Ohio counties have adopted similar rules for solid waste.

The Rumpke-owned landfill in Colerain Township is one of the largest in the country and by far the biggest landfill in Ohio.

The landfill contains 63 million tons of waste and the capacity to add another 100 million tons, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Residents have repeatedly complained about odors, traffic and noise at Rumpke's Colerain Township landfill.

"We don't have rules in Hamilton County addressing those concerns," Hamilton County Commissioner Denise Driehaus said. "So, that's what these rules allow us to do."

But at last week's Hamilton County Commission meeting, Rumpke executive Bill Rumpke III said the new rules will create more obstacles for his already heavily regulated business.

"These rules are limiting an essential service that is extremely integral to the region's public health and economic growth," Rumpke III said.

In a written statement, Rumpke Waste and Recycling insisted that Hamilton County's new rules prevent the company from being able to plan for the region's needs and stay in compliance with environmental protection laws.

But the company didn't say how the new rules prevent it from doing that.

It's also unclear how the new rules will impact millions of dollars in revenues landfills generate for communities in Hamilton County.

But residents who live near the landfills call it an important step that's long overdue.

CINCINNATI — A Cincinnati police officer, accused of storing completed rape kits in his police locker and failing to turn them in to prosecutors, is expected to plead guilty to dereliction of duty as soon as next week, according to his criminal defense attorney, Mike Allen.

Officer Christopher Schroder, repeatedly praised by his police supervisors in recent years for his investigative work, is now suspended with pay following an internal CPD investigation.

"These allegations are incredibly disturbing," wrote Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters Wednesday in a statement provided to WCPO 9 News. "We are working closely with our partners in the Cincinnati Police Department to determine the extent to which these allegations have effected investigations."

"Following the appointment of new leadership at our Criminal Investigations Section in June of 2021 an audit was conducted, and that is how this situation involving Officer Christopher Schroder was brought to light," said Police Chief Eliot Isaac in a written statement released Wednesday. "As soon as the department uncovered this distressing information, swift action was taken."

CPD investigators completed a "comprehensive review of all the cases assigned to Officer Schroder since being assigned to the Personal Crimes Squad has been conducted. Any case that requires action has been prioritized and reassigned," Isaac's statement said.

The CPD declined to respond to the WCPO 9 I-Team's questions about the case or how the police department was apparently unable to account for missing rape kits until recently.

"We have received all your questions, but this is an on-going criminal investigation," CPD Spokeswoman Emily Szink wrote in an email response to our questions.

Schroder's police personnel records show in 2016 he failed to pick up four rape kits for months at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

On Dec. 21, 2016, Sgt. David Simpson met with Schroder "to discuss the importance of picking up rape kits and processing them in a timely manner," according to Schroder's police personnel records.

Micaela Deming, policy director of the Ohio Domestic Violence Network, says delays in prosecuting sexual assault cases create more trauma for survivors.

"I have absolutely spoken with survivors months after still waiting for answers an that makes it difficult," Deming said. "It makes it difficult to heal."

Deming says it's concerning that it required a police audit to find missing rape kits.

In his statement, Isaac said that CPD was focused on making sure something like this doesn't happen again.

Schroder's personnel records show supervisors gave him an overall rating of 'exceeds standards' for each of his last five annual performance reviews.

That includes 2016 when a supervisor counseled Shroder for failing to pick up rape kits for months at Children's Hospital.

CPD said the department took away Schroder's policing powers in August following initial findings of the audit.

Schroder is suspended with pay, according to CPD, pending the outcome of the investigation.

Allen told the WCPO 9 I-Team Wednesday that Schroder had reached an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of dereliction of duty.

But in a statement Thursday, Deters said prosecutors haven't reached a plea agreement with Schroder because all parties haven't signed off on it and it must be approved by a judge.

BLUE ASH — Blue Ash officers executing a search warrant in August 2020 found a semi-automatic rifle and 1,800 rounds of ammunition in the bedroom of Robert "Bo" Weber, a man on parole for a gun-related crime.

Weber's felony conviction made it a crime for him to possess a firearm.

According to a Blue Ash police affidavit, someone admitted purchasing the gun for Weber, but the buyer wasn't charged.

A 2018 General Accounting Office report found people caught lying on federal firearms purchase forms are rarely charged, even though that's a felony.

The I-Team's review of federal cases also found that when so-called 'straw-purchasers' of firearms are charged, it's usually because the gun was used in a violent crime or was part of a larger criminal conspiracy.

Straw-purchasers are often friends or relatives of the people getting the guns, according to Bureau of Justice Statistics surveys of felons charged with gun possession.

The I-Team interviewed the person who told police she bought the rifle for Weber.

WCPO isn't identifying her because she hasn't been charged.

Blue Ash Police Department

Weber, now 28, was convicted of a felony for illegally possessing a firearm. He's serving a two-year prison sentence.

"I think you have to have public officials take this more seriously," said Dr. Daniel W. Webster, Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research in Baltimore. "Cracking down and sending a message on illegal straw-purchasers is really central, in my opinion, to ultimately having long-term sustainable reductions in gun violence."

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The GAO report said there were 112,000 firearms transactions denied in fiscal year 2017 because of false information on federal firearms purchase forms.

That resulted in 12,700 cases investigated by Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agents, according to the GAO report.

The GAO report found, "U.S. Attorney's Offices had prosecuted 12 of these cases as of June 2018."

"Where we can prove the elements beyond a reasonable doubt, we're taking those cases," said Vipal Patel, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio since last March.

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Patel, First Assistant U.S. Attorney since April 2016, declined to comment on the Blue Ash case.

"The Blue Ash Police Department considers this a successful resolution to this case," said Blue Ash Police Chief Scott Noel in an email response to the I-Team's questions about the case against Bo Weber and the gun buyer's role in it. "To avoid jeopardizing future cases, I will not discuss specific investigative or tactical techniques used by the Blue Ash Police Department."

The I-Team emailed two requests to the office of Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters requesting comment, but his office has not provided one.

Former United States Attorney Ben Glassman reviewed the Blue Ash police records at the I-Team's request.

Michael Benedic

"The facts that you've shared with me - in my mind - warrant an investigation at the conclusion of which a charging decision should be made," said Glassman who is now a partner with the law firm Squire Patton Boggs. "The point of federal law prohibiting people from owning firearms is to make sure firearms stay out of the wrong hands."

Patel said federal prosecutors have charged individuals with lying on federal firearms forms and will continue to do so if the case warrants it.

"The principle here is to make sure the federal government's resources are expended wisely," Patel said. And "that justice is being served in an appropriate fashion."

Local gun 'straw buyer' cases

In recent years, federal prosecutors have charged several local individuals with lying on firearms purchase forms.

One of the most high-profile cases followed the 2019 mass murder in Dayton's popular Oregon District.

Connor Betts opened fire on dozens of people, killing 9 and wounded 17 before police shot and killed him.

The U.S. Attorney's Office charged Betts' friend, Ethan Kollie, with providing false information on a firearms purchase form.

Kollie bought firearms parts for the semi-automatic rifle Betts used, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

In February 2020, a federal judge sentenced Kollie to 32 months in prison. He's scheduled to be released in June 2022.

Paola Suro

Three months after the Dayton mass murder, DEA Task Force Officer Jorge Del Rio was shot and killed during a raid at a Dayton home.

According to a DEA affidavit, Nathan Goddard told investigators he shot Del Rio because he thought the officer broke into his house to rob him.

A federal grand jury indicted Goddard for killing Del Rio and for possession and intent to distribute fentanyl, cocaine and marijuana.

Federal agents found three weapons in the home, including the one used to kill Del Rio, according to federal prosecutors.

Investigators traced the weapons back to a Trenton man, Delano Wells, who purchased the firearms for Arland Mills, also from Trenton.

Mills pleaded guilty to hiring Wells to illegally buy firearms for him.

Wells pleaded guilty to lying on the firearms purchase forms.

Last month, a federal judge sentenced Wells to time served with three years supervised release, the first six months on home detention.

The U.S. Attorney's Office also prosecuted a Columbus man for providing false information on firearms purchase forms he used to buy weapons for a gun smuggling operation.

In nearly all cases the I-Team found where federal prosecutors in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky had charged someone with providing false information when buying a gun, there were additional serious crimes involved later by people who used the straw-purchased guns, including trafficking of guns and drugs, and murder.

However, in 2018, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Ohio charged a man with a felony for giving his father a handgun.

Rodney McMeans, Jr. pleaded guilty to transferring the firearm to his father, Rodney McMeans, who was prohibited from possessing a gun because of his violent criminal history, which included convictions for attempted aggravated murder, kidnapping and rape.

McMeans Sr. was not accused of committing more crimes with the gun his son gave him.

In July 2019, a federal judge sentenced McMeans Jr. to three years probation. His father received a sentence of 37 months in prison.

Cincinnati's crackdown on illegal guns

In Cincinnati, a Gun Crime Task Force is focusing on getting illegal guns off the streets and prosecuting the convicted felons who possessed those firearms in violation of state and federal law.

The task force includes a special unit of Cincinnati officers.

A prosecutor from both the Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney's Office and the City of Cincinnati Law Department join federal prosecutors on the task force.

So far, the U.S. Attorney's Office has announced criminal charges against 52 individuals.

There have not been charges announced against people who provided those guns to the defendants.

Cincinnati Police Department

"We're focusing the limited resources of the federal government on the where we can have the biggest impact," Patel said.

That means "targeted enforcement," Patel said, not blanket prosecutions of everyone who lied on a federal firearm purchasing form.

"There have been actions, there will be actions" brought against straw gun purchasers, Patel said.

The Cincinnati Police Department is focusing more time, effort and resources into gun-related investigations.

CPD plans to move their Crime Gun Intelligence Center into a new building in October.

It will be the first facility of its kind in Ohio and will help investigators more effectively trace a firearm's history, according to CPD.