IA

Anyone else see the article on the Highlands Today website about Matt Dettman's IA, intereting comments followed after the article

http://www2.highlandstoday.com/content/ ... ties/?news


SEBRING — Police Chief Tom Dettman and his wife Deborah filed two separate complaints against four Highlands County sheriff's deputies in connection with two separate incidents in 2007 involving their son, Matthew Thomas Dettman, now 20.

Three deputies were the subject of a complaint involving alleged racing on U.S. 27 and Matt Dettman's arrest, and one deputy was accused in a second incident when Matt Dettman was ejected from the 12 Hours of Sebring race.

On March 6, Sheriff's Internal Affairs Investigator Lt. Gaspar "Gus" Garcia was assigned to investigate the complaints.

The first complaint is based upon an incident on March 2, 2007, when Matthew Dettman was arrested in the early morning after a traffic stop.

A sheriff's deputy charged him with racing his 2005 Ford pickup truck on southbound U.S. 27 near the Quality Inn, in Sebring.

That charge was later reduced to solicitation to commit racing and was not prosecuted after July 2007 when he completed a driver's improvement course.

The driver of the other pickup truck was not charged.
Deputies Tom Ouverson and Scott Williams stopped the other driver. He claimed that the other driver (Matthew Dettman) tried to entice him to race, but that he refused to race.

On March 3, a year later, Chief Dettman filed a complaint against three sheriff's deputies, Det. John Singha and Deputy John Steffner, as well as their supervisor Lt. Jess Purvis, in the arrest of his son. He accused them of using excessive force, and of behavior, "indifferent, careless, rude, shortsighted, harsh and devoid of discretion."

"They totally disregarded any justice in this case," Tom Dettman wrote in a letter to Sheriff Susan Benton. "If deputies are allowed to treat people they know this way, how do they handle those they are not acquainted with?"

Part of the allegation was that Matthew Dettman sustained a red mark on his wrist and left shoulder, which reportedly was photographed after he was released from jail.

Dettman denied racing. He was stopped on Memorial Drive behind Albertson's supermarket. He said he was told he crossed a yellow line.

He said he was not told why he was being arrested so it surprised him when the cuffs were applied.
It was also revealed in the complaint that during the traffic stop Steffner did unholster his Taser when Dettman appeared to not cooperate, but never deployed it. Matthew Dettman said Singha pushed him onto the hood of Singha's car.

Matthew Dettman reported that Steffner kept repeating "Stand back, let me Taze him... stand back, let me Taze him."

Steffner told Garcia that he only informed Singha his Taser was ready if he needed him to use it. Dettman was not charged with resisting.

After reviewing Garcia's investigation, Sheriff's Maj. Mark Schrader, in a memo to Benton, found no evidence of misconduct on the part of any of the deputies.

Part of Chief Dettman's complaint was that the deputies could have exercised discretion and let his son go with a traffic ticket.

Dettman alleged that Det. John Singha used to work for Sebring Police Department but left on bad terms. He felt Singha's treatment of his son may have resulted from a resentment toward the chief.
In a May 7 letter to Chief Dettman, Garcia reported that based upon available information, the allegations against the deputies were unfounded.

Schrader recognized that under its General Order 4042, IIIA, the incident did not meet any of the six criteria under which deputies would have been required to make a physical arrest of Dettman under the law.

"All other arrests for a misdemeanor traffic offense 'may' be released at the scene, upon signing the traffic citation and being given a traffic court date," Schrader wrote citing additional wording of the statute. "This section of the General Order, by using the word 'may,' still leaves the discretion to do so up to the deputy on scene."

In other words the deputies didn't have to arrest and book Dettman, but chose to do so anyway.
A note on the cover sheet of the report read: "Hereafter GO4042 will be applied with a discretionary element," initialed SB.

A Day At The Races
Nearly simultaneously, on March 3, Deborah Dettman filed a complaint against Deputy Thomas Fort, involving the removal Matthew Thomas Dettman, who was handcuffed, given a trespass warning and ejected, from the 12 Hours of Sebring race on March 17, 2007.

Deputy Michael Helms and Fort reportedly told Matthew Dettman, who was driving a pickup truck, that he could not make a left turn ahead and had to proceed straight.

In this incident, Deborah Dettman and Chief Tom Dettman were both passengers in their son's vehicle with off-duty Deputy Brian Giguere.

"After a verbal exchange occurred between the driver and Fort, which allegedly included insults, the driver was removed from the vehicle by Deputy Fort," and the trespass was issued, Garcia wrote.

A separate internal investigation into Deborah Dettman's allegations of rude, inappropriate, unprofessional, and uncontrolled abusive behavior by Fort against her son was ordered on March 6, close to a year after that event.

She said Fort's actions, "violated everything a good cop stands for."

After the verbal exchange, Deborah Dettman alleged that Fort lost his temper and pulled Matt Dettman from the truck.

Both Deborah Dettman and the chief said Fort asked Matt if he was stupid not knowing what it meant to go straight. The chief admitted that his son made a derogatory comment, but that was not grounds for yanking him from the truck and handcuffing him.

Fort denied calling Matt Dettman stupid, as at least three people testified he did.
Chief Dettman contended, "It's not safe for a person that has a gun and a Taser to have a bad temper," Garcia reported.

Dettman said when his son complained the handcuffs were too tight, he heard Fort ratchet them a few clicks tighter.

Maj. Mark Schrader in this case disagreed with Garcia's finding that Fort "acted in a hasty and precipitous manner after the driver made the offensive comment."

Schrader found that the deputy acted with discretion in that Dettman could have been charged with resisting a law enforcement officer without violence after Dettman ignored four lawful orders to stop and get out of the vehicle.

Schrader agreed with Helms' conclusion that the whole situation could have been avoided if Matthew Dettman had followed his instructions to go straight in the first place.

His recommendation to Benton was that the charges were unfounded. Benton accepted Schrader's recommendation.

A near riot broke out as people in the crowd became angry and additional deputies had to be called in.
When Highlands Today tried to contact Chief Tom Dettman for a comment Tuesday, the chief said he only just picked up the reports and had not had time to digest the materials. He said he and his wife filed the reports as concerned citizens of Highlands County.

I would have shot him.

i would just like to say kudos to the deputies for doing their job! Cheif of Sebring just wanted his son to have special treatment. Well, he got it, a special ride to the county jail.

If Chief Dettman is so in tuned into making sure law enforcement officers act in a proper manner; Then why has he not taught his own daughter. I believe I heard she has been in at least two IA's and one was before she was out of the Academy. I was also told you better hold tight to your equipment if she is around and has forgot something at home. WOW what integrity has been taught by a veterian law enforcement officer. Chief why do you attack the legal actions of others when your own daughter has made so many bad choices. Maybe its easy to attack someone else instead of taken responsiblity for your own actions. This seems to be the Dettman motto.

TLC your da man

What did Dettman's daughter exacly do? This is the first I have heard about it.

So what I get out of the article is that if a SPD Officer orders me to do something, I don't have to do it. If the Officer stops me and arrest me, that Officer will be fired by the Chief, the charges will be dropped by SPD, and I will get a nice check from the city. What a City!

You would think that a Chief would raise his son to be better than the dirtbags we have to deal with everyday. How about daddy teaches his punk son to take responsibility for his actions. Keep doing your jobs guys.

Anyone that is doubt of how many times his son has gotten away with something should run the tags he has and had on his vehicle. Stopped a ton with 83-0 M.

Saw Tommy boy's son Boy Wonder sunk his truck in Lake Jackson today accross from the house. To bad Fish & Game wasn't around. I am sure it was parked on the hill and the emergency brake failed and it rolled in the water. Wonder if the insurance company is going to get a Police Report on that? I am sure he will get a new vehicle so he can reak more havoc on Sebring and surrounding ciities.