At issue were notes she prepared as the lead officer on the scene after Pinellas Park's city manager committed suicide.
By ANNE LINDBERG
Published May 25, 2003
PINELLAS PARK - A police officer who unsuccessfully sued the city has been reprimanded for refusing to immediately turn over notes she made concerning the city manager's suicide.
Officer Donna Saxer, 43, was issued a written reprimand May 15 for not releasing handwritten notes as ordered by two superior officers, according to city records.
Saxer, who has worked for the Police Department since March 1993, earns about $42,515 a year. In October, a federal judge rejected her claim of sexual discrimination.
Saxer's notes were among public records that had been subpoenaed by the St. Petersburg Times, which sued Pinellas Park in February for failing to turn over records about Mudd's death. Saxer had created the notes because she was the lead officer on the scene the morning Mudd died.
She did not return a phone message asking for comment, but she denied the charges of insubordination during the internal inquiry, Pinellas Park records show.
Saxer said then that neither supervisor - Lt. Kevin Riley nor Sgt. Tina Trehy - demanded the notes. Instead, she said, they asked if she had them. She told them yes.
Both supervisors told her different things, Saxer said. At one time, she said, the notes were wanted because of a subpoena; another time, as part of a public records request; a third time, as part of a court order.
"I told (Trehy) that at that point "I have no problems giving you the notes. I just want to see what is it. Is it a subpoena? Is it a public records request? Is it a court order? What is it? And especially if it names me? Why can't I see that?' " Saxer told the investigating officer.
She added, "Like, I have no problems giving the notes, but I've got some red flags in here that I'm being told different things. . . . I have no problems giving you my notes from the notebook, but, you know, what is this? . . . It didn't add up."
Saxer eventually gave her handwritten notes to higher ranking officers, making it impossible to present them at a deposition, as required by a subpoena.
Police administrators also demanded the handwritten notes of Det. Michael Lynch, which the Times had subpoenaed. Like Saxer's notes, those were not produced at the depositions.
However, a copy of the original police report, which contains a verbatim transcript of Mudd's suicide note, was turned over in compliance with the subpoena. That's because police Officer Jessica Morgan-Chandler did not hand that over until the morning of the deposition.
Police Chief Dorene Thomas did not return a telephone message asking if there are any inquiries or investigations into why the notes were not produced the day of the depositions.
Saxer and Lynch's notes later were given to the Times after Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe had opened an inquiry into the alleged shredding of the original police report.
That inquiry, to determine if a crime was committed, continues.
