June 13--A Columbus fire battalion chief has been demoted to lieutenant for his role in covering up a sex scandal at a West Side fire station.
Gerald C. Birkhimer did not follow the chain of command and ignored division policy, allowing Firefighter Marc Cain to have an affair with a then 18-year-old woman while on duty, according to an internal report. He also did not take action when Cain gave the woman the electronic passcode to enter the fire station where he worked and allowed her to ride on emergency vehicles without authorization, both violations of division policy.
In February, Fire Chief Gregory A. Paxton found Birkhimer guilty of 21 violations, including dishonesty, insubordination and neglect of duty. He recommended that Birkhimer receive a 240-hour suspension without pay and be demoted from battalion chief to captain.
Mitchell J. Brown, the city's public safety director, instead demoted Birkhimer to lieutenant and suspended him for 24 hours.
Brown fired Cain in March for violating more than a dozen division policies related to the affair.
A report released at the time said Cain, who had been with the department for 24 years, was guilty of "dishonesty, insubordination and failure of good behavior."
Cain had sex with the same woman several times in Station 17 on the Hilltop between September 2011 and April 2013, often during his shift or late at night, the report says, violating division policy. It says he lied about doing so and continued to defy orders from his superiors to stop.
The report also states he sent a picture of his genitals to the woman from his cellphone while he was on duty. Cain, 49, was married when the affair began with the woman, who was 18 at the time.
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