LORAIN — A Lorain police officer was briefly suspended and his duties limited while his superiors investigate allegations involving a “personal issue” with a police dispatcher.

Lorain police Capt. William Engle said that Officer Zachary Iannantuono will also have to complete a “fitness for duty review” before he is allowed to return to patrolling.

Engle declined to provide specifics on the allegations that have been leveled against Iannantuono, who joined the force in April 2007.

But Engle said the allegations had gone through several people before they came to the attention of the Police Department’s command staff. Iannantuono has denied any wrongdoing, Engle said.

“We haven’t got the scoop yet,” he said.

Engle declined to identify the dispatcher, who remains on active duty.

Iannantuono was relieved of his duty weapon Thursday evening and temporarily placed on leave, but Engle said that as a precaution he would be limited to working either the city jail or on desk duty until the investigation is complete. He cannot act in the capacity of a police officer until the investigation is resolved.

This isn’t the first time that Iannantuono has had an issue with a police dispatcher.

His one-year probationary period was extended by three months in April 2008 after the department learned he had been mentioned in a Perkins Township police report in which a father reported he had concerns over Iannantuono’s relationship with his young adult daughter, according to documents in his personnel file written by Capt. Robert Davey.

The girl denied having a relationship with Iannantuono, and no charges were ever filed in that case, according Davey’s report. Iannantuono spent three years with Perkins Township police before becoming a Lorain police officer.

Days after the Perkins Township police report was filed, Iannantuono sent a series of text messages to an on-duty police dispatcher in which he “made overt statements of depression and harming himself,” Davey wrote. The messages concerned the dispatcher, and she notified a lieutenant, who called Iannantuono to check on him.

An investigation later determined that Iannantuono had been drinking the night of the text messages, and he told his superiors that he never had any intention of harming himself.

But Davey also concluded that Iannantuono may have emotional problems because of the alleged relationship with the girl in Perkins Township and his 2003 divorce.

Iannantuono agreed to the extension of his probationary period and was later ordered to attend four one-hour therapy sessions, according to his personnel file.

Iannantuono also was reprimanded in February 2008 for driving into standing water during a rainstorm and flooding his patrol car’s engine block, which had to be replaced.

Iannantuono received high marks in a 2008 performance review and also was thanked in a letter by Vermilion Police Chief Robert Kish for assistance he gave that department in 2007, according to the file.

Several Lorain police officers have been punished in recent years for a variety of problems, including accusations of stalking, arriving to work drunk and abusing the department’s sick time policy. Four of the department’s officers also have been charged criminally and have left the department either voluntarily or after being fired.

The U.S. Department of Justice is also investigating allegations of excessive force by members of the Lorain Police Department.

Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.

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