Polk Jury blasts PCSO for flubbed investigation

I have a court reporter friend who just covered a civil trial for a wrongful death action. Driver on crank had a head-on crash in Polk City – killing a 30-year-old guy. She said that the Jury awarded the family $7,250,000.00 – then read the following:

"To the family, we acknowledge that no amount of award of damages will compensate you for your loss. We sympathize with you and grieve with you and for you. We hold the Polk County Sheriffs Office in contempt for not pursuing more earnest criminal charges and hope that they will. We hope this award is actually realized for you and for your family that your life and your grief might be eased because of it."

These are the basic facts that I got from reading some of the transcript:
1. Driver on crank struck young man head-on on S.R. 33 March 2006.
2. Victim was killed upon impact due to significant crush damage to his vehicle causing blunt trauma to his body.
3. Crank guy was transported to LRMC where he remained for several days due to the injuries that he received.
4. Sheriff’s office got a subpoena to obtain hospital blood.
5. Blood was obtained and placed into the sheriff’s office evidence room.
6. Sheriff’s office did not mail the crank guy’s blood to state lab to determine the presence of alcohol or drugs until 1yr 4 months later.
7. After receiving blood from state lab showing there was methamphetamine in defendant’s blood, they waited an additional one-year before sending it to toxicologist at University of Florida for quantitative analysis.
8. Quantitative analysis came back with 0.32 of methamphetamine in defendant’s blood.
9. Toxicologist for state testified that amount is a significant amount of methamphetamine in a human - and would have causes an impairment of defendant’s normal faculties.
10. Even with this information – the Polk County Sheriff’s office did not purse and criminal charges for the killing. In addition, they did not even issue a citation (civil infraction) for the driving on wrong side of road.
11. Deputy gave testimony that charges were not made due to defendant leaving area and in hiding. A paralegal at Burnetti, PA (Two lawyers of Burnetti were plaintiffs lawyers for FREE) found defendant’s location using an on-line search engine, and was able to get the crankster hand-served with the civil wrongful death complaint. *You would think that with all of our resources we could have found him before a local law firm.
12. Family of deceased attempted to contact the sheriff’s office on numerous occasions, inquiring about the investigation, but their calls were either not returned or they would send her a copy of the crash report.

If this is accurate we are going to look like a bunch of keystone cops!!!!!!!!!! Does anyone know anything about this?

This sounds like BS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is no way a deputy would not pursue traffic homicide charges and not issue a UTC. Is so, the Sgt would have caught it, especially with family calling in complaing. I think this is a BAD rumor.

I was in the courthouse and spoke to one of the deputies assigned there and I was told that this is accurate. Let us just hope this is swept under the rug cause if not heads are gonna roll. Glad it was not me!

heads wont roll and i'll tell you why. this incident would bring bad publicity to mr ego and he'd rather make it hush hush so he looks perfect. too bad the award didnt come from the pockets of the sheriff and his buddies.

It would be very interesting to know who worked the wreck and who signed off on it?????????????? hmmmmm??? could it be, d.s.?

who cares??? Just something else to belly ache about.

To the original posting "guest", Ill tell you why this is complete BS and why you, noble sir, are a F'n Idiot.

#1 even the goobs at the lakeland ledger and I'm sure this alleged court report "friend" wouldnt refer to the narcotics used by this mystery suspect as "crank". It would be referred to as Methamphetamine.

#2 If a $7.2 million dollar verdict were awarded to anybody for any wrongful death suit, it would be all over the media and news papers. Especially if there any type of link to the Sheriff's Office where an idiot jury believed they had the authority to hold the pcso in contempt.

#3 You keep referring to the suspect as "crank guy" which no person(s) involved with the case, be it law enforcement, fdle, the courts ect, would refer to any suspect as a crank guy, no matter how severe the charges and to say the pcso failed to "mail" the blood sample tells me you are a complete moron. sensitive materials related to any case would be hand delivered to the F.D.L.E. labs. and of course the families calls were ignored by the pcso? that would never happen.

And last but not least #4, you last bold statement says "If this is accurate we are going to look like a bunch of keystone cops!!!!!!!!!! Does anyone know anything about this?" well turbo, you are the one posting this as accurate information then you ask if anybody knows anything about it.

so to add a #5, go F#$% youself and dont be late to your shift at subway, Ill be in later to get my " FIVE _____ FIVE DOLLAR ____ FIVE DOLLAR FOOT LONG "

This story appears to be someones attempt to slam the Polk County Sheriff's Office, and the Traffic Unit. Obviously the writer doesn't know much about law enforcement procedures and the collection of evidence. His ignorance was noted when he said PCSO obtained a subpeona for the hospital blood, but did not take it to the lab. First, when an Investigative subpeona is obtained for hospital blood, we do not pick up the actual blood, you idiot, we pick up the medical records relating to the blood. Why would we send the blood to the FDLE lab, when the hospital has already processed it.

If you really have something that indicates a member of the Sheriff's Traffic Unit failed to do their job, bring it to one of the supervisors.... By the way, stop throwing out peoples initials. If you got something to say, man up and say it. Otherwise, shut up.

Polk County, Kansas. January 2010:

A confidential mediated settlement has been reached for the wife of a Lenexa, Kansas man following a $7.2 million dollar jury verdict in a civil case arising out of a deadly helicopter crash that occurred while filming "The Final Season," a movie about Norway High School's 1991 baseball championships.

http://www.kansascityaccidentinjurya...kansas-man.cfm

Hey Guest that is in Kansas not Florida! If you want to slam the sheriff's office then make sure you have the right one!! :devil: