SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — An Ohio sheriff’s patrol commander apologized and blamed prescription sleep aids for causing his “out of character” actions, announcing on Facebook that he would not help Democrats and would require proof of who a person voted for before providing assistance.

According to WHIO-TV, Lt. John Rodgers, a 20-year veteran of the sheriff’s office in Clark County, where Springfield is the county seat, made the statements in various posts on Facebook.

“I’m sorry. I won’t help you if you support the Democratic Party,” Rodgers reportedly wrote in one post. Another said: “The problem is, I know which one of you supports the Democratic Party and I’m not going to help you survive until the end of time.”

The sheriff’s office said Rodgers, who commands the department’s road patrol, will remain on duty with a written reprimand for violating the department’s social media policy.

“We’ve been in this war for the last several months with attacks on the Haitian community and other immigrants, and we protect people’s rights and do not support behavior that does otherwise,” said Mike Young, the county’s chief deputy. , he told the Springfield News-Sun. “I can’t go back in time and take away that mission; the lieutenant did it and suffered the consequences.”

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, and his running mate, J.D. Vance, thrust Springfield into the national spotlight with bogus claims — some made during a nationally televised presidential debate — that Haitian immigrants in the city were eating people’s pet dogs and cats. Springfield is located in southwestern Ohio, between Columbus and Dayton.

Clark County Elections Director Jason Baker said Rodgers was not scheduled to be at the county board of elections Tuesday night, but the sheriff’s office still plans to send other officers there to provide security during the election count.

“I think the public should still be safe while the Clark County sheriff’s department and the Springfield Police Department are on the job,” he told The Associated Press. “We are all fighting for the same outcome, and that is to have a peaceful day.”

In a statement from the sheriff’s office, it was stated that the posts did not reflect the mission and values ​​of the office.

“While these comments were deeply inappropriate, they are in no way reflective of the Clark County Sheriff’s Office’s service delivery to our ENTIRE community,” the statement said. “The community has the right to be upset by Lt. Rodgers’ actions, and he and the Sheriff’s Office overall will have to work even harder to regain the trust of members of our community.”

Rodgers formally responded to the reprimand by writing in a letter in his personnel file that he did not remember writing or removing the posts, and was warned when a co-worker asked if he was okay, the Springfield News-Sun reported. Rodgers wrote that he couldn’t find them on his page when he searched, and that he first saw them during a meeting with a department official.

Rodgers said he takes a prescription sleeping pill that can sometimes cause him to send “out of character” texts, phone calls or other forms of communication as a side effect. The lieutenant said he closed his Facebook account and stopped taking medication as soon as he learned of the messages on Tuesday, the newspaper reported.

Clark isn’t the only Ohio county concerned with controversial statements made by law enforcement on social media.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s election monitoring operation is based in northeastern Ohio’s Portage County to ensure the county complies with federal voting rights laws during early voting and on Election Day.

This comes after Republican Portage County Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski was accused of voter intimidation last month. Zuchowski, who is running for re-election, shared on social media that the addresses of people carrying Kamala Harris’s garden sign should be written down so that immigrants can be sent to live with them if the Democrats win the presidency.

Following the comments, the Portage County Board of Elections voted to eliminate the use of sheriff’s deputies for election security this year.

Asked at a news conference Monday about how the two cases might affect voters’ sense of safety, Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose said some law enforcement officials — especially when running for office — can sometimes “make ill-advised comments.” “

“But this in no way implicates sworn MPs working for them,” he said. “These are dedicated people who are, first and foremost, men and women of the law. They swore an oath to do this. They risked their lives to do this, and I have every confidence that they will take this duty very seriously.”