By PHIL ATTINGER Staff Writer
News-Sun


SEBRING — A woman who alleged a deputy sheriff had sex with her without her consent waited almost three years to have anyone investigate the matter.

A Highlands County Sheriff’s Office criminal investigation this year into the 2018 incident could not confirm sexual assault. However, the criminal and subsequent internal investigations concluded that the married deputy did have sex with a married woman, he gave inconsistent stories about what happened, and that he and two deputies with him gave misleading names to the woman and her friends.

The investigations also concluded that another deputy who had opportunity to look into the sexual assault allegation apparently did nothing with that information for two years.

As a result, Sheriff Paul Blackman has fired Lt. Chris Gunter, Det. Adrian Gamez and Sgt. John Singha, and reprimanded Sgt. Cory Tomblin. Gamez resigned May 3, prior to the end of the internal investigation and prior to a formal recommendation for his termination.

Gunter, the one accused of alleged non-consensual sex, had been with the agency since Feb. 18, 2004; Singha, since Nov. 23, 2005, and Gamez, since Nov. 19, 2008.

Gunter appealed the decision on June 18. Blackman denied his appeal in a letter dated June 25. Singha also appealed the decision and was denied.

Disappointment“As the Sheriff, I am disappointed that we failed one of our citizens drastically,” Blackman wrote in his termination letter to Singha. “A potential victim, who we are sworn to protect, attempted to report a possible sexual battery that was said to have been committed by one of our members. The potential victim had to wait two years for an investigation to be completed. You failed to report the incident to your supervisor or anyone else in your chain of command.”

“Your lack of leadership and failure to take any responsible action led to potential evidence being lost, investigators losing the ability to obtain fresh and accurate witness statements, and a tarnished image of our organization,” Blackman wrote.

Singha’s supervisor, Lt. Christopher Smith was also investigated in this matter but the internal investigation did not find him at fault for the handling of the initial sexual assault allegation.

Of those found in the wrong, Blackman wrote in his reprimand that Tomblin, despite what consequences he might face, was “honest and forthright” when asked “damning questions” by investigators this year.

In his memorandum of the internal investigation, Undersheriff Col. Mike Brown wrote, “It is the one thing in this seedy affair that leads me to believe that Sgt. Tomblin can move past this incident and continue his career as a law enforcement officer.”

Tomblin will receive a written reprimand and a six-month corrective action probation, with monthly evaluations by his lieutenant, Blackman’s letter stated.

In his report on the investigation into Gamez, Brown wrote that, had Gamez not resigned, his recommendation would have been to terminate his employment.

“The unethical behavior and lack of personal integrity displayed by some members of our profession over the last few years has raised question and concern with the public,” Blackman wrote in his termination letter to Gunter. “There are merited occasions when a law enforcement officer’s lack of personal integrity and unethical acts are so egregious that cannot go unpunished. I believe this situation is one of those occasions.”

ExpectationIn his memorandum on the internal investigation, Law Enforcement Division Maj. Darin Hood noted that while the Sheriff’s Office does not “regulate the legal sexual activity of our members” it does have an expectation that deputies will not engage in immoral sexual activity that would reflect negatively on the agency.

Last Wednesday, Blackman said he didn’t have much to add to his written comments. He had informed those involved that reports would be made public and that they would need to prepare their loved ones.

Blackman said he was disappointed in Gunter, then a sergeant, that he let two subordinates behave the way they reportedly did, and that he also took part.

“That shows a lack of leadership,” Blackman said.

He also said he was disappointed in Singha, at the sergeant level, for letting such an allegation go uninvestigated.

“We followed up on it soon after we learned, at the administrative level,” Blackman said, referring to an anonymous letter to his agency on Feb. 17 alleging sexual assault by a deputy.

“It’s very embarrassing to our organization, and it looks like we were trying to cover it up,” Blackman said. “It hurt us a little in public trust.”

When asked, he said he believed how his office has handled the situation was the right thing to do, and it would help re-instill public trust.

Blackman, Hood and Brown all commented that the deputies should have been honest with the women that night, and that Gunter should have been completely honest with investigators, especially with regard to taking responsibility for his actions and about what specifically happened between him and the woman on April 17, 2018.

According to reports, Gamez did not recall during the criminal investigation the details of interaction with the women, but recalled those details during the internal investigation, stating to the internal investigator that he felt embarrassed to have to discuss adultery with a supervising officer.

ResponsibilityBlackman and HCSO administrators also concluded that Singha, when first told of the allegation in 2018, did not follow up on it, report it to his lieutenant, nor did he have a good reason as to why he didn’t follow procedure.

“It was agreeable between all parties involved ...,” Singha said in the internal investigation reports, “and they went about doing adult behavior that I didn’t look into. I mean, I don’t want to throw stones, but we’ve had a history here of not looking into stuff like that. So I let it be. So, no, I have no excuse as to why I didn’t.”

When asked about that alleged precedent, sheriff’s officials said that the existence of a criminal complaint from a member of the public is a factor in this case.

“Our policy is to investigate every complaint we receive,” read an emailed statement sent Monday from the Sheriff’s Office. “This (is) a situation where a criminal complaint alleging a sexual battery by one of our members was received and it wasn’t investigated as it should have been at the time. It wasn’t until two years later that it was investigated.”

The statement continues: “The only time one (of) our members’ personal lives would come into an investigation is when their off-duty behavior is part of an official complaint that is made, be it a criminal complaint or an alleged violation of agency policies.”

InvestigationInternal investigation reports stated that the Sheriff’s Office received an anonymous letter on Feb. 17 of this year that alleged both Gunter and Gamez sexually battered a woman in April 2018. It stated that the incident was reported to a deputy the next day, but no investigation ever took place. The Sheriff’s Office opened an investigation, and months later, the Highlands News-Sun learned of the investigation.

Reports from that investigation revealed that, according to the majority of witnesses, only Gunter had sex with the alleged victim.