LEBANON — A Warren County dispatcher was not asleep before he answered a crucial 911 call Aug. 11, 2008, from Ryan Widmer reporting his wife’s drowning and should not be disciplined, according to an independent investigation.

Mark Lucas, president of Clemans, Nelson & Associates, was hired by Warren County to determine if there was a sufficient basis to proceed with disciplinary action against dispatcher Ron Kronenberger.

Nancy Machulskiy, operations services manager in the dispatch center, wrote in a October report that Kronenberger mishandled the call.

“Kronenberger sounded as if he came out of a sound sleep and tried to handle a very serious-natured incident,” she wrote. “It seemed as though he was having a hard time comprehending what the caller was saying and kept repeating himself.”

Former Emergency Services Director Frank Young, in the same report, apparently told Kronenberger he handled the call poorly and the dispatcher apologized.

However, Lucas said in his report that there was not sufficient evidence regarding Kronenberger sleeping on duty and regarding his general performance: “there is not sufficient basis for discipline unless he had been previously counseled for not keeping the caller engaged or for not timely assuring them that help is on the way.”

Lucas said Kronenberger was aware of the county policy about sleeping on the job, but said there was no supportive evidence he violated the rule.

All but one dispatcher told Lucas they did not see Kronenberger sleeping before the call. The other dispatcher said he thought Kronenberger was sleeping, but was “not 100 percent certain,” and wanted to make sure everyone else knew he had a doubt, Lucas said.

A check of the call logs indicated that Kronenberger answered several calls before the Widmer call. He answered the calls within three seconds of the first ring and beat out two other dispatchers to answer the Widmer call and within the procedural guidelines in place at the time.

During the murder trial, Kronenberger made several statements about Widmer’s “performance” during the 911 call. He said it sounded as if Widmer was blowing into the cell phone instead of his wife’s mouth, trying to revive her.

Administrator Dave Gully said Tuesday, Dec. 22, the report exonerates Kronenberger and that no disciplinary action will be taken.

Lucas also investigated why it took from April to October to determine if Kronenberger should be given a pre-disciplinary conference. Lucas found that Machulskiy did not originally intend to initiate discipline against Kronenberger until Young initiated a disciplinary investigation around the end of August.

Widmer was convicted of murdering his wife, Sarah Widmer, following his two-week trial, but was later given a retrial after jury misconduct was found by the judge. Widmer’s retrial is scheduled for March 15.

Staff Writer Denise Callahan contributed to this report.