By Juan Ortega, Sun Sentinel
5:54 p.m. EDT, October 27, 2010
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FORT LAUDERDALE —
The Broward Sheriff's Office suspended an award-winning detective without pay this week after his arrest on a grand theft charge for allegedly stealing $1,220 seized in a drug bust.
A sheriff's Internal Affairs investigation concluded that Detective Albury Augustus Burrows, 40, who has served the agency for nearly 11 years, was the only person who could have stolen the money last year from a Pompano Beach apartment where marijuana plants were being grown.
Burrows was taken into custody after being summoned late Tuesday to the sheriff's Internal Affairs office, officials said. He was freed from jail early Wednesday after posting $1,000 bail.
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Burrows has pleaded not guilty, his Coral Gables lawyer, Alberto Milian, said.
Milian attacked the Sheriff's Office for his client's arrest, calling the case a "flimsy accusation" aimed at deflecting attention from the sheriff's "shortcomings" during a tough budget year.
"We're fighting the charges," Milian said Wednesday. "I think the truth will eventually come out in this case."
Sheriff Al Lamberti said investigators took extra time on the case, working with the State Attorney's Office, to make sure it was solid and provable in court. He said colleagues of Burrows at the scene of the drug bust prompted the investigation when they saw that the money turned in was short.
"You have to have integrity to do this job,'' Lamberti said. "It's perplexing that you would throw away your career, your life, your family, for $1,200. It makes absolutely no sense. I can't explain that to you. I wish I could.''
Burrows is one of nine Pompano Beach-based deputies given the Gold Cross Award in March, a prestigious departmental recognition of heroism involving great risk or serious injury. Deputies exchanged gunfire with a robbery suspect, who survived and was arrested along with two others.
The incident that led to Burrows' own arrest occurred Dec. 5, when money disappeared from an apartment where marijuana plants had been found by the sheriff's Selective Enforcement Team. Burrows that day was in charge of the team, which typically targets such crimes as street corner drug sales, prostitution, burglary and loitering and prowling.
A cleaning crew entered the apartment to fix a window, but instead found marijuana plants inside, according to a memo from the State Attorney's Office. The crew alerted deputies, who arrived and began investigating. When the apartment's tenants, Everett Leon and Cynthia Pericles, returned home, they were arrested and taken to a sheriff's station.
One deputy at the apartment reportedly phoned Burrows, telling him that a "large sum" of money had been confiscated from Leon's pants pocket, a sheriff's affidavit said. Burrows instructed the deputy to leave the money in the apartment and wait for additional sheriff's team members to arrive.
As the two deputies already on the scene waited, they counted the money three times, confirming there was $2,452.
Burrows then arrived and told team members to go to lunch, the affidavit said. Deputies offered to remain and help Burrows, but he "refused all assistance from his team," the affidavit said.
Burrows purportedly stayed alone at the apartment for an unspecified amount of time. When a sergeant arrived later, he found Burrows guarding the residence. Burrows unlocked the door and both of them entered the apartment.
Burrows and the sergeant counted the money, finding a total of $1,232.
A sheriff's investigation concluded Burrows was the only person who had "the means or the opportunity" to take the missing $1,220.
For a time, "Burrows was the sole person at the scene and thus the only person with access to Apartment 104 and the money," the affidavit said.
The missing money was not recovered, Lamberti said. Asked if officials were scrutinizing prior cases handled by Burrows, Lamberti replied: "Safe to say we are looking at those.''
Partly because of the inquiry against Burrows, Leon was offered lesser charges in a plea deal, according to the State Attorney's Office memo. He was placed on three years of probation after he acknowledged attempting to traffic in MDMA, or ecstasy, and cultivating marijuana.
A child neglect charge against Pericles was dropped this year, state records show.
Staff writer Brittany Wallman and Staff researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report. Juan Ortega can be reached at
jcortega@SunSentinel.com or 954-356-4701.
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