2 FLPD Officers turned in their car, radio, and door key!

January 10, 2010
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The city has suspended two Fort Lauderdale police officers who may have violated department policy in their off-duty work last year for Ponzi suspect Scott Rothstein.

Suspended with pay Friday were Sgt. Steve Greenlaw and Officer DeAnna Garcia-Lemieux, city officials confirmed. The two guarded Rothstein's Harbor Beach home, his Bova Prime restaurant and his law firm, Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler, city records show.

They also were in charge of scheduling other officers' Rothstein shifts. For their work as coordinators Rothstein paid each of them an extra 5.5 percent of the overall off-duty pay, the records show. With an estimated $300,000 in off-duty work last year, the two would have received $16,500 each, plus payment for their individual guard work. The city has no record of their total intake.

"I can confirm they were suspended with pay, and it was for issues arising out of the Rothstein detail,'' Mayor Jack Seiler said Sunday morning.

After months of the city and Police Department defending the Rothstein off-duty work, the suspensions were the first official acknowledgement of possible wrongdoing.

City policy prohibits officers acting as personal bodyguards, but officials wouldn't say Sunday whether Greenlaw or Garcia-Lemieux or both are suspected of traveling with Kim or Scott Rothstein, or which policies may have been violated. As their off-duty employer, Rothstein could have given officers a higher rate of pay than the city suggests, or could even have given bonuses without necessarily running afoul of city policy.

Only if he'd given an expensive item or large financial bonus would it draw the city's investigative attention, officials have said.

The guarding of Rothstein's residence was unique: No other person in the city's history has hired officers on a permanent, 24-hour basis for a private home. Still, top city officials, including Police Chief Frank Adderley, considered the work to be distinct from being a bodyguard, and approved it last spring.

Seiler recently said he will try to have the police union contract rewritten to ban prolonged guarding of homes, so a detail like Rothstein's would never again be allowed.

Fraternal Order of Police union President Jack Lokeinsky said he was notified of the suspensions but couldn't comment further.

Adderley said Sunday the police Internal Affairs department is "definitely taking a review of everything that pertains'' to the Rothstein detail.

Greenlaw and Garcia-Lemieux could not be reached for comment via e-mail Sunday. City officers are prohibited from speaking to the newspaper and face punishment if they do, according to spokesman Sgt. Frank Sousa.

Some 28 high-ranking police officers, detectives, undercover officers and the department spokesman worked for Rothstein, earning $40 to $50 an hour. The shifts began in April and were yanked Nov. 2 when the city learned Rothstein may have been running a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme out of the law firm offices guarded by uniformed Fort Lauderdale officers. By that time, Rothstein had paid the 28 officers more than $300,000.

Federal authorities noted Rothstein's police hires in their document laying out the reasons for his Dec.1 arrest on charges of fraud, wire fraud, racketeering and conspiracy to launder money. The document said he "utilized funds illegally obtained through the Ponzi scheme to hire members of local police departments purportedly to provide security for [Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler] and defendant Rothstein's personal residence.'' The document goes on to say he gave "gratuities'' to high-ranking police personnel to "curry favor'' and "deflect law enforcement scrutiny.''

Fort Lauderdale officials are also investigating Adderley because of his dealings with Rothstein. And, the Broward Sheriff's Office is investigating two top officials there, Undersheriff Tom Wheeler and Lt. David Benjamin, because of links to Rothstein.

Those probes center largely on whether the officials accepted anything of value from Rothstein without reporting it as required by state ethics law, and whether the officials did any favors for him.

Adderley approved the off-duty Rothstein work in April. By then he had already taken a jet flight with Rothstein to New York to see a New York Jets-Miami Dolphins game, Adderley admitted several weeks ago in a late gift disclosure filed with the state. Rothstein pal Ted Morse paid for the jet, Adderley said.

Rothstein said he wanted the security because he and Kim Rothstein were rattled by the strangling of Melissa Britt Lewis, a lawyer with his firm.

"Until you're in the position that someone close to you is murdered by someone else that you trusted, you don't understand how it turns your life upside down,'' he said last summer, just after a Sun Sentinel reporter first questioned Greenlaw about the off-duty detail. Rothstein threatened to sue the newspaper if it published a story about the detail; the story was published in July.

"You can call me whatever you want. You can call me paranoid, you can call me extra security conscious,'' Rothstein said that evening. "But at the end of the day, no one close to me is going to be killed, raped, attacked, harmed in any way so long as I have the ability to provide the extra protection.''

When he hired the officers in April, a suspect in Lewis' murder was already behind bars awaiting trial. She had been killed a year before, in March 2008.

Rothstein said he knew hardly any of the guards at his home.

"Right now I could name one officer," he said. "Steve Greenlaw.''

Brittany Wallman can be reached at bwallman@SunSentinel.com or 954-356-4541.

Sun Sentinel reports: "They [Greenlaw and LeMiuex] also were in charge of scheduling other officers' Rothstein shifts. For their work as coordinators Rothstein paid each of them an extra 5.5 percent of the overall off-duty pay, the records show. With an estimated $300,000 in off-duty work last year, the two would have received $16,500 each, plus payment for their individual guard work. The city has no record of their total intake.

IS Brittany saying the City claims that the two very highly paid FLPD employed detail coordinators kept no records of who worked the detail, when they worked and for how long? Sounds like a pile of BS to me. How would these two educated, experienced Officers know who to pay-- if they had no scheduling records. Media reports that Sgt. Greenlaw received well over $300,000 (closer to $400,000) in stolen ponzi scheme cash and gratutities. If he cannot account for who he paid it to and in what exact amounts-- then shouldn't he be liable to pay tax on all of it? Hum! Have to check with the IRS on that!

How are the other 28 Ranking officers going to pay their share of the taxes if there are no records. Surely, the Feds can ask the 28 officers involved: when they worked and how much of the stolen cash they received. It is simple math. If they are all honest, law abiding officers, and have no criminal intentions to commit tax evasion, then the amount that they each report they received should add up to the amount we know Rothstein paid. If not-- the investigation should widen in that we have a bunch of dishonest officers.

Unless of course the reason there is no records is because,"certain people" do not want the public to know just how much of the obscene amounts of stolen ponzi scheme cash each ranking FLPD officer received!

Wow some of you are retarded. $300,000 was the TOTAL earned by ALL officers who worked the detail from start to finish. Greenlaw and Lemiueauaix were golden childs? Seriously? They ran a detail and she scammed a hardship...but golden children? And how is SID involved in this? Didn't like only maybe 3 or 4 of them actually work the detail?

Why did I actually look at this site...I feel dumber.

SID slugs, There was a lot more then what was reported have you noted thet they really dont know what was paid out? (lost records)
Did you note that there was a lot more than detail pay provided? There was a lot more cash than the 300,000 and a lot lot more was hand cash and deals. SID was all over this and worked it without being noted as a deatil. Again stand by for the truth but dont tell us SID is not in it. SID boys took over when FA came into the seat and look what happened. Your are a jerk 3 or 4 SID thats all you say. Even if that was true how could we allow SID to have even one cash dirty cop. If you remember we just had another one there not long ago. Remember George ? Does he make 5 now ? Time to clean that house as well. Go make some BS arrest thats all you guys do anyway . I think I just found a guy with a beer on federal hwy so call out your teams.

Wow some of you are retarded. $300,000 was the TOTAL earned by ALL officers who worked the detail from start to finish. Greenlaw and Lemiueauaix were golden childs? Seriously? They ran a detail and she scammed a hardship...but golden children? And how is SID involved in this? Didn't like only maybe 3 or 4 of them actually work the detail?

Why did I actually look at this site...I feel dumber.

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while patrol wonders what the heck is going on the real story is the chief. Why is he in his office while others are home? FA has done nothing but mess up what we had left here he needs to go maybe home or maybe to jail. Time to vote him out

VOTE NO CONFIDENCE ON FA LET THE MAYOR HEAR YOUR VOICE

insteresting how 1 of our regularly visitors and posters, that doesn't post very nice comments, IP resolves back to the Washington/Virginia Metro Area. Who could that possibly be?

Just curious to the one tracing IP addresses.....where does mine come back to? Just want to see how accurate your information is? By the way I am NO BC fan so I really don't care.

How abot this one? The only thing you are tracing is with a pencil. That was such a stupid thing to write.

Just curious to the one tracing IP addresses.....where does mine come back to? Just want to see how accurate your information is? By the way I am NO BC fan so I really don't care.

VOTE NO CONFIDENCE ON FA LET THE MAYOR HEAR YOUR VOICE