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Hillsborough prosecutor Mark Ober said he concluded that a high-profile assistant had lied to him.
By KATHRYN WEXLER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 29, 2002
TAMPA -- Shirley Williams, a high-ranking Hillsborough homicide prosecutor, was fired Thursday after she was accused of lying to her boss.
"Sadly, I had to release the chief of my homicide division," State Attorney Mark Ober wrote in a memo. ... "Due to recent events, I have lost confidence in her ability to perform her duties as an assistant state attorney."
The incident that soured Ober happened a few weeks ago in connection with a sensitive case that was drawing much public attention.
During their usual roundtable discussion of cases, Ober and other prosecutors agreed that Alan Thompson should be charged with manslaughter in the death of a Sickles High student. Thompson is accused of punching Christopher Fannan in the head at Citrus Park Steak n Shake last month, killing him with a single blow.
Instead, Williams signed an affidavit for the higher charge of second-degree murder. When confronted with the discrepancy, Williams said she had signed blank paperwork. Williams blamed two Hillsborough sheriff's detectives and their sergeant for disregarding her instructions to charge Thompson with manslaughter.
Ober investigated and sided with the detectives that she had authorized the second-degree charge and then lied about it.
Fellow prosecutors say Ober was tearful when he let Williams go. But in Williams' termination letter, Ober referred to the bad blood her accusations had engendered between their office and the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office.
"Honesty and integrity are the cornerstones of our judicial system; your conduct has compromised those values," Ober wrote. "Additionally, my reliance on your untrue statements jeopardized the State Attorney's Office relationship with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office."
The showdown between prosecutor and cops was especially remarkable considering Williams had long built a reputation as an ally of law enforcement. Much of the 1970s she spent working for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Williams, 51, is married to Tampa police Detective Mark Dinsmore.
But since the charge of second-degree murder was filed a few weeks ago, sheriff's officials have been indignant at her allegations that Deputies Frank Losat and Alton McCullough, as well as Sgt. J.R. Burton, flouted her instructions and filled out the legal documents to their liking.
"Three of the detectives swore it was signed and the charges were put on it in front of her," Hillsborough sheriff's Maj. Gary Terry said.
Terry called the deputies experienced and trustworthy.
"They were shocked that their integrity has been questioned," Terry said, "and that's why they have met with Mr. Ober ... and given sworn statements."
Williams prosecuted such notables as Valessa Robinson, the teen who killed her mother, and Bernice Bowen, girlfriend of cop killer Hank Earl Carr.
She joined the Hillsborough State Attorney's Office in 1987 after three years of practicing family law.
Hard work and diligence helped her rise through the ranks, and she prosecuted everything from sex crimes to drunken driving to murder. Her salary reached nearly $102,000 and her evaluations in recent years were glowing. Her personnel file contained several letters of praise from Tampa officers.
But her start at the State Attorney's Office was rocky. One supervisor accused her of "a real attitude problem" during her first year.
In her evaluation in 1989, a supervisor accused her of lying to a judge.
Although a revocation hearing was set, Williams told a probation officer involved in the case that she could leave the courthouse, the evaluation says. When it was time for the hearing, Williams told the judge that the officer, "had gone for coffee and never returned," Watson wrote.
No discipline was recommended and no additional reference to the incident is in her file.