Attorney General Richard Cordray is working to resolve a months-old dispute with a union over "cowboy" investigators who jump into some of Ohio's most vexing unsolved crimes.

The dispute began in 2007 after then-Attorney General Marc Dann established a special unit in his office to help county prosecutors with some of their toughest cases.

Soon, the Fraternal Order of Police complained that the unit was treading on the turf of its agents who work at the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation. To make matters worse, the union said in its grievance that agents for the new unit were paid substantially more than the bureau's agents.

The bureau assists local police with DNA testing, ballistics and other technical aspects of crime-solving.

In a grievance filed in August, after Dann had resigned under pressure but before Cordray was elected, the Fraternal Order of Police said the roles of the special prosecutions unit and the bureau had gotten so blurred that many local police couldn't tell them apart.

The union singled out Ed Kallay, a retired Columbus police detective who had gone to work for the special prosecutions unit. Some union members complained that Kallay had been acting like a cowboy, swooping into unsolved crimes that they thought were their domain.

Cordray's office has worked to resolve the dispute, said Mark Drum, the legislative chairman of the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio.

Drum noted that Cordray appointed Peter C. Tobin, formerly the London police chief, to head the bureau after the attorney general took office in January. Tobin has been part of discussions this week to resolve the union grievance, Drum said yesterday.

Kallay "separated" from the attorney general's office Feb. 6, said Holly Hollingsworth, spokeswoman for Cordray. She would not say whether Kallay quit or was fired. Hollingsworth also declined to comment on discussions to resolve the grievance or whether the special prosecutions unit would be disbanded.

Cordray, a Democrat, has long been close to the Fraternal Order of Police. The union donated $300 to his campaign last year and endorsed him over Republican Mike Crites, a former federal prosecutor who had run on a law-and-order platform.

jnash@dispatch.com