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Deputies change shirts, tend a litany of darkness
© St. Petersburg Times For the most part, 2002 at the Pasco County Sheriff's Office was about crime and patroling more than the politics that has embroiled the agency in the past. Other than some tension about tight budgets and a controversial change in spending procedures, the biggest news out of Pasco County's largest law enforcement agency has been the changing of uniforms. Deputies started wearing gray uniforms rather than white shirts. They also bid adieu to competitive bidding in many cases. Government offices from Port Richey to the Pentagon use competitive bids to ensure that taxpayers get the most for their money. Sheriff's officials think doing away with bidding can save money. "We're moving toward being more streamlined, more efficient," Sheriff Bob White said at the time. Until June, the sheriff's manual required solicitation of either multiple quotes or formal bids before making a purchase of more than $1,000. White has raised that threshold to $50,000 -- nearly 15 times higher than any other Sheriff's Office in the area. Then, in August, sheriff's officials learned that the department had nearly run out of money to pay its employees overtime until the end of the year. Any employee who might work overtime was asked to sign a form stating that he or she will accept time and a half compensation time in place of overtime pay. Employees who didn't sign the form weren't allowed to work overtime. Holiday pay also was eliminated. Crimewise, 2002 was the year of the murder-suicide. Detectives were called to four murder-suicides and one attempted murder-suicide. -- On Feb. 3 -- Super Bowl Sunday -- Stephen DiBenedetto, 39, fatally shot his son, Cody, and then himself. The boy's mother and father had been separated, and the mother came looking for the boy after she couldn't reach DiBenedetto. She found them lying on a bed together. -- On May 13, deputies were sent to two houses where three people had died. In Shady Hills, deputies found that Timothy Burnham had shot Barbara Strong in her bedroom. Two hours later, Pasco sheriff's detectives discovered that Burnham, 41, had committed suicide with a shotgun in the woods behind the house. In New Port Richey, Thomas Williamson cut his wife's throat before stabbing himself to death. She survived. -- On June 10, Neil David Powers fatally shot his neighbor, mother and stepfather before shooting himself. He had suffered a shoulder injury and become addicted to painkillers and then heroin, family members said. He had moved to Florida to get "cleaned out." -- On July 29, Albert Dale Crager, 44, fatally shot his estranged wife, Rhonda Crager, and then himself on the same day he had skipped his final divorce hearing. Deputies said Albert Crager forced his way into a Mesa Verde Street home and shot Rhonda Crager in front of the couple's daughter and two family friends. The year started with deputies spending time dealing with white powder scares. Nervous residents called in all kinds of powder sightings, some of which took deputies off the road for hours. None of the incidents turned out to be anything serious. "(White powder calls) have been a drain on our resources and manpower," Pasco sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll said at the time. "It's prevented us from providing services where it's really needed and not someone's prank or hoax." Later in January, deputies faced nervous parents and a neighborhood outcry when two teens were accused of breaking into four houses and attacking young girls. "The motive seems to be, at this point, anger," White said during a news conference to announce the boys' arrest. The year also saw a sad toll of murder victims: -- David Wayne Williamson was shot three times in the parking lot of the Cumberland Farms convenience store at 20400 U.S. 98. Investigators say Williamson, 35, was the unsuspecting victim of Luckie Jermaine Barnes, who has been charged with first-degree murder. -- Joshan Marie Ashbrook, 16, who was found dead off Shady Hills Road north of State Road 52. Her killer has not been found. On June 16 -- Father's Day -- William Newman was mowing his law in Darby when three armed men jumped him, tied him to his lawn mower and went to steal items from his home. Newman got free and shot one of them in the face before son-in-law Martin Harm got there and opened fire on the men. One of the men, Aledward Robertson, recently was convicted of attempted armed robbery, armed burglary, aggravated battery and kidnapping and was sentenced to life in prison. The other two are awaiting trial. On the lighter side, a 25-year-old Lakeland man in a bright orange jail uniform was arrested at the annual Livestock concert in Zephyrhills. He was accused of stealing the uniform. The man was supposed to be home, not at the concert, because he was on house arrest. A sheriff's corrections deputy quit in May after being confronted about his own prank. Sheriff's officials said he called a toll-free gay phone sex line from jail telephones, then transferred the calls to unsuspecting employees. And 11-year Deputy Glenn Allen Coy went on vacation and returned as Rachel Nicole Coy. Coy's co-workers are treating Coy as a woman, but she is still officially a he under Sheriff's Office rules. But the most bizarre stories to come out of the Sheriff's Office in 2002 had to do with Barry Colbert. Colbert was first arrested Feb. 15, when the 38-year-old let his girlfriend's 7-year-old son drive around their Moon Lake neighborhood. The boy, propped up in the driver's seat to reach the pedals with in-line skates, drove without lights, missed a stop sign and hit a car. Pasco County sheriff's deputies arrived, smelled alcohol on Colbert's breath and discovered that his license had been suspended. They arrested him. A week later, state child welfare investigators went to Colbert's house to see if he was being a good father figure. He opened a kitchen cabinet to show them rice and beans. Instead, they saw a glass bong, a device used to smoke marijuana. Again, he went to county jail. On March 16, Colbert was arrested again. This time the accusations were much more serious. Deputies said Colbert punched and kicked his live-in girlfriend until she was bleeding from her ears. She had to be flown to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg for treatment for severe head trauma. Prosecutors filed a flurry of charges against Colbert: aggravated battery, allowing an underage person to drive, child abuse, drunken driving, possession of marijuana, driving with a suspended license. But there was more to come. While the woman was in the hospital recovering from the beating and Colbert was in jail, he called friends to ask a favor: bury his girlfriend's dog, Buster, the one he thought he killed with a hammer before his arrest. The dog was found alive. Colbert was charged with felony animal cruelty. Dog lovers from around the nation flooded the Times and prosecutors with letters, supporting prosecution of Colbert for animal cruelty (and rarely mentioning the domestic violence charges). -- Matthew Waite can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6247, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6247. His e-mail address is waite@sptimes.com .
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