SNYDER - Police Chief Tod Ozmun is disturbed -- not by the fact his wife is featured on an adult porn Web site, but that his fellow citizens are circulating her downloaded nude photographs and calling for his job.
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"I'm very bothered," said Ozmun, who was hired in January 2005. "I'm upset because people have gone out of their way to circulate photos of my wife to cause trouble. ... What my wife does, does not affect my job as chief of police.
"She is a grown, 43-year-old woman who is free to make her own decisions."
Many townspeople think Doris Ozmun's decision to pose nude should cost her husband his job. A number of those people called for Ozmun's firing last week at a city council meeting.
About 70 residents crammed into the Snyder City Hall meeting room that night, spilling into the hallways and onto the street. The four-member council went into executive session to discuss the matter. They emerged 20 minutes later with a prepared statement that was read by Mayor Dale Moore. The statement, in part, read:
"Under the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, and adjudicated by the Supreme Court of the United States on many occasions, pornography or, in the case of Snyder, adult pictures, is a right under the First Amendment and no laws have been broken.
"As Mayor and council of the city of Snyder ... we do not endorse pornography; however, we do endorse an individual's rights under the First Amendment of freedom and expression."
The council took no action on the matter, prompting one council member -- Sammy Gettens -- to resign.
"We will take no action on Chief Ozmun," Moore stressed Tuesday. "He was not involved in these, and he has broken no laws."
Teresa Mills, a Snyder native and resident, remains appalled by the council's inaction.
"A lot of people want Todd Ozmun out as chief," Mills said. "I'm one of them. I have a 12-year-old granddaughter, and she came home the other day and said, 'Hey, people are saying the chief of police's wife is a porno queen.'
"This is a man who is supposed to be someone you respect and someone you can go to for help."
Doris Ozmun was paroled in March 2005 after spending two years in the state prison system on drug-related charges. She released a statement in her defense. The statement, in part, reads:
"Hi, my name is Doris Ozmun. I am a 43-year-old adult model. I am in no way affiliated with the Snyder Police Department other than the fact I am married to the chief of police, Tod Ozmun. The Web site I am featured on is in no way affiliated with the Snyder Police Department nor the city of Snyder.
"I have done nothing illegal, and it is my First Amendment right of the Constitution. You do not have to like or agree with what I do for me to be protected by the First Amendment right."
