By Lucas Sullivan
The Columbus Dispatch
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Even after a supervisor told her to stop, a Columbus firefighter’s mistress said she rode on fire vehicles headed to emergency scenes and had sex with the firefighter in the station’s shower and another firefighter’s room.
The mistress testified yesterday at a Civil Service Commission hearing that will decide whether former Columbus Firefighter Marc Cain’s firing was warranted.
Cain requested the hearing to try to get his job back after Safety Director Mitchell J. Brown fired him in March. The city’s six-month investigation found that Cain was dishonest, insubordinate and engaged in bad behavior by engaging in the affair while on duty at Fire Station 17 on the Hilltop.
The hearing has been continued until Oct. 27 because several firefighters who were subpoenaed were not available to testify. Cain is expected to be the last person to testify.
With her parents and friends in attendance, Cain’s 21-year-old former mistress briefly testified about where she and Cain had sex inside Station 17 during a two-year affair that began when she was 18.
The Dispatch is not naming the woman because she was not under investigation.
The city had undercover officers in the hearing because the woman’s father previously had threatened to kill Cain, 49.
Cain’s wife also was at the second day of the hearing and listened to the testimony.
The woman said that they had sex in another firefighter’s room. Firefighter Douglas Hotchkiss testified on Wednesday that Cain bragged that he cleaned himself up after sex by using the firefighter’s bedcovers.
Cain and his attorney, John C. Camillus, maintain that the 24-year veteran was fired only because of intense media coverage of the affair.
Camillus and Cain are trying to establish to the three-member commission that the affair never hurt Cain’s job performance and that Station 17 had a culture of allowing civilians inside at all hours of the day.
Cain has denied repeatedly that he had sex inside the station. Two firefighters and his mistress said he had sex or oral sex there at least twice.
Camillus asked the woman about a relationship she had with a fire lieutenant after her affair with Cain. The woman testified that she rode on emergency equipment with the lieutenant, but that their brief sexual relationship did not take place at the firehouse or when he was on duty.
She said Cain was angry when he found out about her relationship with the lieutenant.
Camillus then called more firefighters yesterday, who testified about Cain’s “stellar” reputation as a firefighter and said that a culture of unchecked rule-breaking persisted within the Fire Division.
William Balthaser, a retired battalion chief, testified that firefighters flouted authority at Station 17.
“It seemed like, in the unit, not all the rules were followed,” he said.
Balthaser testified that civilians were at the fire station at all hours, including in rooms of supervisors.
“I knocked on the lieutenant’s door. When I opened it, there was a fully-dressed woman sitting on his bed,” he said.
Another firefighter, Doug Shell, testified that Cain was “an excellent” fireman and excelled at nearly all his tasks.
Camillus, however, repeatedly tried the patience of the commission yesterday with questions that members said were not germane to the case. They also said he was taking too long to make his points.
Once, Camillus was trying to pick apart testimony from firefighters who said Cain admitted to them he had sex inside the station.
The commission’s president, former federal judge Grady Pettigrew Jr., scolded Camillus, saying he was trying to parse out words and ask the commission to throw out all the details relating to the sex and lies from Cain.
“We will be here two years if you are going to go through each discrepancy,” Pettigrew said. " There are always discrepancies in these types of investigations.”
Camillus apologized and moved on with questioning.
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