06-15-2008, 04:40 PM
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Officer Failed To Inform on Fiance's Brother
Melissa Sellers resigned during internal police investigation.
By Jeremy Maready
THE LEDGER
Published: Friday, June 13, 2008 at 6:01 a.m.
LAKELAND | A Lakeland police officer resigned earlier this year in the middle of an internal investigation that concluded she knowingly withheld information from supervisors about her future brother-in-law and slaying suspect Leon Davis in December.
LPD Officer Melissa Sellers was accused of violating two sections of the department's general orders - off-duty enforcement of laws and conduct unbecoming - which are used to govern officer conduct. Investigators found she violated the enforcement order but not the conduct unbecoming.
According to reports, on Dec. 13, the day police say Davis burned two women and shot a man at a Lake Wales insurance office, he went to the Winter Haven home where his brother, Gary, and Sellers were living.
Sellers was engaged to Gary Davis.
When the doorbell rang, Gary answered the door and saw his brother standing there with scratches on his nose and asking if he could wash his face, according to LPD internal investigation reports.
Leon said nothing when his brother asked him what was wrong, asking only for soap to wash his face, Gary told investigators.
After using the shower, Leon got dressed and walked outside where his brother asked him not to leave and to tell him what was wrong, reports said. All he would say was that he had "hurt someone," Gary told investigators.
After Leon left, Gary told Sellers what he had said, investigators reported.
At most, she thought Leon had possibly been in a fight or stole a woman's purse, she told investigators.
But then Gary saw television reports about the Lake Wales incident and that his brother was the suspect.
Sellers told investigators she turned on the news and heard Leon's name and saw the magnitude of the incident. But after about five minutes, she turned the TV off, shocked at what she had seen, and then left for work.
Despite her fiance's telling her several times to report her contact with Leon, Sellers did not for nearly another week, reports said.
Sellers told sheriff's investigators Dec. 19 that "she was afraid of how her agency would react to her relationship to Leon Davis Jr., and did not inform anyone of the contact she had just had with a mass murderer who was actively being sought after by law enforcement."
"When I first found out, I'm like, you know, I should've told someone, but I wanted it to die down some, I didn't want, I didn't want to think about it at that point and time, I just wanted it to know of you know...(sic)," she told investigators in a taped interview.
Davis turned himself in to detectives that night, officials said.
"Officer Sellers, at the very least, should have contacted the investigating agency and advised them of the recent contact with Mr. Leon Davis," investigators said of the Dec. 13 incident. "That information may have helped in apprehending Mr. Leon Davis even sooner."
Davis was later linked by investigators to the slayings of two Lake Alfred gas station attendants who were killed earlier that month. He has been charged in the Lake Wales and Lake Alfred killings.
Sellers resigned in February, just 11 months after being hired. She was paid about $37,600 a year.
Given the sustained allegation, had she not resigned, she most likely would have been fired from her position because of her probationary status with the Lakeland Police Department, said spokesman Jack Gillen. All officers are put on probation during their first year of service.
Officer Failed To Inform on Fiance's Brother
Melissa Sellers resigned during internal police investigation.
By Jeremy Maready
THE LEDGER
Published: Friday, June 13, 2008 at 6:01 a.m.
LAKELAND | A Lakeland police officer resigned earlier this year in the middle of an internal investigation that concluded she knowingly withheld information from supervisors about her future brother-in-law and slaying suspect Leon Davis in December.
LPD Officer Melissa Sellers was accused of violating two sections of the department's general orders - off-duty enforcement of laws and conduct unbecoming - which are used to govern officer conduct. Investigators found she violated the enforcement order but not the conduct unbecoming.
According to reports, on Dec. 13, the day police say Davis burned two women and shot a man at a Lake Wales insurance office, he went to the Winter Haven home where his brother, Gary, and Sellers were living.
Sellers was engaged to Gary Davis.
When the doorbell rang, Gary answered the door and saw his brother standing there with scratches on his nose and asking if he could wash his face, according to LPD internal investigation reports.
Leon said nothing when his brother asked him what was wrong, asking only for soap to wash his face, Gary told investigators.
After using the shower, Leon got dressed and walked outside where his brother asked him not to leave and to tell him what was wrong, reports said. All he would say was that he had "hurt someone," Gary told investigators.
After Leon left, Gary told Sellers what he had said, investigators reported.
At most, she thought Leon had possibly been in a fight or stole a woman's purse, she told investigators.
But then Gary saw television reports about the Lake Wales incident and that his brother was the suspect.
Sellers told investigators she turned on the news and heard Leon's name and saw the magnitude of the incident. But after about five minutes, she turned the TV off, shocked at what she had seen, and then left for work.
Despite her fiance's telling her several times to report her contact with Leon, Sellers did not for nearly another week, reports said.
Sellers told sheriff's investigators Dec. 19 that "she was afraid of how her agency would react to her relationship to Leon Davis Jr., and did not inform anyone of the contact she had just had with a mass murderer who was actively being sought after by law enforcement."
"When I first found out, I'm like, you know, I should've told someone, but I wanted it to die down some, I didn't want, I didn't want to think about it at that point and time, I just wanted it to know of you know...(sic)," she told investigators in a taped interview.
Davis turned himself in to detectives that night, officials said.
"Officer Sellers, at the very least, should have contacted the investigating agency and advised them of the recent contact with Mr. Leon Davis," investigators said of the Dec. 13 incident. "That information may have helped in apprehending Mr. Leon Davis even sooner."
Davis was later linked by investigators to the slayings of two Lake Alfred gas station attendants who were killed earlier that month. He has been charged in the Lake Wales and Lake Alfred killings.
Sellers resigned in February, just 11 months after being hired. She was paid about $37,600 a year.
Given the sustained allegation, had she not resigned, she most likely would have been fired from her position because of her probationary status with the Lakeland Police Department, said spokesman Jack Gillen. All officers are put on probation during their first year of service.