BAY CITY, MI — Three Bay City Public Safety officers have resigned, effectively ending the department's internal investigation into a citizen's complaint against the three, said Public Safety Director Michael J. Cecchini.

Now, prosecutors must decide if any criminal charges are warranted in connection with the complaint.

Cecchini said Tuesday, June 18, that officers Brian K. Ritchey, Don Aldrich and Keath B. Bartynski resigned from the police force on Monday, June 17, the same day the department concluded an internal investigation based on the citizen’s complaint.

Michael Cecchini

Cecchini has not said what the investigation determined or why the officers resigned.

Now, the matter is in the hands of Bay County Prosecutor Kurt C. Asbury, who said he planned to forward his criminal investigation to Attorney General Bill Schuette’s office as early as Tuesday.

“… My office is requesting the appointment of a special prosecutor from the (Michigan) Attorney General’s Office to avoid the appearance of any impropriety or conflict of interest,” Asbury said, adding he expects a response from Schuette’s office to take a couple of weeks.

Cecchini said the next step for his department is to send a findings letter to the 39-year-old Bay County man who filed the citizen’s complaint against the three officers.

Ritchey, Aldrich and Bartynski were placed on paid suspension within a few days of an alleged incident on Thursday, May 2 involving the citizen’s personal property, Cecchini has said.

Bay City attorney Jason Gower, who said he is representing the man who filed the complaint, said the alleged incident in question took place at Steamer’s Pub, 108 N. Linn St. He said his client — whom neither he nor police have named — told him the incident began after he stepped outside the bar and took a photograph using his Samsung S3 smartphone of a police Chevrolet Tahoe parked nearby.

A photo taken by a patron at Steamer's Pub in Bay City the morning of May 2 appears to show a Bay City Police Chevrolet Tahoe parked facing the wrong way. The man posted the photograph to Facebook, an act which attorney Jason P. Gower says set off a series of events that led to three officers being suspended. The officers resigned this week.

He said his client uploaded the photo to Facebook with the caption: “Bay City’s finest illegally parked so they can flirt with a Bay City bartender, keep it up Brian Ritchie [sic] you’re doing our city proud.”

Gower said his client told him Ritchey later entered Steamer’s and, along with Aldrich, who was at the bar off duty, confronted his client. Gower said his client used his phone to record the two officers’ encounter with his client.

A short time later, Gower’s client told him, Bartynski arrived while on duty. Gower’s client told him the three officers later went outside where Bartynski placed the man in handcuffs, searched him and put him into the back of a police Tahoe.

Gower said his client told him he was later released, and his client said his cell phone went missing and has yet to turn up.

While the video allegedly taken by Gower’s client has not been recovered as his phone remains missing, a bartender at Steamer’s filmed an approximately 20-second video on her smartphone showing the citizen in handcuffs being searched by Bartynski and put into the back of a police Tahoe while Aldrich and Ritchey stand nearby.

Kurt Asbury

The citizen filed a formal complaint with the Bay County Sheriff’s Office. The ensuing investigation was handled by the Michigan Sheriffs’ Association Mission Team before being turned over to Asbury’s office, Cecchini said. Their work is considered a criminal investigation.

The officers have not been charged with any wrongdoing, and Gower said no civil cases have been filed in connection with his client’s complaint.

Cecchini said the internal investigation is done.

“That effectively closes the internal investigation, because they are no longer employees," he said, adding the resignations reduce the department’s number of officers to 51.

“As soon as I get approval from the city manager, we’ll start a hiring process to get the staffing back up,” he said. He added that overtime costs needed to pay other officers to cover Ritchey, Aldrich and Bartynski’s shifts have increased since their suspension, but that such costs still fall within the department’s budget.

“We’re not going to allow this to blow up overtime,” Cecchini said. “We’ll adequately staff, but we’ve got to remain fiscally responsible.”

Dan Kuhn, business agent for the Police Officers Association of Michigan, the union representing Bay City’s patrol officers, said that with the officers having voluntarily resigned, the union considers any potential grievance procedure as concluded. The officers did not initiate any grievance, he said.

“There’s no further union action required,” he said. “The officers chose to resign, and they’re going to move on. I wish them luck in the future.”

Aldrich served as an officer in Bay City for 17 years; Ritchey served for 12 years; and Bartynski was hired in early 2011 after serving as a part-time officer in both Mount Morris Township and Bridgeport Township.

According to Kuhn, Aldrich and Ritchey will receive reduced pensions from the city, while Bartynski will have to cash out what he’s already contributed.

All three officers have earned commendations for their police work. All three have also been in the news for other reasons.

Ritchey, who also serves as treasurer for Tuscola County’s Akron Township, received his department’s Lifesaving Award in 2012, as well as numerous Exemplary Service Awards during his tenure with the Bay City Public Safety Department.

In December 2004, he was charged with operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated after the Chevrolet pickup he was driving rear-ended another vehicle driven by a 79-year-old man, according to court records. Ritchey’s blood alcohol level registered 0.14 and 0.12, court records indicate. Ritchey pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of impaired driving and was ordered to pay $500 in fines and costs and sentenced to four months of probation, according to court records.

Aldrich also earned his department’s Exemplary Service Award.

In 2009, he was the target of a lawsuit brought by a Bay City mother, who alleged he assaulted her when he served as a liaison officer at T.L. Handy Middle School in March 2007, according to court records. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Bay City, was later settled out of court and dismissed, according to Edward M. Czuprynski, the Bay City attorney who represented the mother.

Bartynski was named the CrimeStoppers Officer of the Year in 2012, the same year he received his department’s Lifesaving Award after he crawled into a burning home on Lee Drive to rescue a teen. Bartynski pulled the youth free and handed him off to Ritchey, who was also present.

Bartynski was thrust into the spotlight in December 2011 after a traffic stop of former Michigan State University football co-captain Trenton Robinson that led to a citizen’s complaint by Robinson against Bartynski. Robinson alleged his civil rights were violated. Bartynski was cleared of wrongdoing other than using profanity.

MLive and The Bay City Times have been unable to reach the former officers for comment.