Deputy sues Portage County Sheriff’s Office in overtime pay, alleged retaliation case

A Portage County sheriff’s deputy has sued the office in federal court, claiming he was subject to retaliation when he requested tens of thousands of dollars in overtime pay.

In his Sept. 15 lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, Deputy Eric Centa claimed that the Portage County Sheriff’s Office “failed and refused to pay him a significant amount of overtime and continues to refuse to pay him earned overtime.”

Centa wrote that he is being paid for his usual 40-hour work week, but stated that his job routinely involves excess hours. He is asking the court to award him “in excess of” $47,000 in earned overtime pay.

The Portager requested comment from Centa’s attorney, John F. Myers, and from Portage County Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski, but did not receive replies. And, as is her policy, Portage County Prosecutor Connie Lewandowski declined to comment on ongoing litigation. 

The lawsuit details Centa’s repeated requests for overtime pay, some of which allegedly date back to 2018. He stated that when he exceeded the maximum amount of overtime pay allowed by his union contract, he was told he would not receive further overtime pay. Supportive documents attached to Centa’s lawsuit do not specify what that maximum amount of overtime pay was.

“This has placed Plaintiff in a difficult position as the work he is assigned by the agency regularly involves significant amounts of overtime,” the lawsuit states.

The sheriff’s office allegedly violated state law by ordering Centa not to turn in his overtime hours on his weekly timesheets and by refusing to record the deputy’s true hours, the lawsuit states.

Instead of addressing Centa’s complaints, the lawsuit alleges that Zuchowski, through his subordinates in his chain of command, retaliated against him. Centa alleges that he was:

• Removed from his assigned office
• Not provided with alternative office space
• Removed from work-related text and email chains
• Not notified when county radios were reprogrammed in 2024 
• Forced to return a weapon and a drone he needed to perform his duties 
• Denied a PCSO-issued pistol 
• Excluded from firearms training and qualification even though he is a certified firearms trainer 
• Forbidden to attend outside training 
• Not informed of court dates he was required to attend

Also, “prior to being ordered to leave his assigned office, on two occasions someone left imitation pieces of excrement on [his] desk, and at the time he was ordered to remove his belongings from the office, someone erected a flag above his desk with the message ‘F**K AROUND AND FIND OUT’ emblazoned on the flag,” the lawsuit states.

Though Centa maintains in his lawsuit that he never made any negative and disparaging comments about the Portage County Sheriff’s Office, the lawsuit also claims that on July 21, 2025, he received a formal directive ordering him to “cease and desist” making such comments.

The same day, he was reassigned from his usual assignment — that of a plainclothes investigator — to working in uniform as security at the county courthouse.

In August and September, instead of allowing Centa to continue working the cases he had been pursuing, Zuchowski limited the deputy’s involvement to appearing, under subpoena, at “ongoing judicial hearings and trials to work on the matters he is currently responsible for as the primary case agent,” the lawsuit states.

That, Centa’s lawsuit alleges, is a further violation of union agreements.

Asserting that failure to pay earned overtime is a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, Centa’s lawsuit requests overtime pay at time and a half for every hour worked in excess of 40 hours per week for the three-year period prior to filing the lawsuit.

Because of the sheriff’s office’s alleged repeated pattern of retaliation, Centa is also requesting compensatory damages for emotional distress, punitive damages, attorney fees and “costs of this action.”

In a Nov. 12 court filing, he stated that he had been on family and medical leave since Oct. 9 “as a result of the retaliation, reassignment and the severe stress” the situation has caused him.

Citing the sheriff’s office’s pattern of retaliation, Centa requested a temporary restraining order, but U.S. District Court Chief Judge Sara Lioi on Sept. 17 rejected his plea. Centa, she wrote, had not shown that “immediate and irreparable injury, loss, or damage” was likely.

A case management conference is set for Dec. 2.