Who's Your Daddy SPPD?

Still Your Daddy SPPD, Still Da Boss


Mayor Kriseman eliminates several candidates for St. Petersburg police chief

except....


A few coalition highlights in pictures. More memories to be made soon:

1992 Cedric Gordon promoted to Major: "It's an affirmative action promotion," Curtsinger said. "That's really what it boils down to."


1992: Retired from LAPD, SPPD Chief Ernest Curtsinger fired by Goliath Davis' good friend Don McRae, acting city manager


1996: Violence Returns To St. Pete Streets
Gunfire Wounded Two Police Officers After A Grand Jury Cleared Another Officer In The Killing Of A Black Motorist.


1997: Davis rejects $100,000 federal Weed and Seed grant for drug enforcement



1998-2014: Donnie Williams, on the right. His 1998 drug dealing investigation is still an open case not available for public record:

1998: DEA informant at a bar saw "Sgt. Donnie Williams receive baggies of a white powder"
1998-1999: Undercover St. Pete Detectives follow Donnie Williams, see something and report directly to Davis. Outcome- top secret.
1999: Officer Raymond Craig fired for questioning the effort and stalling of Donnie Williams drug dealing investigation
1999: "Chief Goliath Davis made him a lieutenant"
2005: Chuck Harmon promotes Donnie Williams to Major
2014: Still waiting for a Donnie Williams drug dealing investigation outcome...


2001: Coalition Fakes Outrage, Mack Vines fired for Orangutan comment, Chuck "the coalition tool" Harmon promoted to chief


2002 HEADLINE: Police turnover rising in St. Petersburg
Low pay and low morale are cited as reasons that the number of officers leaving has risen steadily since '98.
http://www.sptimes.com/2002/01/05/Ta...er_risin.shtml


2002 HEADLINE: Costly revolving door

As fast as the agency recruits and trains officers, another bunch leaves. No other city in the state has more trouble keeping a grip on its officers.

http://www.sptimes.com/2002/10/06/So...ing_door.shtml

2003: HEADLINE: St. Pete Police Dropouts Cost City (Too Much!):
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1023737/posts

St. Petersburg is unique among large Tampa area law enforcement agencies for both its reliance on inexperienced candidates for new blood and its willingness to compensate them if they meet a minimal set of standards.

The Quality Of Recruits

Before she applied to the St. Petersburg department, Anita Miller had been asked to resign from both the Clearwater Police Department and the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. Harmon said she had failed to meet minimum standards in the use of a firearm, but that once she proved proficient, she was accepted as a candidate.

James Holden didn't get past an oral interview at the Largo Police Department. Willie Brown failed to get past his interview for an agency in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. The Harmon administration accepted them both. Harmon said he doesn't hold much stock in interviews as a gauge of a candidate's prospective performance.

The trainee who wanted nothing to do with that drug dealer left the police department in 2002 to be closer to his family in Pennsylvania. While there, he didn't score high enough on a Pennsylvania State Police written test - but the St. Petersburg department let him start again this year.

Another trainee was accepted despite being a ``little overweight,'' his personnel file shows; another admitted he ``experimented'' with marijuana - six times in a single year.

One trainee had been cited once for leaving the scene of an accident; another couldn't cut it as a postal carrier.

The field training officers' frustration with candidates such as these is palpable on the daily reports they must write on their charges' performance: ``In 10 weeks of training, he has not progressed past four weeks of performance,'' Sgt. Rollin Lightfield wrote of one trainee, who resigned that day.


2004: Regarding Anthony Foster: "the St. Petersburg NAACP has asked the police department to refrain from a criminal investigation of a black robbery detective suspected of slapping the hands of a white officer."

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/04/21/So...ffle_dra.shtml
Foster was at the station drunk, in the passenger side of his girlfriend's car, then his wife showed up.

Lutricia Foster asked to talk with her husband, but he did not respond. She then jumped on the hood of the car, which drove to 16th Street and back down Central Avenue. The driver told police Foster told her to drive and that his wife would get off.

When the car stopped, Foster went toward his wife. But an officer extended his arm to stop him. Foster slapped the hand twice, a report said. Foster's supervisor arrived at the scene and argued with a lieutenant over how to handle the situation.

Foster was suspended for three days without pay; the supervisor and lieutenant were given memorandums of counseling (for pointing their fingers at him and speaking disrespectfully to him).
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/05/27/Ta...pended_o.shtml




2009: Support Deveron Gibbons


2011: Goliath attends cop killer Hydra Lacy's Funeral

NAACP President Manuel Sykes presides:


2011: Coalition favorite, under Sergeant Al White's supervision, arrested by the FBI for on-duty corruption charges




2013: Goliath Davis vows to help Rick Kriseman become St. Petersburg mayor


2014: Mayor Rick Kriseman gives Al White & Cedric Gordon key to the city



2014: HEADLINE: Just one question about that meeting of black St. Pete Police officers…

...what would the reaction be if roughly 125 white police officers, city activist and clergy members met behind closed doors with Mayor Rick Kriseman to discuss widespread racial turmoil?

http://www.saintpetersblog.com/archives/137550



2014: St. Petersburg police alter promotion rules
"the audit revealed some anomalies. For instance, three black officers eligible to become lieutenants “scored exceptionally high on their oral assessment compared to their written examination,” according to the three-page report by the company."
http://tbo.com/pinellas-county/st-pe...ules-20140531/



2014 HEADLINE: St. Pete police have high hopes for new chief
"Mayor Rick Kriseman’s office after he solicited rank-and-file input about what kind of police chief the city should hire"



But he heeded my warning instead. Now if you want to enforce the law, do it north of central or take your a@@ to another agency, you aren't welcome here.

I'm out, back to my home in north florida.

Think Option B is gonna stop me? I've been tight with this guy for years:



Defeat the Coalition? FAIL

Be calm........ Mel on

Forgot a couple...

2000 - Davis costs city hundreds of thousands in discriminatory firing lawsuits

City loses second forced retirement case

A judge's ruling could cost St. Petersburg $275,000. The city said it would be bound by what happened in the first case.

By MIKE BRASSFIELD

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 29, 2001

A judge's ruling could cost St. Petersburg $275,000. The city said it would be bound by what happened in the first case.
ST. PETERSBURG -- John Womer and Buddy San Marco were high-ranking police officials who, against their wishes, were forced to retire.

Both men felt wronged and sued St. Petersburg. San Marco sued first, so his case was further along in the courts. City officials, confident of victory, agreed to pay Womer if San Marco won.

San Marco was awarded half a million dollars.

Now, a circuit judge says the city must compensate Womer -- a ruling that could cost St. Petersburg about $275,000.

With a new police chief on the way, the courts are ending one of the last remaining legal disputes involving the current police chief. Womer's case dates back to 1998.

"It really is high time to put this stuff away so that the new chief coming on does not have to deal with these old disputes. Wouldn't you like to give the guy a fresh start?" said Michael Keane, the lawyer representing both Womer and San Marco.

Womer was a police major in charge of patrol officers in the western third of the city. Police Chief Goliath Davis III forced Womer to quit in May 1998, contending that Womer threatened him.

Womer denied making threats, but it didn't matter. Majors are not covered under the city's civil service rules and typically can be fired without cause. But Womer sued, saying a provision in his pension plan should have protected his job.

It was the same legal argument used by San Marco, a former assistant police chief who was forced out in 1997. In his lawsuit, San Marco also claimed age discrimination.

Two years ago, an assistant city attorney named Rob Eschenfelder summed up the city's point of view: "Both cases have no merit. Both cases will fail."

Wrong.

San Marco won about $507,000 in damages and legal fees from the city. In Womer's case, the city had stipulated that it would be bound by whatever happened in San Marco's case.

"The city recognized the issues in Buddy's case were virtually identical to the issues in John Womer's case," Keane said. "Now we have to get our heads together on what the damages are."

Womer and the city have not agreed on a monetary amount. Keane said $275,000 would cover Womer's lost wages and retirement money he would have accumulated in his pension plan.

"That number may be adjusted somewhat, but that's in the ballpark," Keane said.

After he "retired," Womer worked as a court bailiff and now is an investigator for the Florida Department of Insurance.

Womer couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday.

But in his view, any legal victory would be bittersweet. He never wanted to leave the Police Department.

2010 Davis stopped for suspicion of DUI

ST. PETERSBURG — A four-month-old traffic stop is bringing scrutiny to one of Mayor Bill Foster's top administrators.

RELATED NEWS/ARCHIVE
Developer submits plan for elevated toll road in south Pasco
7 Months Ago
Susan MacManus says interest in politics started as a girl
1 Month Ago
Jacksonville archaeology group ponders Civil War mystery
8 Months Ago
There were no arrests or citations. It lasted four minutes. But Goliath Davis, the city's senior administrator of community enrichment, is now facing questions about why he was pulled over in his city-owned car in the early morning hours of Dec. 15.

Despite media reports suggesting that Davis, a former St. Petersburg police chief, may have received preferential treatment, city leaders said they believe he did nothing wrong.

Still, they will carefully review the details of the stop to determine if Davis did anything improper.

Video from the officer's dash camera was in high demand. By Friday, three media outlets, the city of St. Petersburg, and a private investigator had requested the tape.

"It's puzzling to me," Davis, 59, said Friday. "Nothing was done that was inappropriate, and here we are in April talking about it."

• • •

Gulfport police Officer Zachary Mills stopped Davis on Dec. 15, a Tuesday, at 1:42 a.m.

A dispatch log concluded there was no odor of alcohol and that Davis passed an informal roadside sobriety test.

Gulfport police Chief Robert Vincent said Mills openly discussed the stop with other officers at a rifle range the next day.

"It's not every day you pull over the deputy mayor of St. Petersburg on a traffic stop," Vincent said.

Mills, who was Gulfport's officer of the year in 2009, declined to comment. Vincent said he didn't review the video until media outlets requested it Thursday. Upon review, Vincent said Mills did everything by the book and that Davis wasn't treated any differently than anyone else.

Vincent said he didn't know what was behind the sudden interest.

Video footage of the traffic stop doesn't prove wrongdoing. But it does show some questionable driving and deferential gestures that Mills made toward Davis.

Mills trailed Davis for about a mile, watching his black city-owned Impala drift several times over the center line. Mills noted that Davis was going 10 mph less than the speed limit, which is considered a sign of possible impairment.

Davis stopped his car in the middle of 23rd Avenue, a residential street, and opened the driver's side door. When Mills walked over, he recognized Davis.

"Oh, Mr. Davis," Mills said. "Okay, got your license on you?"

Vincent said Mills' recognition of Davis wasn't exceptional because "anyone in law enforcement in Pinellas County knows of Go Davis."

Davis' speech was calm, not slurred. He explained that he didn't have his license, adding he had just left the hospital.

The officer asked Davis if he could check his eyes "real quick," an exercise officers use to gauge impairment.

When Davis stepped out of the car, he took three steps of a "walk and turn" roadside sobriety exercise before Mills told him that he didn't need to do that.

"Hopefully we don't have to go down that route," Mills told Davis, who laughed.

"Everything's cool," Mills said. "We'll get you out of here, okay?"

It took about 12 seconds for Mills to check his eyes before telling him, "You're good. Thanks for being cooperative, Mr. Davis. Have a good night, sir."

Why didn't Mills have Davis do any other exercises, like the "walk and turn" or the "one-leg stand"?

"If you had too much to drink, there will be a bouncing of the eye as it moves left to right," said Vincent. "That's the first thing a DUI officer will look at. If they don't see that eye bounce, they will almost always dismiss further testing. That's what happened here."

William Porter, a Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy on the DUI squad, said he too would stop testing if the driver passed that first test.

"That happens quite often," Porter said. "That's a very effective test, why waste our time when we can stop people who are impaired?"

• • •

Davis said he doesn't recall why he was out that night, but stressed he was not drinking.

He was former Mayor Rick Baker's deputy mayor at the time, he said, and often received calls that required him to go out late. He said he wouldn't have been in a city vehicle if he wasn't working.

Baker confirmed that when he was mayor, Davis was out late "doing stuff all the time." But on Friday, Baker said he couldn't recall an example of such work or what Davis might have been doing that night. "You'd have to ask him," Baker said.

Davis said even if he did recall, he wouldn't say because it might expose sources that he relies on.

"The reason I maintain those relationships is because I'm able to protect their confidences," he said.

Davis was driving slowly because Gulfport officers like to hand out tickets, he said, noting that Mills was professional and polite.

He said he drifted to the center line because he was watching the police cruiser in the rearview mirror. Davis said he wasn't aware his license tag wasn't registered, a classification that Florida statute allows only for law enforcement officials. He said when he started work for Baker in 2001, he rolled over his benefits as police chief and the car came with it, as did the tag.

Foster said he's considering revoking Davis' take-home vehicle privileges, but not because of the incident. He was reviewing Davis' contract before he learned of the stop this week.

"It would concern me if any one of my employees was arrested for DUI," said Foster, who hasn't seen the video. "But that was not the case. I don't have any evidence alcohol was involved."

City Administrator Tish Elston said she planned to watch the video next week.

"I still don't understand what the issue is today," Elston said. "I felt that what I saw on TV was pretty self-explanatory in that there really wasn't anything there. It appeared to be consistent with what Goliath had told me."

http://youtu.be/KzxhQvD85f0

2010 Conflict of interest goes unpunished

Davis uses the city to buy his aunt's house for $80k, way over what it's worth

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/edit...nished/1133701

All that aside, I can't help but feel all warm and fuzzy that Foster did two years in Federal prison. Filthy corrupt scumbag.

A couple mugs in these pictures I'd love to pop in jaw.

The OP did a great job documenting history. I think evil forces in city hall want to hide this "cultural assessment."

[Unregistered]

History repeats itself. You reap what you sow. The baker support team is alive and well. I wonder who's promised positions this time?

[Unregistered]

Awesome original posting. Very true.

[Unregistered]

This is a good cliff notes version of the highlights of the Coalition's reign of terror and crime spree.

This is the accurate version, the one everyone is afraid the public will wake up and see. Most of those in the OP should be behind bars. The voters have no clue. Selling drugs and covering up murders while in uniform is the type of crime most societies reply to with very long prison terms. Here, the thugs are rewarded with money, promotions and political appointments. The community they allegedly serve is destroyed by their actions and corruption, but they don't have to live there anyway. The stooges in the black mafia stay out of the area unless there is a good photo op or an election coming up.