← Law Enforcement Talk: True Crime and Trauma Stories
Law Enforcement Talk: True Crime and Trauma Stories
Florida Deputy Arrested, Was It Fair?
00:41:34
Florida Deputy Arrested, Was It Fair? A Family’s Fight in Court and Beyond. When David was sworn in as a Deputy for the Marion County Sheriff’s Office in Florida, it felt like the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. Coming from a long family line of police officers, law enforcement wasn’t just a career option, it was a calling. “He wanted this more than anything,” recalls his wife, Dr. Svetlana ‘Lana’ Kirchevshy-Ur, a doctor who was completing her medical residency in Gainesville at the time. “It was a dream he worked hard to achieve, even later in life.”
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- [00:01]
A
He was fired, arrested and charged while he was a deputy from a sheriff's office in Florida. All charges have been dropped by the prosecutor's office. He's here to tell us why he got in law enforcement. He's here to tell us what happened. And he's here to tell us about what he and his wife are doing about it today. Welcome to the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show. In the Law Enforcement Talk Radio show, we are joined by special guests talking about their experiences, their realities of investigating crimes, plus those who have experienced horrendous trauma. Police, first responders, military and victims of crime share their stories. Hi, I'm John J. Wiley. In addition to being a broadcaster, I'm also a retired police sergeant. Be sure to check out our website, letradio.com and also like us on Facebook, search for the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show. Of all the radio stations in the United States, there are no other shows like the law Enforcement Talk Radio show. And on Facebook there's only one official page. Do a search on Facebook for the law enforcement Talk radio show and be sure to like the Law Enforcement Talk Radio show Facebook page. Content is from Palm coast of Florida. We have David er on the Law Enforcement Talk radio show. His wife, Dr. Lana er was on recently and also Randy Sachs. His group, the wounded blue.org they are partnering with them website is the wounded blue.org and I'll have explained about that more later on. He is a I'm using the term former sheriff's office deputy from Florida. The name of the agency he can say and the reason I'm bringing this up. There's there's three terms. There's very few things I'll correct people on. When they call me ex police, I always correct them. I'm retired. I got hurt and retired. There's former where you leave on good terms before your pension, whatever reason. And there's X usually leaving on bad terms. I'll let you decide what category David falls in. I'm going to use the term former because I think he got the short end of the stick to be honest with you. David, thanks for your service and thanks for being a guest on the show. Both very much appreciated.
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B
Thank you for having me today.
- [02:15]
A
It's a pleasure to have you here. And by the way, David now has a pizza, a pizza truck or wagon or van or whatever you want to call it. A lot of people are trailer. Oh, that's the word I was looking for. You think I would know that? It's called rustic dough works. You can find it on Facebook look for rustic dough works on Facebook. And I believe you have a special right now for someone who orders a pizza, they get. A certain percentage is donated to the Wounded Blue, right?
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B
Correct. Yes. For every pizza that's sold, we, we donate a dollar to the, to the Wounded Blue. And we're looking to raise in 20, 25, $10,000 for the wounded Blue.
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A
And by the way, pizza is one of my favorite go to comfort foods. I have lost almost 56 pounds since January 2nd. And my cheat day, which is coming up this weekend. Hallelujah.
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B
Hallelujah. There you go.
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A
Is pizza. And full, full flour pizza and ice cream. So. And we're talking about the full sugar, the full fat. Everything.
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B
Perfect. Everybody needs to do it. Everyone, every day. Every. I believe everyone needs to go out every week and have pizza.
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A
They should.
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B
It's a great.
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A
I love pizza and it's one of the few things that I crave all the time. First of all, let's talk about your story. We had your, your wife on recently and she talked about you guys making a move from Northern Jersey and down here for medical school. You weren't in police work before you in Northern Jersey, were you?
- [03:50]
B
Well, no, I was. Well, I was a, like a. Not a reserve deputy. What did they call it? It was a, like a volunteer police officer where they were, you know, we would just do like crowd control and things of that nature. But it wasn't, it wasn't a sworn position. It was just. But I was a crane and heavy equipment operators. What my main, my main job was for 23 years.
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A
And what agency did you work at? And I don't use a reserve part time or assistant, whatever it was. What agency was.
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B
It was, it was called Old Bridge. Old Bridge, New Jersey.
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A
Gotcha, Gotcha. And by the way, I told your wife this. I was born in Northern Jersey and Passaic lived in Rutherford for about six months and then my dad was Korean Navy, so we, we moved out of the area. But I would always go back to visit relatives. When my, when my grandparents immigrated from Ireland, they settled in Rutherford, New Jersey area and other parts of family settled in Long Island, New York, Westchester County. So it's an area that is very near and dear to my heart. I couldn't live there anymore, to be honest with you, or never could.
- [04:57]
B
I don't know how anyone affords to live there anymore. My, My wife's parents just moved and we were talking at dinner last night and we were talking about taxes and property tax and on their house they're paying $17,000 a year for prop. Just property tax.
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A
It's crazy.
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B
And I. It's insane.
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A
My aunt lives in Lyndhurst, New Jersey, and she, she loves it there. But. And, and she's retired, obviously. She used to go in the city as a nurse and say, why don't you come to Florida? Come down here. You can always fly back there and visit family and friends. And they're all gone, by the way.
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B
Mm. Yeah, they just. Lana's parents just moved down to Palm coast and they're loving it, and they just can't. They can't believe the difference cost wise.
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A
Everything so much cheap. It's so much cheaper. And the other thing is, I would go to visit in Lyndhurst, for example, or Northern Jersey. And back when I used to have color in my hair, David, I was a strawberry blonde with freckles kind of guy. And people look at me go, oh, you're not from here, are you? Then I talk. They'd be convinced I was not from there.
- [06:09]
B
Jersey is one of those unique areas that I grew up in the Newark area. So it's one of those unique areas that wherever you go back, you still run into your old neighborhoods, and you still run into old people that you know and they don't forget you. No. And it's nice to go back. But I can tell you right now, I'm been here six years in Florida, and I love it. And I'll never go back.
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A
I. I'm in South Florida. I don't like the summers so much because they're, they're a lot longer. And, And I have friends in Baltimore say you could move to Florida. What are you nuts? It's so hot down here. I'm like, have you forgotten what summer's like in Baltimore? Have you forgotten what winter's like?
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B
Yeah, yeah. It's 105 degrees in New Jersey today. It's crazy hotter in New Jersey than it is in Florida.
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A
And with all that concrete, it just radiates. I want to go into. How old were you when you left Jersey and came to Florida?
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B
I was 45. That's when I went into the police. Police academy at age 45.
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A
And I believe it was Santa Fe Community College, Alachua County.
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B
It was, it was, it was Santa Fe Community College. You know, it was a full 770 hour course. It was great, very professional. Alachua County Sheriff's and Gainesville police pretty much run the academy there. And they're amazing. They were super professional, taught us a lot. It was a great academy and by.
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A
The way, that is something that was, I was not used to. I was used to like when I went hired by Baltimore, I went to their academy and New York has their own academy and other ones, large agencies. However, down in Florida it's usually the community colleges or state colleges they call them and they're, they're run by local agencies, but they're no joke. They're, they're just as intense as the other academies.
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B
Oh, I, every morning we ran every day we did tt it was serious business we had. We had to maintain a minimum of an 80 average on any test that you took. And if you failed more than twice, you were out of the academy altogether. It didn't matter if you were week one all the way to the last week. You had to pass every test an 80 or above. I finished at a 96 and I was actually second in my class. Another classmate of mine beat me by one point.
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A
Same here. Funny thing was I never realized I was competitive or a good student until I went to police academy. I was always a horrible student in high school and college.
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B
Yeah, neither was I. I was never known for my, my English or English skills, that's for sure. I was more of a hands on type of guy. That's why I went into blue collar work. I always wanted to be a police officer. You know, I grew up, my dad was a cop. My. I have other family members that were police officers as well. And I always wanted to. But when I turned 18, I went into the union and I was making, back then at 18, I was making $27 an hour. And my friends that were going into law enforcement, they were making like 15, $16 an hour. So I was like, you know, plus my benefits with the union. And by the time I left the union I was making over $75 an hour.
- [09:29]
A
We take a short break. On that note, we're talking about David Er. He's a former Florida county sheriff's deputy. All charges have been dropped. He was arrested, fired, charged. All charges have been dropped. He now has rustic Dough works pizza on Facebook and he is tied in with the Wounded blue. Just go to the website, the Wounded Blue Dawg. This is law enforcement talk radio show. Don't go anywhere. We'll be right back. I know we've all got lots of apps on our phone, but there's one you should check out the Medium app, medium.com and be sure to follow the law enforcement talk radio show and podcast where you find great articles, blog posts from me on Medium. That's the law Enforcement talk radio show and podcast on the Medium app. Or you can go drugletive medium.com return a conversation with David Earr on the law enforcement talk radio show. David is a former Marion County, Florida sheriff's deputy. He has a pizza trailer. Check out his Facebook page. Rustic dough works. He's on a Palm coast of Florida and they're doing a fundraiser partner with the Wounded Blue. Their website's the Wounded blue dot org. That's the wounded blue dot org. First of all, David, you and your wife made the transition to Florida for medical school, for her medical career, and you decided to take that leap from being a union crane operator to going into law enforcement, which has always been a passion of yours. And how old were you when you decided to choose that field?
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B
I was 45.
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A
Did they give you a hard time in the academy about your age, call your grandpa or anything?
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B
No, but I was known as like that. The house dad, I guess you'd call it. Everybody would come to me when they had questions, you know, just in life in general, you know. And believe it or not though, I wasn't the youngest. There was somebody there that was actually a year older than I was. So I actually felt, yeah, I felt kind of good about it there. So. Yeah, because in Florida you can pay for your own academy. You don't have to go through an agency, which is very unusual from the New Jersey side of it. Right. Because New Jersey you have to. And even my son, he just became a Delaware officer and he had to go through an agency first he had to go to college, he had to get his four year degree and then he got hired through the police department and so on. And then they put him to the academy where here in Florida you don't, you could be 18. Matter of fact, it was two of my academy classmates that graduated and we had to buy them ammo because they couldn't go and buy ammo for their guns.
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A
Isn't that funny?
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B
How funny is that? You know, because we were going to the gun range to practice and they could even go to the store and buy ammo was actually kind of funny. So, yeah, I mean, it's just, it's a big difference in New Jersey and the, I would say the southern states because most southern states are that way, which I didn't know that until after getting involved in law enforcement here.
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A
And you, you, your family is involved in law enforcement in Jersey and it's something you had a passion for. You were a part time or volunteer officer in New Jersey before this. How bad did you want this?
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B
You know, I always wanted it since I was a little boy to be a police officer, you know, because growing up and. Yeah, my grandmother was actually. My grandmother was one of the first police officers in New Jersey. There was a crossing guard back then, but it was part of the police department. And then she then moved into the police department. You know, when they brought a female in and they needed to search her so forth, or transport her to the jail, my grandmother got involved with the local prosippeni police department, and she was actually notarized as the first female Morris county police officer. So it's been a family thing in my family. My dad was a police officer, and then I have some cousins and my son is a police officer now. So it's been a family thing that we've all, you know, wanted to serve, and I've always wanted to serve and I've always wanted to do good for the public, you know, so. But I just couldn't afford to do it because I made too much money as a crane operator.
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A
A lot of people talk two things really quickly. And these are the boo birds. I get them on Facebook all the time. By the way, do a search for the law enforcement talk ratio Facebook page. We just crossed a hundred thousand followers. We're doing well. So one of the things that I hear quite often is, man, those police need more education. They need more training. And I go, wait a second. We had six months training in the academy every year. We had in service training by the state of Maryland mandated, where we had four, four days of classroom. Every day a roll call. We, we. We would have some sort of updates about general orders or law changes or things of that nature. How much more training did you think we needed? Maybe it's you that need the training. Maybe it's you that need the reschooling.
- [14:42]
B
Yeah, I think, I think there's two, two things in, in the world that need to be changed. And this is my opinion and my opinion, only one. Prosecutors need to be held to a different account. They need to. The prosecutors that I've dealt with through, there has to be some accountability. And they have zero accountability. They have zero. Once you hear my story, you'll hear what I'm saying. They have full immunity. Now you talk about giving immunity to a cop and everybody starts screaming and yelling and, and, but. But prosecutors, they need to. They need to be held at a different. They need to be held accountable for their actions, and they're not. Yeah, or lack of. Lack of. And then the other is the Public needs to get educated on what we actually do. And I think that's part of it, that we don't talk about it enough as police officers or, you know, when we do talk about it, the only thing they talk about is what we did wrong. But all the things that you just said is true. All the training. And Marion county was very strict. They sent me to all kinds of classes. I volunteered for classes anytime I wanted to do anything like that. They were. They were all about getting educated and doing better. And they did have a lot of in house trainings all the time. We were always like, probably once a month there was something that they would make us go, you know, right after roll call and you'd have to go over and do training. You know, whether it was SHIELD training, whether it was, you know, taking somebody out of the car training, you know, any type of safety training, and then just general public, you know, dealing with the general public, how to present yourself in a professional way. That's a big thing, you know, really big thing.
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A
And for example, we had all the training you talked about as well, except when I got reassigned from. I went from patrol to what we call special operations in Baltimore to narcotics unit. And the narcotics unit. We wound up doing a lot of. Of course we were playing clothes, but we did a lot of raids, a lot of warrants, and we ex. We served all them ourselves. We had zero training in room clearing. We had zero training about hostile entry. Zero. It was like running there, knock the door down, make a lot of noise, put out your guns and all this stuff. We had zero training. Things have changed, I'm sure, since then.
- [17:03]
B
Yeah, no, like, I mean, let's take Santa Fe College. They have a whole road that they built and it's an actual, like has bar, has a restaurant. I mean, actual bar and restaurant. Then you walk into these places, it looks just like it has music playing. And it has. We have. We had, you know, active shooter training, you know, during our time. You know, all of those things we did during the academy, real life scenarios, like, played out and, you know, it helped. It helped the younger generation, I would say. And I feel that that's part of it too. The younger generation suffers from being able to communicate. Right. They can text the heck out of you, no problem. But when you actually have to have a conversation with the younger generation, it's hard, you know, And I tell everybody that wants to get into law enforcement, before you become a law enforcement officer, go become a bartender or a waiter.
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A
That's right.
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B
Because if you can handle Doing that and have general conversations and deal with when people's meals aren't correct and you have to, you know, make it better before they leave and get a tip then you can be an officer when you have to, you know, deal with some other type of, you know, when you're trying to negotiate a homeless guy from walking, you know, getting off somebody stoop, you know, and you know, it sounds silly but it really is down to just communication and how you speak to people.
- [18:27]
A
That's not very good. And by the way, most of what we did, and I'm sure it's the same for you, was did involve arresting people. And when we did arrest people it wasn't a lot of animosity as that was a small percentage of people that really had an animosity that would, I'd say record day or your weekend.
- [18:47]
B
I only had in all the time that I was a police officer in Marion County, I only had one arrest that I can remember to this day that was I literally got done put boat booking her in and the next morning I drove to headquarters and I went and saw my lieutenant and sat down with him because I was so not happy with the way it went. And it was the whole conversation with her, the whole conversation with me and how the interaction was because I honestly, I never had that happen to me where I normally when I arrested somebody. If you watch any of my body worn cameras, I've always, always professional and it was so, she was so amped up and so aggravated and so mad and you know, it was a domestic call and I felt so bad for her. But at the same time I felt, after I left I felt I was like, wow, did I do something wrong? You didn't do anything wrong.
- [19:48]
A
We're talking with David er. He is a former law enforcement officer in Florida. This is law Enforcement Talk race show. We're taking a short break. We'll be right back. Don't you hate when they do the bait and switch on you when they tell you check out a website and it's free to go there and then there's hidden charges. You won't find any of that nonsense at our website. Letradio.com it's free, it's always been free and it costs you absolutely nothing. There's no hidden tricks. Letradio.com check it out today. You find episodes of the show is available as a podcast after airing on radio. They're always free, always have been and always will be. Again, that's letradio.com where it's always Free return conversation with David or on the Law Enforcement Talks radio show. David is a former Marion County, Florida Sheriff's deputy. He was fired, arrested and charged. All the charges have since been dropped. He now has a pizza trailer called Rustic Dough Works. Check them out on Facebook. They do a fundraiser with the Wounded Blue. Randy Sutton and the Wounded Blue. Their website's the Wounded blue dot org. That's the Wounded blue dot org. David, here's my impression. Number one talking to you. You're a squared away guy. That's obvious. You're not one of these fruitcakes. You're not unstable. Graduate second in your class means you got to have some book smarts. You did fairly well academically. You did very well physically in our department. They combined both and it wasn't one or the other. And there's a lot of guys that they got recycled. They didn't do well in the verbal and they had one more shot or the educational part of it, I should say. So you obviously are not that guy. You're not a shady, shaky, unstable guy. But you were, I say use the word fired. You resigned. You were arrested, charged. So when I got back in the day, not so much now, not so much after what I've been through, but when someone was arrested by their agency, I always believed the agency. I never took a second thought. I always thought, there's. Where there's smoke, there's fire. I don't get that impression from you guys. What happened?
- [22:15]
B
Well, so, you know, it was, it was a hectic day. I, this is like, it was a hectic day. I got a suspicious call and a suspicious vehicle call and it came up on my MVT and my computer and we had silent dispatch in our, in our cars. So in my zone, it popped up on my screen and I, and I went to the call and I pull up and long and behold, I find a vehicle parked in somebody's driveway and was a female. She was still sitting halfway in her car, halfway out, you know, with her butt cheek in the, in the, in this, in the doorway there. So I just, you know, just open my door up, it's a suspicious vehicle. You know, it's a, it's. To me, that's one of the more dangerous stops that you can do because you never know what you're coming up on. And mind you, Marion county is the size of Rhode Island. I was my own in that zone is, you know, I would do about 200 miles a day driving. And because you just never stopped driving was big. And my zone, my nearest Zone partner was about 15 minutes away, right? So I'm. You go out to a call, you always, you know, you pulled up, you made sure, hey, look, you know, officer safety, step back to the vehicle. So, you know, you, you know, I called her back from her vehicle back to me and started talking to her. And you could just tell, you know, looking at her and her eyes are going 100 miles an hour and she's sweating. Then you even hear me say, you, you know, it's cool night out. Are you okay? And, you know, you could tell she was, there was something going on. And she was like, I think I, my car is not running and I've been trying to work on my car. And so we kept talking for a few more minutes and I asked her, I says, you know, you okay? Do you want me to call like EMS for you? And she's continually talking. And then the pickup truck pulls up behind me, which was not uncommon. Two off duty FWC officers got out of their vehicle and, you know, they're in plain clothes with their badges out, and they said, hey, bud, how are you? You know, fwc? And I said, hey, how are you? And they said, hey, you need any help? And that's not an uncommon thing in Florida. An off duty officer stopping for another officer. Because they all know everyone works out there and they all know the issue. So, you know, long and behold, we're all talking. He goes, you know, this girl's hopped up on something. I say, oh, yeah, absolutely. So we just get to talking and she's talking. And then I call for, you know, I call for my zone partner to come. He's actually a canine officer, so this way, you know, he can come with his canine. And he, one of the FWC officers walked by me and go, hey, there's a needle on the ground right behind the vehicle. So I walk by and I look down and it's in the track line of the tire. So if she drove in, she would have drove right over the needle. And so I hook her up, I detain her. I should say I should detain her. And I just, you know, I told her, I pointed my flashlight on the floor, look, there's a needle right there on the ground. I said, no, I'm a detain you. I pat her down, and what do I do? I find another needle in her pocket, uncapped. And she said, that wasn't hers.
- [25:31]
A
Right?
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B
And you know, every time someone said.
- [25:35]
A
That, David, I'd be filthy rich, right?
- [25:38]
B
All right. So I asked her, I said, you anything else? On, you know, I asked her three times, it's all on body worn camera. And my zone partner at that time finally shows up. He asks her and the other two off duty officers ask her and she says, no, I don't have anything else on me. But she mentioned something during the time I was arresting her that her father was part of the police department, sheriff's department in Dixie County. And I just said, okay, you know, not thinking, okay, no problem. So you know, again, it's all on body worn camera. So I'm just moseying my way through the, through the call and long and short of it, I take her to the jail. And as I'm walking her into the jail, she says, I have more drugs on me. I'm like, well we're in the Sally port. It's too, you know, I'm like, I patted you down, where's it at? She's like, it's in my back pocket. I'm like, no it's not. I said, I checked your back pocket. So then I bring her into the jail and I tell the female deputy, I says, hey. She told me she has more drugs on her. Please check her before she goes into the jail all the way. So she walks over to the female and says, hey, where's the drugs at? She goes, I don't have any drugs on me. Okay, you have no drugs on you. She goes, okay. So then they scan her and we have a X ray machine at the jail. They put her through the X ray machine and they find a bag of cocaine, glass pipe under her breast. And you know, so she, she, then I proceed to book her and then I charge her with introduction to contraband and I do my arrest and I go home for the night. And the next morning, mid morning, I get a phone call and it's a sergeant. And he goes, hey, are you arrested? And I was like, okay, yes sir. Well, it's gonna get real political for you, son. You might want to think about how to get that dropped. You have yourself a good morning. Click. I was like, what? So I then picked up the phone and I called the lieutenant that I have that, that I was under. And I said, lt, this is what just happened, you know, what does this mean? I mean I, I'm new remind you I'm only in the job for like six, seven months on my own. So I was like, lt, what does this mean? And he's like, well what did you do? And I told him, he said, well, I'll look into it, that's okay. So he Said he look into it. Never thought nothing of it after that. About a week later, I am in roll call. And I walk out of roll call, and I get called by my sergeant. And my sergeant says, er, you're going into an ia. And I said, for what, sir? He goes, well, come with me and I'll explain to you. So I go into his office, I sit down with. With them. You know, he reads me, you know, all the paperwork that they have to do. And he goes, we're charging you with false statements. Said, excuse me? He goes, false statements on your report. It doesn't match up with your body worn camera says, well, what does that mean? He goes, listen, I got to do my investigation. And this is what's real. This is where the. This is where it really turned weird. Now, mind you, he's my sergeant. He was my sergeant that night, that captain that brought the IA against me, okay? Captain. He had my sergeant do my ia, which we had a whole IA department. So I was like, this is really weird, sergeant. He's like, it's not usual. But he goes, I used to do IA's years ago. He goes, now I'm on the road. I'm like, yeah, but this is weird, but okay, so what did I say that I didn't do that I did do you know, that. That type of thing. So I was waiting for the. For the. For the investigation. So they took my badge and my gun right there and then, and they put me on administrative leave. And I sat for about three weeks. And in that three weeks, I got nervous and I said, something's not right. So I reached out to the sheriff's association, who I belong to. We had a union, too, but I didn't belong to the union yet. I was just in the sheriff's association. And they said, well, we can't represent you because it's criminal. And I said, it's what? And they go, well, it's criminal. I said, what's criminal?
- [29:45]
A
And that's when the radar started going off. I'm gonna take a short break. We're done with David Eart. David is a former Marion County, Florida sheriff's deputy. He was fired or resigned, arrested and charged. All charges have been dropped. His Facebook page for his pizza trailer is rustic, though works. Check it out. And they have a partnership going on with the Wounded Blue. Their website is the woundedblue.org return. We'll talk more about what happened and what his life is like today on the law enforcement talk radio show. Don't go anywhere. We'll Be right back. You know, we used to have an app and it was very popular app and then guess what? We couldn't hold a candle through our Facebook presence. How many people have the mobile Facebook app already installed on their phone? How many people use it on their computer? Make sure you follow us, make sure you like us on our Facebook page. Just search for law enforcement, talk radio show and podcast and be sure to send us a comment to one of the posts. Best of all, it's 100% free. Return our conversation with David er, coming from the Palm coast of Florida. David is a former Marion County, Florida sheriff's deputy. He was, he resigned. He was arrested and charged, which we'll get to in a moment. All charges have been dropped. He now has a pizza trailer called Rustic Dill Works. Check him out on Facebook. Rustic Del Works and they have a partnership with the Wounded Blue. Their website's the Wounded blue dot org. Well, when the break, Dave, you talk about, they said, you, we can't represent you. This is criminal. Did the radar bells go off in your head at that point?
- [31:23]
B
Yeah, they did. And I had a good friend of mine and sheriff's office say, you need to reach this particular lawyer. This particular lawyer represents a lot of the police officers and he has extreme knowledge of the working knowledge. He was a prosecutor. He was actually a police officer for 10 years. He came with, you know, some. And he was politically correct in town. So in the south, that's a big thing, you know, being politically correct too. So I went and I saw that, that, that individual and I sat down with him and he looked at the charges and he says that the state's never going to pick this up. This is just an ia, you know, internal investigation because don't worry about it. He goes, we'll, we'll get through this. He goes, he goes, I don't even understand what they mean by this. They didn't have probable cause. He wrote, I didn't have probable cause to arrest. Like, you know. I was like, yeah, I don't know. So he looked at the allegations and he says, it doesn't make any sense. He goes, what they're saying you didn't do. I watched the video and you did it and then what you wrote. He goes, it's semantics. So I'll give you an example. I wrote that I found the needle in the left front pocket, right? Well, when I was standing behind her, I took it out of her left front pocket. But if you're standing in front of her, it's in her right front Pocket, Right? Correct.
- [32:46]
A
Right.
- [32:47]
B
Depending. Right. So that was a lie. They said the needle on the ground that was left on the ground, they said wasn't in the track of the tire as I wrote in the report. But you clearly see me take my flashlight and you see me point my flashlight at the needle on the ground behind the rear tire, clear as day. I says, there it is. And he's like, yeah, it's right there. I'm like, exactly. What are they saying I didn't do? He goes, I don't know. He goes, this doesn't make any sense. So then he reaches the sheriff's office and he talks to the sheriff's office attorney, and the attorney says, no. He goes, this doesn't mean. Level. He does. This doesn't meet the level of criminal. So he tells that captain that they're not going to charge me criminally. You know, if you want to go through the IA that's fine, but we're not doing criminally. So what this captain does is he goes around the state, the agency attorney, and goes to the state DA and goes to an assistant DA and grabs her and says, hey, I got a bad officer here. He's a bad apple. And I don't know what he told her, but she then picks it up. And my attorney's like, what? You're picking this up? She's like, yeah, he lied on his police report. He's like, no, he didn't. He goes. He goes, did you watch the video cameras? And he's. She's like, no, I don't have to. I'm going by what the police report says from the sheriff's office, from the IA and it clearly states that he lied. And she's like, you need to watch that video. They're telling you a lie. You're wrong. What he said he did. He did. It's right there. He goes, it's semantics. You're. And he went over this with her. And she goes, if we have to go to court, he goes, we'll go to court over as misdemeanors. He's like, this is stupid. And she goes, well, if he doesn't take a deal because he was trying. She was trying to make me take a deal. She goes, I'm going to charge him with two counts of felonies of official misconduct. So my attorney looked at me and goes, you can't take a deal because you didn't do anything wrong.
- [34:53]
A
Right.
- [34:54]
B
So then she charges me with two counts of official misconduct. This is a true story. So not only did I book myself in once under misdemeanors and did the perp walk. She made me go back a second time and do a perp walk. Yeah. Not once, but twice. Once for the misdemeanors and then once for felonies.
- [35:14]
A
All this really is because an addict, someone with a drug problem, and I'm not saying a negative way, was not truthful.
- [35:22]
B
Somebody. Yeah, somebody has a drug problem. Her mother was running for sheriff, and her dad was Dixie Counties, I think is. He's like a major over there. So apparently I. I don't know. You know, like, I don't want to make anybody say that. There's got to be something there, something called me to say they don't turn.
- [35:46]
A
Around and drop all the charges. But here's what I'm getting on your story.
- [35:50]
B
Yeah.
- [35:52]
A
Part of what really is difficult for me to understand this is the law enforcement side of me coming out, is how do you go from being a good cop to all of a sudden you're questionable and you're being. You're being forced to resign, arrested and charged. I don't get it. Right over he said, she said is what it is. It's not even like you were stealing or doing some corruption thing or beating people. It was a he said, she said thing.
- [36:17]
B
Yeah. And it was over. Probable cause, which was. You know, probable causes is very vague. It's. Yeah, there's. There's. There's degrees. Right. I mean, it's what I saw versus what you see versus what he understands it to be. You know, there's. How many cases, as a police officers have you had that you think you have probable cause? And then it goes to the D.A. and the D.A. young, probable cause.
- [36:43]
A
No.
- [36:43]
B
I mean, I don't know how many mind got thrown out. Many. You know, they mean they just don't want to do their job or whatever. But when you see this video and it's gonna eventually come out. I'm working on opening a website for this as well.
- [36:59]
A
When you get that ready, I want to fast forward. Oh, yeah, you moved on in life. You and your wife have moved on in life, and I'm sure you have lawsuits and litigation against the agency.
- [37:12]
B
And we took four years. Yes. Yeah. It took four years of litigation over $200,000, and they finally, the DA, the assistant DA came to my attorney off the books now. Off the books and says, if he just voluntarily turns his license in, I'll drop all the charges. He's like, what? After four years, after like 14 depositions, after, you know, four years of litigation, ruining his career, and you're just going to drop the charges just like that? She's like, yep. He's like, wow. So he turned to me and goes, look, he goes, we can go trial. He goes, you're gonna win. But this is over. The caveat, Right? But it's not 100%. This is 100% you. You turn your license in and you go on your merry way. And then he goes, that's it. He goes, do you still want to be a police officer? I said, yeah, I still want to be a police officer. He goes, well, then just turn your license in. He goes, wait a few months, and then go reapply for your license back.
- [38:16]
A
But that's not what happened, is it?
- [38:17]
B
Fair enough. Yeah. I mean. I mean, there's no. There's nothing in the books that says you can't do that. Well, what this assistant DA did was she wrote a letter to the FDLE saying that in lieu of prosecution, which is not true, but in her eyes, I guess maybe it is because it wasn't a signed deal. I never signed a state deal or anything like that. Because a lot of people turn their license in in lieu of prosecution. He is. Now I'm fighting to get my license back because I want it back. But long story short, it's going to see the way she did. It was illegal. That's the other part of it, too. The state. The FDLE is the only agency that can tell me I can't be a police officer in the state of Florida. Not Assistant District Attorney.
- [39:09]
A
Right.
- [39:09]
B
And they even have me on the Brady List there, which is crazy because they didn't prosecute me.
- [39:14]
A
The Brady List is designed with good reason, but people are on there. Shouldn't be on there. And just. Just do a quick Google search whether Brady List is. I want to fast forward to what life is like for you and your wife now, because, look, I know this wasn't in the cards for you, but you had to decide. Okay, how did. How does one go to some. From being a police officer, crane operator for many years of life to a police officer to a pizza trailer guy. I don't mean that it's an insult. I'm just. It's a big transition.
- [39:45]
B
No, it's a good. No, it's a good question. When you got charges pending over your head, you can't find a job, right? I couldn't even Uber Lyft. I couldn't do anything. So this is. I said to my wife, I'm like, look, I grew up. My dad had a restaurant. Even though he was a cop, we had a restaurant. I said, I grew up in the restaurant business, so why don't I open a food truck? I can cook and make some money.
- [40:07]
A
There you go.
- [40:08]
B
Why you're going to school? Because she was, you know, in residence school. She was making 50 grand a year, so it wasn't like she was making Dr. Money. Now we call it Dr. Money now. It's a big difference, you know, Aren't.
- [40:19]
A
You just all that nowadays with the finances? By the way, we're running out of time, David. Check out his website or Facebook page. Rustic dough works. Rustic dough works. And check out the fundraiser doing with the wounded blue. Their website is the woundedblue.org that's the woundedblue.org. david, thanks for your service and being us on the show. Very much. Appreciate it.
- [40:41]
B
Thank you for hearing my story. I appreciate you. Thank you so much. And everything you do for the, for, for the police officers, it's, it's huge.
- [40:48]
A
This was a podcast version of the nationally syndicated law enforcement talk radio show and we are so glad that you decided to join us. Big thanks to our guests for telling our story on the show. Two simple things you can do. Be sure to check out our website letradio.com and be sure to follow us or like us on Facebook. Do a search on Facebook for law enforcement talk radio show and be sure when you see a post that will we put up that you like that you resonate with that gets your attention. Be sure to share it with your friends. Back in just a few days, another episode of the law enforcement talk radio show and podcast. Until then, this is John Jay Whiteley. See ya.