University of Toledo Police Officer Jeffery Hodge once described as dedicated and hard-working, now is portrayed as an out-of-control cop who made bomb threats against the UT presidents's office.

UT officials now say Mr. Hodge also invented a break-in, falsely reported a prowler with a gun, and made random traffic stops against department policy.

For these and other reasons, the suspect in the Jan. 26 shooting death of student Melissa Anne Herstrum was fired Wednesday from the job he held for six months.

The 22-year-old suspect, who is being held in the county jail on a $1 million bond, had been suspended with pay since his arrest Feb. 1 in the murder.

Frank Pizzulo, UT's director of public safety said he recommended that Mr. Hodge be dismissed after UT investigators said they discovered departmental infractions the suspect allegedly committed.

Mr. Hodge's attorney, Alan Konop, said the department is trying to trump up as many charges as it can.

If they are so damned sure he has committed these other crimes, then why don't they charge him with these crimes?, he asked. "It's so easy just to come up with all these other charges so long after he's gone."

Nevertheless, UT President Frank Horton approved the dismissal this week.

According to university officials:

• Mr. Hodge made routine traffic stops on campus without calling dispatchers to say he was pulling over a vehicle or reporting what the driver was doing wrong.

• He called the home of UT student Michelle Hass, 20, last October, several hours after he arrested her on a drunken-driving charge, and asked that she meet with him to discuss other charges. Officers are not allowed to call supspects after they are arrested to meet with them, Mr. Pizzulo said.

• He called 911 operators twice during the morning of Nov. 22, 1991, and made two bomb threats against President Horton. UT police were forced to move the president to another location for a luncheon he was giving. Police say they have tapes of the calls made to 911, and the voice is similar to Mr. Hodge's.

• He reported a phony burglary at a vacant house on Bogart Street, which adjoins campus.

• He falsely reported a man with a gun on campus.

• During the murder investigation, Mr. Hodge tried to pass one of his duty gloves to a fellow officer, saying he had lost the other glove and that he would have a difficult time explaining to Toledo homicide detectives why he had only one. At the time, homicide investigators were searching Mr. Hodge's police locker, Mr. Pizzulo said, but the suspect was standing by during the search and had not been arrested.

Mr. Hodge's attorney, Mr. Konop, agreed, saying his client doesn't have much recourse. "He just doesn't have the same protections, so there's not much we can do," he said.

Mr. Konop asserted that since his client was arrested on the murder charge, investigators have been trying to pin "all the crimes that have ever occured at the university" on Mr. Hodge.

Police have taken it too far, said Mr. Konop. His client denies kidnapping and killing Miss Herstrum and had pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Mr. Hodge, a 1987 Lake High School graduate, is accused of stoppin Miss Herstrum during the early morning of Jan. 26, while she was driving her car. He then allegedly took her in his patrol car to UT's Scott Park campus a mile away.

There, police say, she was handcuffed and shot 14 times lying face down in the snow.

Mr. Pizzulo said it wasn't until Mr. Hodge was arrested that UT officers began to piece together bizarre occurrences on campus over the last six months.

He also acused Mr. Hodge of breaking departmental policies by waiting in parking lots of bars located near campuss for people to leave. Mr. Pizzulo said Mr. Hodge then stopped them on suspicion of drunken driving.

"They are not to go off campus for those purposes," Mr. Pizzulo said.

Some students came forward after Mr. Hodge was arrested to report the violations, UT police said. One of then was Miss Haas, who said she was stopped in her car by Mr. Hodge last Halloween night. She said she was dressed like a "sexy gypsy."

She told The Blade that when she and three girlfriends walked out of the Stein 'N Pitcher, located a block from campus, she noticed Officer Hodge nearby in a patrol car.

As Miss Haas drove away, Officer Hodge stopped her on Bancroft Street and gave her a sobriety test. When she failed, she said, he arrested her. Then, as she sat in jail, Officer Hodge called her house in the middle of the night.

She said Officer Hodge told her mother that he needed to file additional charges against her. Miss Haas said another charge was added - a drug charge - but it was dropped.

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