Oxford man charged with felony after series of early-morning calls to OPD

An Oxford man has been charged with a fourth degree felony for disruption of public services after calling the Oxford Police Department repeatedly.

According to a booking form with the Butler County Sheriff's Office, Oxford resident Adam Sizemore called the Oxford Police Department a dozen times in an hour starting at 3:43 a.m. on July 13. He "was warned numerous times to stop call[ing] without an emergency or police matter, or he would be charged," according to the booking form. OPD officers then took Sizemore into custody at his home.

In a criminal complaint filed in the Butler County Area 1 Court, an OPD officer wrote that Sizemore "kept calling OPD dispatch to argue and insult our dispatcher and officers."

Sizemore was previously charged with telecommunications harassment and menacing in March after calling Kramer Elementary multiple times. According to a statement from an administrator in the Talawanda School District on one of the complaints, Sizemore "had previously been ordered ... not to call the school line due to his repeated verbal abuse and vulgar language directed at school staff."

FOX19 reported in March that Sizemore called the school "to complain about the amount of homework" according to OPD. An officer told FOX19 at the time that Sizemore followed up by calling OPD "18 times roughly."

According to court records, the charges this month violated the terms of Sizemore's probation from the March incident. The court required Sizemore to be placed on monitored time for one year starting on June 13.

In audio of Sizemore's July 13 calls obtained by the Oxford Free Press, Sizemore repeatedly swears and uses derogatory language to refer first to a dispatcher and then to an officer. When asked to stop, he states that it's his "First Amendment right." Sizemore states that his reason for calling was to ask about the arrest of a different individual earlier in the night, which Sizemore says on the phone that he witnessed. The dispatcher explains to Sizemore multiple times that the other individual was arrested for failing to identify himself, Sizemore repeatedly responds with, "No, you're wrong."

The officer on duty warns Sizemore six times that he will face charges if he continues to call and "tie up public resources." After more than half an hour of phone calls, the officer says, "You will be facing legal action because of this, and I'm not arguing with you about it."

Lieutenant Lara Fening of OPD said the department relies on dispatchers for a number of tasks in addition to calls. Emergency calls go to a county-wide dispatch.

"All night, [dispatchers] are busy doing the work that I've assigned them," Fening said. "Whatever that is, it's typically involved with parking or records. So for that hour [that Sizemore called], he was not able to do any of his normal work because of the harassing phone calls."

Fening said the department sometimes receives calls from angry residents who want to vent their frustrations. Dispatchers' first priority is to deescalate, and the incidents rarely result in charges, Fening said. Instead, they attempt to determine what the caller's problem is and direct them to the proper resources before explaining that continued calls will result in charges. At that point, Fening said, most callers will stop.

"When emotions are high, people don't handle things well," Fening said, "and so we're used to that ... We're fairly patient with these types of situations."

Sizemore attended his arraignment on July 18 and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on July 25 according to the case docket.