Chief Richard Witt

The following information has been received from Mark Wiesner, Miami Lodge #20 State Trustee:

I am sorry to report that Past Florida State Lodge President . Witt has passed away.






Monday night, July 23, Richard “.” Witt passed away at his home in Ormond Beach.



A memorial service has been scheduled for Tuesday, July 31 at Lohman Funeral Home,

733 W. Granada Blvd., Ormond Beach, Florida 32174
. (386-673-1100) A visitation will be held from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. with a memorial service to start at 2 p.m. Honor guards from various police departments he worked for are being contacted and requested. A reception following the memorial service is planned but no details are available at this time.


During the memorial service, a time will be set aside for anyone wanting to talk about .. It is requested that comments be limited to two minutes and that everything be “upbeat” as to accomplishments and what . meant to them.
If you would like to speak and or attend the memorial service, please R.S.V.P. below to assist in having an idea of how many people will be attending.



Please keep Betty Witt and the rest of the family in your thoughts and prayers.



Contacts:
Norm Echelberry, (386) 677-9507 normanechelberry@earthlink.net
or
Robert “Bob” Sullivan (386) 717-2700 RJS40@cfl.rr.com



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Richard H. “.” Witt, 71, a career law enforcement officer, died July 23 at his Ormond Beach home of complications from cancer. Witt’s career as a police chief and law enforcement officer in Florida spanned over 5 decades. . was born in New York City on March 6, 1936 to Richard H. Witt, Sr. and Rose Witt. Shortly after World War II, Witt's family moved to Miami where he was raised and graduated from Miami Edison High School in 1953. After attending the University of Florida for 2 years, Witt e! ntered the US Air Force and upon discharge , in 1959 , became a member of the Miami Police Department.
During his more than 26 years with the Miami Police , Witt rose through the ranks retiring as an Assistant Police Chief. . was a fighter for law enforcement throughout the state and country. He served as the President of Miami's Police Union , the President of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge # 20, as State President of the Florida Fraternal Order of Police and then as the Vice President of the National Fraternal Order of Police. He also was an elected employee representative to Miami's Civil Service Board and an officer of the Miami Police Benevolent Association.
In 1986, after retirement from the Miami Police Department, Witt was named the Chief of Police for the City of Hollywood , Florida where he served outstandingly for the next 10 years. During this time he was elected as the President of The Browa! rd County Chiefs of Police. After being ousted in 1996 as Chief in Hollywood due to a hiring scandal that he had discovered and was pursuing, he became the Chief of Police of Golden Beach. In 1998 . and his wife Betty made the decision to retire to Ormond Beach in Volusia County. Retired about a year and one half Witt was plucked from retirement in September 1999 to serve as the Interim Police Chief for New Smyrna Beach. He completed that duty in June 2000 and returned once again to retirement. But at the beginning of 2005 he was called upon once again to serve as an Interim Police Chief, this time, for 3 months for the City of Flagler Beach.
Witt held a Bachelor’s Degree from Barry University and a Master's Degree in Management from St. Thomas University. Locally, Witt was a member of the Ormond Beach Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Moose Lodge# 1263. . was a lifetime member of the Fraternal Order of Police , The Broward County Chiefs of Police , the Florida State Police Chiefs Association and The International Association of Chiefs of Police and a member of the Oleeta-West Dade Masonic Lodge #145.
Witt is survived by his adored wife Betty, his loving sister, Sarita West of Oklawaha, Florida and 3 daughters: RandyLee Watters of Tallahassee, RickiLynn Braswell of Tallahassee, Stephanie Witt of Orlando and a step-daughter Amanda Harvey of Orlando. He is also survived by his son-in-law Mark and his 3 grandchildre! n Joshua, Logan and Savannah Braswell. A memorial service will be held Tuesday, July 31 at Lohman Funeral Home,

733 W. Granada Blvd., Ormond Beach, Florida
with a family visitation from 1 pm to 2 pm and a memorial service at 2 p.m. The family asks in lieu of flowers, donations in his memory be sent to the Volusia County Hospice at
555 W. Granada Blvd., Ormond Beach, Florida 32174
(386) 673-7770 or to the American Cancer Society.






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Hollywood wasted more than time and money
By FRED GRIMM
fgrimm@MiamiHerald.com
For 11 years -- a year longer than Richard Witt's tenure as chief of police -- the city of Hollywood refused to acknowledge the inevitable.

The city could have settled Witt's whistleblower lawsuit for $50,000 before his first trial. Or for $85,000 before the second. Yet the city persevered, turning his case into a Kafka-like legal morass.

At both trials, juries sided with Chief Witt. The city's attorneys were able to find technical errors and twice convinced the Fourth District Court of Appeal to send the case back to Broward circuit court.

But the damning facts behind Witt's suit were never altered. Those facts had convinced a Broward jury in 2000 to return a $205,000 verdict for the ex-chief in just 18 minutes. In 2005, the second jury only spent 13 minutes before deciding Hollywood had fired the chief to shut him up and must pay him $200,600 (plus $300,000 in attorney fees).

INTERNAL PROBE

In 1995, Witt had launched an internal investigation of the department's long-entrenched hiring system. He brought in an outside investigator who discovered that 40 of the previous 67 Hollywood police department hires had gotten jobs as cops despite arrest records, ignominious work histories, falsified applications and other glaring problems.

Witt suspended three officers in charge of hiring and turned his findings over to the Broward state attorney's office. He vowed to clean up the department. Two juries concluded that was exactly why he was fired.

Yet, the Witt case -- an obvious loser for the city -- was pursued by City Hall like a personal vendetta. Witt's attorney, Pamela Terranova, noted that the city's spiteful, almost pathological, pursuit rang up 11 years' worth of bills for taxpayers, who paid for depositions for flying lawyers out of state. It robbed gobs of time from the city's legal staff.

By the spring of 2007, with the third trial date approaching, it had become even clearer that the city should have listened to Witt back in 1995, when he tried to clean up hiring. Four veteran Hollywood cops had been snared in an FBI sting, thinking they were providing muscle and uniformed escorts for a New York crime gang. (Others might have been implicated but the FBI was forced to abort the undercover operation when word of the sting was leaked from the chief's office.)

QUESTIONABLE HIRES

Sgt. Jeff Courtney, arrested in the sting, happened to be one of the questionable hires highlighted by Witt in 1995. Courtney had been hired despite two DUI arrests, a reprimand for bad behavior and despite accidentally shooting a police sergeant in the leg.

The corruption charges only strengthened Witt's case (though it would be difficult to imagine the third jury returning a verdict any quicker for the ex-chief) and Terranova said he was relishing another retrial. ''He wanted to go again,'' she said.

Until the doctor called. Witt was diagnosed with lung cancer in March. ''Priorities changed,'' Terranova said. ``Suddenly, he had to worry about his family. About putting his affairs in order. About getting well.''

Witt offered to settle. He let Hollywood off easy. And the city finally faced reality, agreeing last month to pay Witt $300,000.

Richard Witt barely outlived his long, mad, legal odyssey. He died Monday. But he died vindicated.

If Hollywood had listened to Witt a dozen years ago, he might have saved the city more than money. He might have saved the city from itself.

The many friends of **** would like to thank all the Hollywood officers who attended the memorial service in Ormond Beach. We know that an official representation from your dept. was forbidden by "City Hall", and your were taking a risk of pay back. But **** smiled at all the cops there, from his entire police career. And he smiled even more, when the feds proved him right. Stay safe and back each other up is what my friend Richard would say if he could. And he would also wish you peace.

What happened to mike brown he took care of his officers.