FORT WAYNE -- The Allen County Ethics Commission wants to hear, in writing, from County Councilman Paul Moss and Sheriff Ken Fries about an ethics complaint filed against them.

The commission voted 2 to 1 Friday to forward the complaint to Moss and Fries and would like a written answer within 30 days.

During Friday's hearing, local attorney Thomas Hardin and business owner Wendy Stein voted in favor of the motion to seek responses from Moss and Fries. Former judge Thomas Ryan voted against the motion.

The commission will meet again Sept. 7 to decide how to proceed with the case. The two men were not at Friday's meeting.

The two are accused of ethics violations surrounding a drunken driving investigation.

Pulled over in a car full of people who had been drinking during the early-morning hours of June 2, Moss refused a portable breath test and called a vacationing Fries before being allowed by a sheriff's officer to find a ride home.

Moss has said that he did not ask for any favors, but acknowledged contacting the sheriff to "expedite" the taking of a more reliable test.

Fries previously said his told him at the scene Moss' car was full of five or six men and women in their early 20s and that the car smelled of alcohol and that Moss may have been drinking but did not appear drunk.

Fries also said he never ordered or told the officer to treat Moss any differently from anyone else. Fries also said previously it is common for officers to allow someone who they suspect may have been drinking but not drunk to call and get a ride home.

For more on this story see Saturday's print edition of The Journal Gazette or return to www.journalgazette.net after 3 a.m. Saturday.

jeffwiehe@jg.net