LEWISTON — State police Trooper Ronald Turnick, who patrols in Oxford County, has been placed on paid administrative leave.

According to Steve McCausland, spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety, the administrative leave was imposed March 7 and is open-ended, meaning no return date for Turnick has been set.

McCausland said the leave was the result of a personnel matter, which he is not permitted to discuss under Maine’s employment privacy laws.

Turnick has been with the state police for 8½ years, McCausland said, but he wasn’t able to say whether there is any disciplinary action on his employment record.

According to a 2013 Department of Public Safety press release, before joining Maine State Police, Turnick was an officer in Ohio.

He graduated from the Maine Criminal Justice Academy in Vassalboro in October 2006.

Turnick has been the primary investigator on a number of high-profile incidents and crimes in Oxford County, including the 2013 fatal bicycle accident on Route 2 in Hanover during the annual Trek Across Maine, and the 2010 fatal accident on Route 26 in West Paris that killed 60-year-old Richard Ray of Naples.

Prior to moving to Maine, Turnick was employed as a corrections officer with the Elyria Police Department in Ohio from late 2000 to 2003, and then took a job as a patrolman with the Lorain Police Department in Ohio, where he worked until August 2006.

While there, he was reprimanded for refusing to assist a citizen who flagged him down to report an armed robbery.

According to the written reprimand, dated May 31, 2006, Turnick was flagged down by a motorist who had been delivering pizza and had been robbed at gunpoint by two men. Turnick advised the “victim that he (Turnick) was in route for a DUI; that he did not have time, and for him to drive to the place of business and contact the police from there.”

Turnick did not call dispatch to report this conversation.

According to the reprimand, this was an unusual departure from Turnick’s prior “exceptional” performance on the job. He was counseled on proper procedure, and received no further disciplinary action.