BSO deputy charged with falsifying crime data [Archive]

News Dud

07-13-2006, 10:13 PM

Here's the !@#$%^&* article:
Deputy may testify against bossesState prosecutors say a new plea deal in the Broward Sheriff's Office crime reporting scandal is an effort to uncover involvement by higher-ups.
BY WANDA J. DeMARZO
wdemarzo@MiamiHerald.com

In a stunning plea bargain, a former Broward sheriff's deputy charged with falsifying crime data has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors -- and possibly name supervisors who were involved in the agency's effort to distort crime statistics.

The Broward State Attorney's Office announced Wednesday that all charges against former detective Chris Thieman will be dropped in exchange for his testimony against others involved in the scandal.

Prosecutors are hoping that Thieman will lead them to higher-ups who some deputies have claimed directed them to doctor their crime reports.

''This is strange, and only happens in rare cases when someone is cooperating or when the state thinks their case is too weak -- but it doesn't sound like that in this particular case,'' said David O. Markus, president of the Miami chapter of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

The deal calls for Thieman to ''provide truthful testimony about which supervisors, if any, prompted deputies to fabricate confessions and falsely accuse people of crimes they didn't commit just to clear cases,'' according to Ron Ishoy, spokesman for the state attorney's office.

In turn, prosecutors dropped eight felony counts of official misconduct against Thieman, a former Weston detective.

Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne, who has declined to comment on any of the cases, has denied any knowledge of an effort within BSO to fabricate crime reports or statistics.

A $1.2 million internal investigation, conducted by lawyer Tom Panza, a friend of Jenne's, found no evidence that anyone above the rank of detective was involved.

On Wednesday, BSO spokesman Elliot Cohen said, ``We leave all these decisions to the State Attorney's Office.''

But state prosecutors, in a statement, said the latest plea deal is an effort to ``discover who in the BSO chain of command instructed deputies to falsify documents to clear crime cases.''

Thieman's attorney, Charles Kaplan, downplayed the significance of the deal, saying his client gave a statement and ``didn't point the finger at anyone.''

''He didn't say anyone told him to do anything,'' Kaplan said.

Whether he will in the future remains to be seen. Three other deputies still face trial.

Since the onset of the probe, launched in October 2003, six deputies have been charged with making up confessions to clear cases off the books. Several deputies have alleged, in court papers, that they were pressured and, in some cases, even directed by superiors to falsify data in order to make BSO's record for clearing or solving crimes look better than it was.

''Everyone wants to point the finger at us,'' Scott Jordan, a former BSO deputy, told the Miami Herald in March. ``We're the lowest of the rank and file, but the reality is that it came from the top.''

Jordan is cooperating with prosecutors, but has not been charged in the case.

Of the six deputies charged, Thieman is the first to have all charges dismissed against him; two have already pleaded guilty. One of them, former Weston Detective Edwin Arias, is also cooperating, but received three years' probation as part of his deal with prosecutors.

If Arias fails to keep his part of the bargain, charges will be reinstated, said Timothy Donnelly, the prosecutor heading the investigation.

Thieman, who had worked for the BSO since 1991, was arrested Dec. 29, 2004, along with former Weston Detective Christian Zapata.

Zapata, who worked for BSO since 1986, was charged with 14 counts of official misconduct. His first trial -- on 8 of the 14 counts -- ended in a mistrial, but another jury later found him not guilty. He faces trial on six other counts.

A status hearing on his case is scheduled Friday.