Originally Posted by
Guest
The point is Mrs. Rat is the old dirty laundry about your husband shows a pattern of lying and cheating along with many of the things he charged SVB with. How can the city belive his word. He has a past which includes conspiring with other officers. Here is an article that sums it all up.
BREAK --IN THE-- RANKS FLORIDA'S POLICE LICENSING SYSTEM OFTEN FAILS TO WEED OUT OFFICERS ACCUSED OF MISCONDUCT. LITTLE OR NO ACTION HAS BEEN TAKEN IN THOUSANDS OF CASES OF POLICE MISDEEDS SINCE 1981, A SUN- SENTINEL INVESTIGATION HAS FOUND. HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES.
[SUN-SENTINEL Edition]
Sun Sentinel - Fort Lauderdale
Author: FRED SCHULTE and MARGO HARAKAS, Staff Writers
Date: Jul 21, 1991
Start Page: 15.A
Section: LOCAL
Text Word Count: 1466
ABOVE THE LAW THE SERIES ALL EDITIONS
BELLE GLADE
Robert L. Martin may well prefer to forget the charges brought against him in Orlando in 1980: two counts of exposing his sexual organs, records state.
By lying about his crime, he became a licensed police officer and landed a job with the Belle Glade Police Department.
His case shows the powerlessness felt by some members of Florida's Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission, set up to bar undesirables from police work.
"How, when this man was convicted of a crime in 1980, was he certified as a police officer in 1988?" asked an incredulous Commissioner C. Ed DePuy at a May hearing.
Martin thwarted the process simply by checking "no" on part of the Belle Glade application form that asked if he had been convicted of a crime, records show.
The deception did not show up during the normal computer background check, said Belle Glade Police Chief Michael Miller. He said he learned of Martin's past from a telephone tip.
Confronted with the truth, Martin at first lied to protect his job. But four months after being hired, he was asked to leave.
Chief Miller would not discuss details of Martin's Orlando case. The court records have since been purged. Several efforts to reach Martin for comment failed.
Alerted by Belle Glade police that his departure was an "undesirable separation," the commission began investigating Martin in March 1989.
The inquiry did not deter police in South Bay, a small town southwest of Belle Glade, from hiring Martin -- and allowing him to work with children.
In fact, South Bay Police Chief Roy L. Humston defended Martin during the commission review.
Citing Humston's support, a state hearing officer in January veered away from revocation. He decided Martin should be reprimanded and his license suspended for six months.
Martin pleaded for leniency before the full commission, which makes the final decision on revocation. He asked that his suspension be retroactive so he could continue the youth programs he had started.
But some commissioners were outraged that Martin was working with children and had the gall to ask them for a break.
"It's a travesty of justice," said Commissioner Bobby R. Burkett, head of the Florida Highway Patrol.
Despite their feelings, commissioners upheld the hearing officer. Martin could be back in uniform before Christmas.
Not at South Bay, though. Chief Humston has since soured on Martin, who was suspended for two days in April after improperly firing a warning shot at fleeing suspects in a stolen-car case. Martin quit in May.
"This kind of officer is what's wrong with the police side of the criminal justice system," Burkett said. "It defeats the entire purpose of what we're trying to do here."
LAKE WORTH
Muscle-cop Carl Swiger cut a tough swath on the streets of Lake Worth. The problem was that criminals were not the only ones who feared the sometimes impulsive ex-Marine.
Swiger's bully tactics and other allegations of misconduct got him booted off the force -- twice.
Swiger was fired in June 1988 after he and a fellow officer were charged with stealing $300 from a car. While several witnesses, all of whom passed lie detector tests, swore they saw the officers take the money, a jury found the pair innocent.
Swiger won reinstatement in June 1989 through arbitration. But complaints from his past prompted new investigations.
On May 18, 1988, Swiger had walked into a Cumberland Farms Store, threw out the customers, locked the door, and held the manager until she gave him the address of a store clerk, records state.
Days before, Swiger had observed the clerk sell beer to a minor. So for 20 to 30 minutes, Swiger forced a shutdown while the manager tried to track down the clerk's address.
Also in May 1988, Swiger attacked a young male prostitute during a city crackdown on prostitution and drug sales.
Swiger kicked the man in the buttocks with such force that the man was lifted off the ground, police documents show.
The victim later told investigators he had been beaten by Swiger three times but had been afraid to report it. Swiger admitted kicking the man, but said he was only following a city directive to clear undesirables from the streets.
These incidents led Lake Worth police to fire Swiger again in September 1989 -- and to report his conduct to the police-licensing board.
Swiger is fighting to hold onto his career.
A state hearing officer recommended in October 1990 that Swiger's license be revoked. He said Swiger's actions raised "substantial doubts about his respect for the law and the rights of others."
While Swiger awaits a final decision, he yearns to be back in uniform. He has been considered for a police job in Boynton Beach, but the application is on hold pending the outcome of his license hearing, a department spokesman said.
"My profession is a police officer," Swiger said. "That's what I do best."
DELRAY BEACH
A Delray Beach police investigator suspected the use of muscle- building drugs was the reason for changes in the size and behavior of motorcycle officer Doug Szczepanik.
Szczepanik had six times the average number of complaints during one 15-month period, a time he had "bulked up" while weightlifting. Because steroids are known to make users aggressive, even violent, the investigator thought Szczepanik was using the drugs.
Between May 1986 and July 1987, citizens came forward eight times to complain of Szczepanik's profanity, discourtesy and excessive force. Five times during that period he was in trouble with his bosses for offenses ranging from lying to neglect of duty.
His behavior was "explosive" and "aggressive" and he demonstrated an "increased violence potential," a July 1987 internal affairs report concluded.
Szczepanik was not tested for steroid use because the city's contract with its police force forbade it. No charges were brought.
Two years later, he was named in two brutality suits. One man arrested for driving under the influence said that Szczepanik kicked and beat him and jabbed him with a needle to withdraw blood for alcohol testing.
The first is pending; the second was settled.
But it was not complaints of excessive force that cost Szczepanik his police job in June 1989.
He was fired for lying, ordering another officer to falsify an accident report, disobeying orders, giving preferential treatment to a Plantation police officer pulled over on suspicion of drunken driving -- and perjury, records state.
But in an agreement with the city, he was rehired and allowed to resign the same day "for personal reasons."
However, a month before the deal was signed, the police-licensing commission began reviewing the facts of Szczepanik's departure.
Two years later, his license-revocation case drags on with no resolution in sight.
Szczepanik has asked for a hearing to contest the charges. It can be years before a verdict is rendered.
In the meantime, Szczepanik is free to pursue police work.
Szczepanik refused to comment through his attorney.
HALLANDALE
Michael Beckman can work in any Florida police department that will hire him -- even though he was put on trial for sexual battery in 1988 and was sexually involved with a minor three years earlier.
Beckman was acquitted on the charge of sexually assaulting a 20- year-old waitress one night in January 1988. The woman was so mangled and bloodied that she needed surgery after the attack, allegedly in the front seat of Beckman's car.
Hallandale police did not wait for Beckman's trial to discipline the six-year veteran. They fired him in February 1988, an action upheld by the city's review board. The board found Beckman guilty of misconduct in escorting the underage woman to a bar for drinks.
Beckman's firing triggered a review by the state's police- licensing commission, which unearthed another sexual complaint.
A 17-year-old Hallandale High School senior in April 1985 had reported having an affair with Beckman, then 26. While refusing to press criminal charges, the girl's father demanded that police do something.
Beckman could have faced jail or loss of his police license for having sex with a minor, records state.
Hallandale police gave Beckman an oral reprimand and ordered him to stay away from the girl, commission records state.
But commissioners decided that neither incident was serious enough to strip Beckman of his badge. No records could be found to explain the decision.
While Beckman paid no penalty, at least four other cops have lost their licenses in recent years for having sex with a juvenile, records show.
How did Doug keep his job?
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