 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Officers in sex inquiry keep jobs
By LEANORA MINAI, Times Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG -- Two St. Petersburg police officers accused of raping a fellow officer nearly seven months ago were disciplined Wednesday but kept their jobs. Police administrators ruled as unfounded a claim by former Officer Brie Bicknell that she was raped by officers Chris Leconte and Luis Rivera-Rivera. Still, administrators concluded that the officers discredited the department with unbecoming conduct -- drinking and having sex with Bicknell while she was intoxicated. Leconte, 26, was suspended for two days, while Rivera-Rivera, 25, received a written reprimand but no suspension. "She readily admitted that she was awake and involved and never said, 'No,"' Chief Chuck Harmon said of Bicknell on Wednesday. "We in no way felt that this would qualify as a sexual battery. Now, did they all use poor judgment? Absolutely." The police union will appeal Leconte's and Rivera-Rivera's discipline, including a finding that Leconte drove while intoxicated. Neither Leconte nor Rivera-Rivera face criminal charges. Bicknell, 24, a rookie officer who had not completed probation, said she had sex with Leconte and Rivera-Rivera after drinking at a St. Petersburg bar on Dec. 3, 2001. But she said she was taken advantage of and wonders whether someone slipped her a drug. Bicknell was dismissed June 20 after administrators said she was "not able to perform the duties of a police officer." A psychiatrist evaluated Bicknell's fitness for duty and told administrators she used poor judgment the night Leconte and Rivera-Rivera took turns having sex with her while she was intoxicated. Leconte, an officer for two years, and Rivera-Rivera, a four-year officer, were not given fitness-for-duty evaluations. The officers declined to comment Wednesday but have told supervisors they had consensual sex with Bicknell. Fred Carrington, Bicknell's attorney and a former attorney for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, said he will sue the city for disparate treatment. "I think it was a whitewash and a deliberate attempt to terminate Brie Bicknell because she had the courage to come forward," Carrington said. "They didn't want anybody on the department that will disturb their good ol' boy atmosphere." Harmon said what set Bicknell apart from Leconte and Rivera-Rivera is that she has used poor judgment before. Internal affairs investigators found that she flashed her private parts while drinking tequila with officers a few months before the incident with Leconte and Rivera-Rivera. "She's shown in other instances where she's used poor judgment," Harmon said. Carrington said the Police Department treated Bicknell like a suspect and unfairly dug up her past. The St. Petersburg Police Department conducted its own criminal inquiry into the rape allegation against Leconte and Rivera-Rivera. The case was referred to prosecutors, who declined to pursue it because of "insufficient evidence." Over the past seven months, the Police Department has investigated whether Leconte and Rivera-Rivera violated department policies. Harmon, Assistant Chief Dave DeKay, Lt. Dave Field and Sgt. Ray Waldo deliberated the case Wednesday after reviewing the internal affairs report. Harmon said no one in the group thought Leconte and Rivera-Rivera should be fired. "It's nothing like what she tries to portray it to be, that she's the victim of being doped," Field said. "There's no evidence whatsoever." Leconte was suspended for seven days, but will serve only two. Rivera-Rivera was suspended for three days, but won't serve any of that penalty. If they commit other violations "of this nature" within 18 months, the administrators wrote in their findings, they must serve the full suspensions. The administrators said both men were intoxicated the night of Dec. 3, when Leconte drove his 1991 Mustang. Leconte and Rivera-Rivera told internal affairs investigators that they had consensual sex with Bicknell that night. "At no time did she tell us to stop," Rivera-Rivera told internal affairs investigators. The police union is representing Leconte and Rivera-Rivera, who, as part of their discipline, will be assessed to determine whether they abuse alcohol. Bill LauBach, executive director of the Pinellas County Police Benevolent Association, said they should not have been punished at all. "They all agreed to go back to one of their apartments and to have sex," LauBach said. "We have three consenting adults engaged in entirely legal conduct. How is that conduct unbecoming?"
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times South Pinellas desks |
