(File Photo of Handcuffs)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(East Palestine, OH) A lieutenant for the Imperial Volunteer Fire Department has now taken a leave of absence from his role after he was arrested in a prostitution sting last month, and this was recently confirmed by investigators and that fire department’s president. 

John C. Steele was arrested in East Palestine, Ohio in October of 2026 in an undercover operation by the Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force. 

According to investigators, Steele agreed to pay $180 for sex with an undercover officer and was caught with the cash and his cell phone outside the meeting point, which investigators listed as the East Palestine police department.