Deputy gets paid administrative leave

You make some good points however there was a plan in place and the ball was dropped and not by who you might think. Bottom line, he was told to pull over by his sergeant and he didn't. Had an abuse report been phoned in, we wouldn't even be having this discussion. Bottom line, he needs to be responsible for his own actions and he made his bed and now he must sleep in it. This was not CIU's fault and the fault simply belongs to one person and one person only.

You make some good points however there was a plan in place and the ball was dropped and not by who you might think. Bottom line, he was told to pull over by his sergeant and he didn't. Had an abuse report been phoned in, we wouldn't even be having this discussion. Bottom line, he needs to be responsible for his own actions and he made his bed and now he must sleep in it. This was not CIU's fault and the fault simply belongs to one person and one person only.

Of course he did not pull over. He already demonstrated some poor judgement and some other problems, you think he was going to pull over? Prolly not. I know that we would not be having this discussion if the abuse report was phoned in. But it was not, SO HERE WE ARE. That's just silly to say, cause we are the cops, and that's what we have to do. No one in any of these replies has blamed CIU. CIU has a job to do, and did it, And very well, I might add. The problem lies higher than the worker bees in CIU when it comes to dealing with arresting the wife to a deputy on duty. That's the point- we needed a plan, and a good one. And it needs to come from the supervision and have the admin on board, and be foolproof. For even the POSSIBILITY to exist for someone "dropping the ball" is failure of that plan before it even is put into action. Simply put.

I am just glad that no one was hurt. But all of it is embarrassing and hugely unneccessary, which is what really hurts.

Be safe everyone.

Maybe there just wasn't any other way for it to happen than a cluster f--- . I know that alot of people don't know the whole of the story. Those peeps should make sure they know all of what they say before spouting off with the hate. Heck, I don't know ALL of what happened. The way I understand it however is that DP was doing everything possible to buck the investigation, even to the extent of refussing to give an interview without an investigative subpoena. I hear that his reactions and attitude towards the investigation were so negative that perhaps it was the reason the highers ups felt the need to not clue him in. I mean we all the time talk about how no one should be treated differently and get favoritism just because of who they are. Isn't that what we accuse the admin of all the time? playing favorites and covering up. So why give courtesy to a guy that has done nothing up to that point in an investigation to deserve it? ( and I mean outside of being the good cop). Who knows, maybe it would have been an even bigger mess. Like I said, maybe it was just destined to be a bad scene. And now he's on admin leave with his job in jeopardy and their business is probably in the crapper. Sounds like it sux all the way around aye.

Benton: Mistakes were made in deputy's case


By BRAD ****ERSON

Highlands Today

Published: September 13, 2009

SEBRING - Highlands County Sheriff Susan Benton thinks better communication could have alleviated problems that arose in June when a deputy's wife was arrested at her place of business.

Linda Payne, the owner of Sebring's A Better Choice Children's Academy, was taken into custody following an indictment by the Highlands County grand jury for a misdemeanor charge of failure to report child abuse or neglect, which was in connection with the death investigation of 22-month-old Kaedyn Short.

Her husband, Deputy Daniel Payne, was suspended for five days in August following an internal investigation into allegations that, while in uniform, he raised his voice and threw his hands up in the air while his wife was being arrested. He was found to have been in violation of the Code of Conduct, the Oath of Office and Cannon of Ethics and the Uniform Patrol Division Allocation and Assignments.

"I feel like we could have done a much better job of communicating within the agency," Benton said Friday about the incident. "Our supervisors who were involved in trying to mediate that issue failed and they have all been coached and counseled by the major so that we don't suffer anything like this in the future."

The sheriff added that her office did not take the arrest lightly and considered having Payne turn herself in.

"We considered all of those elements but this was not a normal arrest warrant," Benton said. "This was an indictment handed down by the grand jury that actually gives us a direct order to go pick up and bring (in)."

Benton said problems started after a supervisor dropped the arrest warrant off to a lower-ranked supervisor on Payne's squad instead of handling it at the upper level.

Since the second supervisor was a shift supervisor, he became busy with calls and didn't get out to the location in advance of the arrest taking place, according to Benton.

"So, unfortunately, Deputy Payne learned of the arrest from a family member before he learned it from us, which is absolutely improper on our part, absolutely improper," she said.

Deputy Payne then reportedly failed to obey a direct order from his supervisor to pull over while driving to his wife's day care center during the arrest, according to a June 28 Highlands Today report.

"It would have alleviated some things but, hey, everyone's a human being and in these very difficult, stressful situations, I mean I clearly recognize the human need for Deputy Payne to take care of his family, no doubt about it," Benton said.