Bush suspends North Florida sheriff in drinking incidents

The Lafayette County sheriff is accused of misconduct in bars and on the highways while he was in uniform.

By JULIE HAUSERMAN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published August 23, 2002

TALLAHASSEE -- Outside a run-down bar called the Freak Out Club in the tiny North Florida town of Mayo, the county sheriff's patrol car sat idling.

Inside the bar, witnesses say, Lafayette County Sheriff Dwayne Walker spent that June night drinking, in uniform and with a gun tucked into his belt.

By the time he left the bar at 1 a.m., Walker was staggering. It took four deputies to wrestle him into the back of the patrol car.

They drove him home to his mother.

Nobody filed an official report, even though the sheriff's drinking buddy was seen outside the bar, pointing the sheriff's 9mm pistol at people and making racial slurs. A deputy saw two 12-packs of beer and a liquor bottle in the back seat of the sheriff's patrol car.

Local citizens started complaining to the region's state attorney and to Gov. Jeb Bush.

Now, Bush has suspended the 42-year-old Walker in connection with that incident in June and others. An investigative report by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement says that over the past nine months, Walker passed out in his patrol car, slapped a woman and drunkenly flashed his badge at a Georgia bar, and was found passed out in his personal car on I-75 near Gainesville, an empty bottle of vodka on the seat beside him.

Walker has been Lafayette County sheriff for 10 years. The county has just 7,245 residents, about 13 people per square mile. Although Walker has been suspended, he hasn't been charged with any crimes and could one day return to office. His term ends in 2004.

Third Judicial Circuit State Attorney Jerry Blair said he hasn't received a full report from the FDLE and hasn't decided whether he'll file any charges.

According to the FDLE report, the trouble started in November 2001.

Walker allegedly went to a bar near Valdosta, Ga., got drunk, slapped his female companion, harassed two other women in the bar, flashed his badge and "became loud and said he was on a job for the governor," the FDLE report says.

Local Georgia police issued a criminal trespass warning to keep him out of the bar. Shortly afterward, police in nearby Valdosta pulled his car over. The sheriff's female companion was driving, and the sheriff had apparently broken the car's side window. A Lafayette County deputy was dispatched to pick Walker up and take him home.

Then, sometime last winter, a truck driver on his way to work in Lafayette County noticed the sheriff's patrol car by the side of the road. The car was running and the sheriff was inside, his eyes closed. Alarmed, the truck driver blew his horn and tapped on the window.

The truck driver opened the door.

"Go on and leave me alone," the sheriff said.

Deputies responded and later told the FDLE the sheriff apparently had passed out after a night of drinking. Again, one of the depu ties drove him home. Again, no one filed a report.

"Deputy sheriffs operate under the authority of the sheriff himself. That's kind of an untenable situation," said John Young, a senior deputy with the Lafayette County Sheriff's Office, who is running the 28-man department while the sheriff is suspended. "I think the only course of action is the one that did happen. You have to have an independent agency come in from outside."

When questioned by the FDLE, Walker said he couldn't remember some of the incidents. He denied he'd been drinking at the Freak Out Club. But deputies said the sheriff could hardly walk when he left the bar, a wood-frame building with bare plywood floors. He did tell the FDLE that he was "too drunk to drive" that night on I-75 near Gainesville and pulled over to sleep it off. He told investigators he was going to Tallahassee, but his car was headed the other way.

Walker has hired Tallahassee attorneys Mark Herron and Tom Findley to represent him.

"We've met with the sheriff," Herron said, "and we're going to take steps to take care of his alcohol problem and deal with issues as they come up."

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