Deputy Charged with Misuse of Computer

01-08-2009, 11:30 AM

Polk Deputy Charged With Misusing Agency Computer

Published: Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at 9:47 p.m.

LAKELAND | A Polk County sheriff’s deputy was arrested Wednesday after using her agency-issued computer to access a state crime database and then illegally sharing information from it, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.

Kimberly Torres, 23, of Lakeland, was arrested about 6 p.m. and charged with two felony counts of unlawful use of a computer. She has been suspended without pay pending the outcome of the investigation, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Torres used her computer to access the Florida Crime Information Center database, which is maintained by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and is for law enforcement use only, the Sheriff’s Office said.

She gave out information from the database to someone who isn’t authorized to have access to it, which is illegal, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Torres was hired in the Animal Control Section in December 2004 and became a deputy sheriff in September 2006. She was most recently assigned to the Southwest District Patrol. She had been suspended with pay on Friday, after the agency was informed that she was misusing her computer.

Bureau of Special Investigations detectives then seized her agency-issued computer and did a forensic analysis on it. BSI detectives verified that Torres had accessed privileged FCIC information and then released the data to an unauthorized person at least twice, the Sheriff’s Office said.

01-08-2009, 06:26 PM

How unfortunate; but laimbrained! Kinda curious of how BSI could verify the info was passed on to an 'unauthorized person', unless a)she emailed it, or b) the other party was a paid snitch. Both of which are possible.