Former Mantua Police Chief Joseph Urso’s legal effort to get his job back has hit a roadblock and potential dead end.
Common Pleas Judge Becky Doherty on Sept. 17 ordered that Urso’s case be dismissed in Portage County Common Pleas Court, after Urso's lawyer did not respond to the village’s request for dismissal.
Mantua Village Council ousted Urso after a 12-hour hearing on Oct. 22, 2025, levying six allegations against established policies and procedures. Urso struck back on Oct. 30, 2025, with his own four-point filing.
Kent Assistant Law Director Eric Fink, who retains his private practice and represented Urso, on Feb. 24 requested that the matter be referred to mediation. Village Law Director Bill Mason objected on Feb. 27, asserting that the parties had not filed the documents needed for meaningful mediation.
The village lost that round on March 24. After the first and only mediation conference on June 16, mediator Benito Antognoli’s report noted only that the meeting occurred and that both parties had agreed to a second session set for Aug. 17.
On Aug. 13, though, Fink requested a continuance (postponement), telling the court that he’d “had an unexpected family incident” that prevented him from completing the necessary paperwork to make the mediation session “meaningful.”
On Aug. 17, Doherty’s magistrate, Theresa Scahill, ordered the session be rescheduled and stated that no further continuances would be granted to Urso “absent extraordinary circumstances.”
Antognoli’s next report, filed Aug. 26, indicates that he’d asked Fink and Mason for additional sessions, but that the village had withdrawn from mediation and requested that the case be returned to the court’s docket.
Also on Aug. 26, Mason asked the court to dismiss Urso’s lawsuit. On Sept. 17, noting Fink’s lack of response, Doherty granted the village’s request.
Reached at his private Kent law office, Fink said he would look into the dismissal and let The Portager know what he found out. Neither Urso nor Mason could be reached for comment.
In an email to The Portager, Mantua Mayor Tammy Meyer stated that the dismissal of Urso’s appeal brings another step in that matter to a close.
“The decision to terminate a police chief is never made lightly, and it is important that the process be handled in accordance with the law, established procedures, and our responsibility to the community,” she wrote. “Now that the appeal has been dismissed, I believe it is important that we respect the legal process.”