Paul Leslie's Record Raises Questions About Polk Sheriff's P

Paul Leslie's Record Raises Questions About Polk Sheriff's Policies
Calvin Knight | The Ledger

Polk County Sheriff's Deputy Paul Leslie, whose 12-year career is checkered with an unusual number of complaints, holds K-9 Shea during a graduation ceremony in November 2007 in north Lakeland.

By SHOSHANA WALTER
THE LEDGER

Published: Saturday, June 12, 2010 at 12:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, June 13, 2010 at 2:38 a.m.


BARTOW | During his 12-year career, Deputy Paul Leslie has had four preventable agency crashes, lied to a supervisor, succumbed to road rage and twice continued vehicle pursuits when superiors ordered him to stop.


"It is an unusual number of complaints,'' said Gary Hester, the sheriff's second in command.

Officials say Leslie had more problems in 2009 than 99 percent of the 1,200 people employed by the Polk County Sheriff's Office.

They included:

A suspension for eight hours without pay for a vehicle pursuit against his supervisor's wishes.

A reprimand for talking back to a supervisor.

An order to complete retraining after a flawed traffic stop.

In addition, in June 2009, Leslie was ordered to stop communicating with another deputy with whom he had had a romantic relationship.

That deputy asked for a transfer because of previous ''threatening messages'' she said Leslie had left her.

So how does he keep his job?

The simple answer from sheriff's officials is that Leslie could be fired if he makes the same mistake again.

But his continued employment raises questions about the culture of law enforcement and what makes a good deputy. Despite his lengthy list of misbehavior, officials insist 37-year-old Leslie is a good law enforcement officer.

Others with experience in law enforcement elsewhere disagree.

"The same qualities that are going to make someone charge into danger when everybody else is running out, are the same qualities that when you don't hold back will get you in trouble," Hester said. "No one can do this job and not make mistakes. It's too complex and there are too many stresses."

LESLIE'S FILE

Leslie declined to speak with a Ledger reporter for this article. According to personnel records, he has been the subject of almost 20 complaints and internal investigations resulting in a total of 27 hours suspension without pay and four letters of reprimand.

Leslie's annual performance reports and files of commendations paint a picture of a completely different deputy.

FREQUENT PRAISE

While Leslie's file contains an unusually high number of complaints, Hester says Leslie is also one of the most frequent recipients of praise.

Leslie has received merit raises almost every year of employment at the Sheriff's Office.

That's because sheriff's officials calculate pay raises based on the number of points accumulated through accomplishment reports.

His personnel file includes regular praise for traffic stops leading to large drug-related arrests, successful pursuits, and formal commendation letters from his superiors and the sheriff for contributions to major cases.

Supervisor Jim Bryan wrote in 2008: "As your supervisor, this is what I have come to expect of you; excellence."

"Obviously, he's very motivated, he works hard," Hester said. "And people who work hard and people who do a lot make more mistakes than other people who do not work as hard."

Hester says the main challenge for most deputies is striking a balance between initiative and aggression, discretion and paranoia.

"The vast majority of deputies, even though they are in a job where they are put in the middle of conflict, have remarkably few complaints," Hester said. "We have very few deputies who have as many or more than deputy sheriff Leslie. It is an unusual number of complaints."

'PROGRESSIVE DISCIPLINE'

The Sheriff's Office employs a "progressive discipline" policy for treating bad behavior, which means the punishments grow as problems persist. Officials more closely scrutinize incidents that have occurred within two years to determine whether a deputy's latest problem is indicative of a behavioral trend.

By that measure, some of the problems in Leslie's past do not appear recurring.

But for former Boca Raton Police Chief Andrew Scott, the totality of Leslie's file is ''shocking.''

A former chairman of the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation, Scott now runs his own consulting company, AJS Consulting in Boca Raton, and provides assessments and expertise to law enforcement agencies throughout the country.

He said the Leslie incidents seem symptomatic of a larger problem that the Sheriff's Office hasn't effectively solved through regular discipline.

"A good police officer is going to get complaints, there's no doubt about it. It's the nature of the beast," he said. "For almost every year that he's been a deputy, he has had some kind of disciplinary/training issue. It's clear that he's not learning from any of the meager discipline I've seen dealt on these issues. This officer looks like he's burnt out."

Scott said the first alarming infraction on Leslie's record occurred in 2000, when the deputy was caught lying to a supervisor about his whereabouts.

"I would have fired him," Scott said. "Lying is the holy grail. When you have an officer who's lying to a supervisor about a silly thing like this, what happens when he really gets into trouble? Is he now lying about arrest affidavits? That incident in 2000 put me on notice that he is no longer trustworthy in my eye or the public's eye."

Lawrence Miller is a police psychologist for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, the West Palm Beach Police Department and Troop L of the Florida Highway Patrol and teaches psychology at Florida Atlantic University and Palm Beach State College.

He says there should be a necessary nuance to disciplining law enforcement officers, but that most police agencies would not allow an officer with multiple violations to continue on duty.

The profession is unique because law enforcement officers have special privileges, including the right to coerce others into abiding by the law, Miller says, but they are often given that right to use at their own discretion.

"This idea of perfectionism, you're only as good as your last screw-up, you have to work independently and yet, on a dime, you have to take orders from other people," he said.

The pressure inside the workplace rivals the stress of dealing with the general public.

"You're a police officer, duh, a lot of people are not going to like you, but you've got to be prepared to absorb a lot of blows and not take it personally," he said.

Miller described two extreme types of officers: the "supercop" and the rogue, corrupt officer.

Most members of law enforcement fall in the middle, never fully reaching an extreme.

While some officers should be treated with zero tolerance, Miller says the majority should be disciplined in a way that allows them to be held accountable for and learn from their mistakes, ultimately becoming effective members of their agency.

THE DISCOVERY

While he is not the only deputy with reprimands in his file, Leslie recently came under scrutiny after a local public records advocate requested the deputy's personnel records on a tip and was shocked at what he found.

"Why does this guy still have a job?" asked Joel Chandler, author of the website FOGwatch.org. "What more do you have to do?"

"I understand why we impute to law enforcement officers a supernatural integrity. In the court of law, their word counts more than yours does," he said. "But if we're going to do that, then they need to be held to a higher standard."

Chandler said Leslie's file shows the deputy has had continual problems with impulse control and anger, leading to car accidents, road rage, insubordination and perhaps to some personal problems, which while never investigated by the Sheriff's Office, were recorded for Leslie's file by superiors.

Chandler said some of Leslie's behavior also represents a danger to the public. For example, in 2000, Leslie was reprimanded for pursuing a suspect's car, even after a supervisor told him to discontinue the pursuit.

Only a year earlier, Leslie had caused a crash in his patrol car while chasing a suspect.

Hester points out that was 10 years ago and that he was issued a letter of reprimand.

Last year, Leslie was suspended for eight hours without pay for initiating another pursuit against a superior's wishes. "If you lump all this together and go over it together ... We all make mistakes. Am I happy that he was rude 10 years ago? Absolutely not, but he was reprimanded for that; it's in his file," Hester said.

Sheriff's officials say time will tell whether Leslie learned from his mistakes.

In the six months since his last incident, there have been no other complaints.

He continues to make $52,000 a year. He has been counseled and coached and warned that if he makes a mistake similar to those in the past, he could be out of a job.

"I'm not going to go through here and try to justify all of his conduct. He's made some mistakes I wish he wouldn't have made and I'm sure he's wished he wouldn't have made," Hester said. "He's done a lot of good things."

Well MS. SHOSHANA HAS ADDED HER LATEST WORK TO THE WEB TO BE UP IN LIGHTS AGAIN. SHE CAN SINGLE HANDEDLY DESTROY A PERSON BASED ON HER REPORTING, SO WHY ISN'T SHE HELD TO A HIGHER STANDARD. AH, BUT YES, SHE FALLS UNDER THAT FREEDOM OF SPEECH THING. COULD ASKING AROUND AND FINDING SOMEONE WHO AGREES WITH WHAT SHE REPORTS INFLUENCE THE WAY A PERSON IS PERCIEVED? AS HESTER STATED, WHEN YOU WORK HARD, YOU COME INTO CONTACT WITH A LARGER PORTION OF THE PUBLIC AS OPPOSED TO SOMEONE WHO SITS BEHIND A DESK ALL DAY. I AM BY NO MEANS DEFEINDING LESLIE'S RECORD, BUT WHEN THE ENVIRONMENT AROUND YOU IS EVER CHANGING YOU RUN INTO AREAS YOU HAVEN'T EXPERIENCED BEFORE, AND THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE YOU MAY NOT HANDLE THE SITUATION AS WELL AS YOU WOULD HAVE HAD YOU HAD THE TIME TO SIT AND PONDER IT. BECAUSE IF YOU STOP AND THINK ABOUT IT TOO LONG, YOU MAY END UP DEAD. SO LETS "SHOW SHANNA" THE DOOR AND STOP BEATING EACH OTHER UP BASED ON HER REPORTING. BY THE WAY, MAYBE SHE SHOULD RESEARCH WHY SHE WAS NAMED SHOSHANA.

Why bother, she is a useless wanna-be who hasn't grasped the concept that in the end nobody will care what she writes and we will all still be glad we have Paul as back-up. stay behind your desk useless reporter and leave the dangerous work to us :devil:

The Ledger and Ms. Shoshana Walter were given "the benefit of the doubt" when it appeared they intended to engage in a Smear Campaign of a fine Deputy Sheriff. Unfortunately that trust was misplaced. Misplaced trust in a system that should be encouraging it's LEOs to be vigilant in their duties while understanding that their lives are on the line 24/7, 52 weeks a year.

One has only to read and listen to news organizations that actually publish and discuss the truth of America to know that all Law Enforcement has been targeted both physically and in reputation. Choose any state. Law Enforcement hierarchy is a Political Black Hole for those who stand up for the weak, who are honest in their heart and mind but report to those who only want "yes men" and personal favors.

Delia Investigates is a not-for-profit group that received numerous hits via software regarding the Blog of Mr. Joel Chandler, a known prostitute, who uses his time to harass and indulge his needs through constant Public Record Request (PRR) because he lives in Lakeland, FL. Florida known for the most liberal PRR laws in the country even when it places a man and his family in direct danger. Mr. Chandler was contacted by a political hack regarding certain Deputy Sheriffs. Mr. Chandler then contacted Ms. Shoshana Walter who has since left The Ledger Newspaper and who's employment is in question there when this so-called news story ran. When Mr. Chandler was notified by Delia Investigates that his sources were known it is assumed Ms. Walter made the decision to leave Florida for another news agency.

Ms. Walter attempted to get D/S Leslie to go on the record as well as members of his family. They all declined comment knowing the truth would not be written. Truth that Ms. Walter knew but did not include in her story. The fact that their adopted medical needs child is not yet seven years old but in Cancer Remission after a year of Chemotherapy. The fact that D/S "Matt" Williams and his K9 Partner, Diogi who was a best friend and mentor to D/S Leslie, and were both murdered during a routine daylight stop gone terribly bad. The facts that Scott Wilder, Public Information Officer for Polk County Sheriff Office, attempted to get Ms. Walter and Mr. Chandler to understand what a fine and dedicated Officer D/S Leslie is but they were in fact skewing Leslie's entire Profile. The fact that certain events in 2009 and a previous year were taken out of context.

The following is Comment by Delia Investigates to Mr. Chandler on his Other Blog, I AM TROUBLEMAKER:

Mr. Chandler, While our Report is nearly completed we did think it only fair to point out your misunderstanding of the Statistical Data provided to you by Mr. Wilder. You must take note of the words PCSO MEMBER SINCE MR. WILDER WAS REFERRING TO THE ENTIRE WORKFORCE AND NOT SIMPLY DEPUTY SHERIFFS.

FROM MR. SCOTT WILDER:
"January 29, 2010
Joel:
This is a follow up to my earlier e-mail regarding Deputy Leslie & his disciplinary history. I earlier said, anecdotally, that his complaint/discipline history was atypical, but I wanted to give you some more objective data for context.

Based upon statistics for 2009, as an example, D/S Leslie had three AQ/AI’s (AQ is an administrative inquiry/reviewed complaint and AI is an administrative investigation based upon a complaint). For tracking purposes and statistics, these are the two classifications we track and document."

YOUR WORDS MR. CHANDLER: "Of the 431 pages in D/S Leslie’s personnel file, 370 are disciplinary in nature. By comparison, 85% of the PCSO deputies have NO disciplinary records in their files; I think those facts are newsworthy. All I have done is to request and review public records."

MR. WILDER'S STATEMENT WAS REFERRING TO 85% of the PCSO ENTIRE WORKFORCE NOT JUST DEPUTIES.

A short lesson in Percentile conversions: .9% =s .009 which is not even 1% 99.1% =s .991 not yet 1%

Shall we net this out for you since you are confused? For 2009, approximately 400,820 calls came into the PCSO telecom center. Of those 400,820 calls, 319,587 total cases were worked. Wilder did NOT say D/S Leslie worked ALL of those cases which you imply, had that been the case D/S Leslie was the only one working and extremely busy.

.00072 of the time a PCSO MEMBER received a complaint which amounted to a total of 304 complaints handed out in the PCSO workforce. A TOTAL OF 304 COMPLAINTS WERE HANDED OUT IN THE PCSO WORKFORCE. Did you make the "assumption" that these 304 Workforce Complaints were contained within the 431 pages in a file?

Mr. Wilder attempted to explain further by his following information: This is probably too much information but I thought it might help to support my contention, in answer to your question, that D/S Leslie’s complaint/discipline history is atypical. Further, I think our documented complaint history and tracking shows that, as a percentage of our work volume, AQ/IA complaints and discipline are quite low. Also, I think it is important to remember that law enforcement members often deal with conflict and volatile situations that can lead to disagreement, misunderstanding, and hostility between a citizen and a PCSO member. While this is often unavoidable and unfortunate, given the nature of the work, it is understandable. We are very proud that so many of our members so often are able to manage this conflict extremely well, with empathy, compassion, restraint, and with professionalism.

This information is included in our report to demonstrate data manipulation.

So you took workforce number complaints, not just Deputy Sheriff complaints, and created an appearance of such awful performance for D/S Leslie YOU wondered why D/S Leslie received such good Performance Reports, and never mentioned D/S Leslie's summary count by Wilder that shows about 240 accomplishment reports and about 22 commendations and platoon recognitions in D/S Leslie's file.

WE QUOTE YOU AGAIN MR. CHANDLER: "As soon as Deputy Sheriff Leslie’s “positive” records are received I will post them on-line." Something you have not referenced nor highlighted. So perhaps it is time that you, Mr. Chandler, go through the hundreds of hours of training that every Law Enforcement Officer must complete to risk their lives every 24 hours. In addition to that you will have to complete the Bachelor's Degree in Criminal Justice that not only D/S Leslie completed but so many LEOs have today.

QUOTE MR. CHANDLER AGAIN: "The performance reviews you refer to were never a part of my public records request. I simply asked for records that pertained to disciplinary actions, recommendations for discipline and citizen complaints. I have read the performance reviews and find it curious that so many are positive and that they make no mention of D/S Leslie’s insubordination, etc."

Why did you only want Disciplinary actions Mr. Chandler? The question is rhetorical since we are aware of your "source(s)".

It is our expectation that you will maintain your negativity regarding LEOs. One additional point, all of your religious ambiguity is not addressed in our report. You may contend your equality to Jesus Christ but it has no Public Service value.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST IS YOUR STATEMENT REGARDING YOURSELF MR. CHANDLER:
"There have been periods when my personal life was a mess. And in the context of public records advocacy I say “so what?” What do any of those facts have to do with fighting the abuse of authority? Do you mean to suggest that personal failures disqualify a person from exercising their civil rights? Do you mean to argue that personal failures relegate a person to the dustbin; that they are no longer fit to serve their fellow man?"

We find your statement particularly strange and curious Mr. Chandler. That is the KEY Mr. Chandler. You made a SPECIFIC request on behalf of someone for someone's file. You did make yourself Judge and Jury. You weren't exercising your civil rights, you violated another person's rights because you could and that disqualifies you as any type of Public Servant. Each citizen has a "right" but may not violate another citizen's right. Read your own words Mr. Chandler and then read your many Posts. You look at yourself as a Martyr and condemn others for your failures.

Per Scott Wilder regarding the POSITIVE INFORMATION MR. CHANDLER HAS AVOIDED:

Please consider the following feedback regarding the following excerpt from your draft article: (Mr. Chandlers draft referred to by Mr. Wilder) “In reviewing his records I found nothing that appears to offset his misdeeds…” To be fair, your public records request did not ask for positive member reports, commendations, etc., outside of the annual performance review. You did ask for “performance reviews,” and I believed that request meant the annual performance review form. I may have misinterpreted your request, and if I did, I sincerely apologize. As I understand it, though I have not reviewed his file (other than what we provided to you earlier), there are commendations and other positive reports included in his file. I have asked our Human Resources office to forward any and all positive commendations, accomplishment reports, etc. for your review. I would expect that I can get those to you by tomorrow. These documents are not included in the annual “Member Performance Report” for each member of the agency. Also, in each performance report that was included with your public records request, there is a section where the reviewer documents performance that is considered “above standard” of the member being reviewed.

These documents are not included in the annual “Member Performance Report” for each member of the agency. Also, in each performance report that was included with your public records request, there is a section where the reviewer documents performance that is considered “above standard” of the member being reviewed. I looked at his most recent review from March of 2009 and some of these observations were: “Deputy Leslie shows extraordinary knowledge of General Orders, Directives, procedures and applicable laws affecting his assignment and his previous specialty as a canine handler; Deputy Leslie’s (sic) is dedicated to agency goals and his integrity is above reproach; D/S Leslie consistently produces more work than is required and was always available for K9 calls for service; He has done an outstanding job in proactive criminal patrol, arrests, locating stolen vehicles and suspects with warrants; Deputy Leslie is highly motivated and his spirit is contagious by showing tenacity and genuine enthusiasm for his job while a canine handler). [These were not inclusive of all the comments.] There are many years’ worth of positive, “above standard” comments in the member performance reports.

While I understand that it is an editorial judgment regarding what positive recognition does and does not balance disciplinary action, I do not think it is fair to say that “nothing” offsets his disciplinary record. I will be glad to forward to you, at no charge, (it appears that we misunderstood your original request) whatever records we have regarding positive recognition of Deputy Sheriff Leslie in addition to what has already been documented in his performance reports. I would ask that you consider those regarding your comment mentioned above.

Shoshana's Blurbs
About me:
I'm a reporter for The Bay Citizen in San Francisco, California. Email me at swalter@baycitizen.org.

Shoshana is the crime reporter for The Bay Citizen. Before moving to the Mission, she wrote about runaway monkeys, murders and all sorts of mayhem as a cops reporter for The Ledger in Lakeland, Fla., where she also won a 2009 Sigma Delta Chi award for non-deadline reporting. She loves San Francisco weather, thrift-shopping, learning your story, humongous earrings, coffee, drawing, reading and writing creative nonfiction. She has a B.A. in American Studies from Mount Holyoke College and completed the Poynter Institute's 2007 summer fellowship for young journalists.


Sadly The Bay Citizen has no idea who they've hired..............then again maybe they do know Shoshana Walter............threat to all Law Enforcement and their families...she wrote about runaway monkeys???????????? Mayhem?????????? Don't they know she has a "Ghost Writer"............not a good background check done on this one.............You've got her San Francisco......you can keep her.................LOL!!!!!!!!!!

Wouldn't have expected this to be in the paper. Seems like there has been more people complaining about SGT Horne on this forum. I figured that should have gotten more light than this article. I don't work at the SO but my gathering is that if so many deputies here are complaining about him maybe The Ledger should pull a record request for his file and shed some light on how those investigations turned out. Because as someone who was in law enforcement and part of the public here I sure as hell would like to know whats going on with that guy (not like I pay taxes to keep the bum around and the good deputies fearing for their jobs). Regardless, those of you who are truly working your hardest and dealing with crap that goes on you have the gratitude of those of us who understand. God Bless and continue to fight the good fight BTW where would someone the public go at the Sheriffs Office to pull a personnel file and results of IA investigations. Its too bad the reporters can't shed the light on the right subject.

P.S. If your administration does read these forums and you are letting all these things done by SGT Horne that your deputies are complaining (obviously there is a problem if so many are upset) and if all of what these deputies are saying is true, then you should be ashamed of yourselves for letting that go on.

This story reads more like political tripe than news. Makes me wonder what inspired it at this time.

Not amazing at all when you know who's involved with this smear. Ya need to come 'round more. Joel is dressing up again, officers are getting DUIs while in uniform, some are running over innocent civilians AGAIN. Now that should have made for good copy.