The Infamous Ex-Chief

Send us Fan Mail Episode 2 of The Worst-Kept Secret in Rocky River. In June of 2024, the first victim's best friend sat down with BCI Special Agents Heather Karl and Stacy Pfeiffer at the Richfield Field Office. She had known the first victim since eighth grade. Twenty years later, she remembered every detail. This episode is built from her recorded BCI statement, the first victim's own...

Send us Fan Mail Every legacy media outlet in Cleveland ran the press releases, aired the clips, and moved on. Nobody read the appellate record. Nobody stayed with the story. I did. On May 2, 2025, I identified the exact legal problem that 7 judges on the Ohio Court of Appeals Eighth District just confirmed this morning was serious enough to stop everything and examine. Today, July 6, 2026, the fu...

Send us Fan Mail Six search warrants. Four agencies. One outcome nobody can explain on the record. 🔍 Michael Bernhardt was a Rocky River police officer for 29 years. For the last 12, he was the school resource officer with a badge, keys to every building in the district, and daily unsupervised access to students. He also spent 16 years on the Internet Crimes Against Children task force, where he...

Send us Fan Mail They closed this case and called it "likely" self-infliction. But here's what the actual file says. 🔍 Bryon Macron was a Lafayette Township trustee in Medina County, Ohio. He was also a trained FAST Marine. On December 16, 2016, he texted a business contact at 12:36 AM to say he'd be there the next morning. Seventy-four minutes later, a vehicle matching his pu...

Send us Fan Mail A progressive blogger named D.J. Byrnes, who runs the newsletter The Rooster, was sitting in a public hearing at the Ohio Statehouse when the State Highway Patrol walked up and arrested him. The charge was a first-degree misdemeanor for telecommunications harassment. The conduct behind it was an AI cartoon of Shrek and two text messages sent to State Senator Jerry Cirino, a Lake C...

Send us Fan Mail Christine Russo AKA the Big Sister: Unhinged has stayed quiet for four years. Not anymore. 🔍 On July 31st, 2022, her younger brother Dominic Russo and his friend Davion Flanagan died when Mackenzie Shirilla drove a Toyota Camry into a brick wall at nearly 100 miles an hour. A judge later found Shirilla guilty of murder. Two counts. 15 years to life. Then Netflix released The Cras...

Send us Fan Mail Government Won't Release Records? Here's Why "Ongoing Investigation" is ILLEGAL When you request public records, government agencies love hiding behind "ongoing investigation." But that's not how the law works. In this video, I break down: ✓ What Ohio law ACTUALLY says about investigations ✓ Why agencies use this as a blanket excuse ✓ Real exampl...

Send us Fan Mail Bryan Malinowski ran the Little Rock Airport, had no criminal record, and sold coins and guns at weekend gun shows as a hobby. He never got a warning. Never got a letter. The ATF showed up at 6AM with 10 vehicles, breached his front door in 28 seconds, and shot him in the head. Two years later, not one agent has faced any consequence. No press conference. No report. Nothing. Attor...

Send us Fan Mail I released a detailed investigative breakdown of the Parma Heights Police Department's incident report from April 20, 2026. This video covers critical details that haven't been widely reported, and I'm correcting a mistake I made early in my coverage. CORRECTION: I repeatedly mispronounced Officer Christopher D. Rossman's name throughout my initial reporting. H...

Send us Fan Mail 1If you're charged with a crime you didn't commit, you still might take the plea deal. That's not a bug in the system — it's a feature.  Criminal defense attorney Edward F. Cohn has spent 23 years inside courtrooms in Arizona, Michigan, and Massachusetts watching this play out. In this episode of The Infamous Ex-Chief, we break down the trial penalty, why prose...

Send us Fan Mail She was two days from walking into that courtroom. Dawn Pasela wasn't a random victim. She was the office manager of a federal mortgage fraud task force — handling evidence, organizing discovery, working alongside FBI agents and federal prosecutors every single day. Then she started seeing what was really happening inside that office. Fabricated cases. Destroyed computers. A...

Send us Fan Mail North Royalton police stop controversy involving Officer Lowe has raised serious questions about police accountability, internal affairs investigations, and DUI stop procedures. In this interview, retired LAPD Internal Affairs Sergeant Marlon Marrache (Truth Behind the Badge) breaks down the North Royalton police stop and explains how internal affairs investigations actually work...

Send us Fan Mail Apple Creek’s former Police Chief Doug Miller is speaking out… and he’s not holding anything back. In this exclusive sit-down with The Infamous Ex-Chief, Miller breaks down what really led to his resignation, the internal battles with council, and what was happening behind the scenes that the public never saw. From budget fights and leadership philosophy to what he calls “personal...

Send us Fan Mail What if the biggest problem in media coverage isn’t what gets said — but what gets left out? In this interview, I sit down with Rob Rosen, Emmy-winning television producer, investigative journalist, and author of Crimes of Omission: Distorted Justice, the Media’s War on Truth. We break down how major national stories involving police, crime, and public outrage can be shaped not ju...

Send us Fan Mail All my lawyers in the house—this one’s for you. You already know what you’re about to see, because the moment you put body camera, the police report, and the law director’s letter side-by-side, the argument collapses. ⚖️📄🎥 Today we’re walking through North Royalton’s justification for altering a police report using the phrase everyone loves to throw around: “prosecutorial discre...

Send us Fan Mail What would happen in your town if the mayor just shut down the fire department—no reorganization, no restructure, no negotiation—just turned it off? That’s essentially what residents in Hiram, Ohio woke up to: the Hiram Fire Department, including local EMS coverage, was suspended. And when emergency services disappear, even briefly, that’s not small-town drama. That’s a public saf...

Send us Fan Mail The Eighth District Court of Appeals has affirmed the conviction in State of Ohio v. Larry McDonald. The court held: • Law enforcement officials testified as lay witnesses under Evid. R. 701 • The testimony was permissible • The convictions were supported by sufficient evidence • The verdict was not against the manifest weight • The sentence was not contrary to law or excessive Th...

Send us Fan Mail The 8th District affirmed it: the testimony stands, the evidence stands, and the sentence stands. That’s the ruling. On this 4th of 4 series: Now here’s the bigger question—when courts and prosecutors make decisions that shape someone’s freedom, who holds them accountable? I’m Scott Gardner—former cop, former homicide detective, and former chief of police. I’ve seen both sides of...

Send us Fan Mail I’m going to talk about something I don’t normally cover—and I want to be clear up front: I’m split on this issue. I’m not a cannabis activist. I’ve never used marijuana. This isn’t “stoner politics.” This is an accountability conversation. In 2023, Ohio voters passed Issue 2—legalizing recreational marijuana for adults 21+, setting possession limits, home grow rules, taxes, and a...

Send us Fan Mail When the court process keeps bending in the same direction, it stops being “mistake” and starts looking like system design. In this episode, I break down how Ohio court process can tilt outcomes through a burden shift, how “standard of review” becomes a shield, and why phrases like harmless error and “prove the prejudice” can protect bad procedure instead of correcting it. This is...

Send us Fan Mail Be decided by juries — not by prosecutors. That’s the line we’re supposed to defend. But in these cases, that line didn’t just blur… it got crossed. I’m Scott Gardner — former homicide detective and former chief of police — and this is an accountability platform. I’m pro-cop, not pro-corruption. That means I’m not here to attack officers for doing their jobs, and I’m not here to p...

Send us Fan Mail North Royalton residents noticed something change on the North Royalton Police Department Facebook page: comments restricted, unavailable, or gone. In this episode, Scott Gardner (former cop, former homicide detective, former chief of police) breaks down why Facebook comments on an official government page can carry First Amendment implications, why timing and viewpoint-neutral mo...

Send us Fan Mail Blue Collar Cop responded to my first question: What’s the biggest misconception civilians have about police use of force? He laid out four claims: “shoot to stop the threat,” no Hollywood shots (arms/legs, guns out of hands, warning shots), why Tasers fail more than people think, and what de-escalation can—and can’t—do. In this video, I break down what’s accurate, what’s oversimp...

Send us Fan Mail Former police chief reviews Rocky River SRO oversight using public records/court filings. Tips welcome (anonymous/confidential): https://www.theinfamousexchief.com Support the show Visit: https://www.liinks.co/the.infamous.exchief

Send us Fan Mail In Part 1 of this four-part series, I’m breaking down an East Cleveland, Ohio case that should matter to every police officer—and every citizen who still believes the government has to follow the rules. ⚖️🧾🚨 This isn’t about giving police “special treatment.” It’s about equal treatment under the law and the one rule criminal justice can’t survive without: the state proves guilt...