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MOLLY MOORHEADThe mishandling of a case involving guns and pornographic photos was the most glaring example of trouble at the Zephyrhills police station, the city manager says.
ZEPHYRHILLS - Police officers responding in January to a domestic disturbance in a home found a felon, two guns and several pictures of teenage girls engaged in sex acts.
Now, six months later, one gun turned up in an officer's locker, and the photographs are missing.
The case ultimately became police Chief Jerry Freeman's undoing.
Freeman, 53, resigned Wednesday after just nine months. City Manager Steve Spina had been prepared to fire him for what he termed a pattern of behavior that brought into question Freeman's ability to lead.
The pornography case, Spina said, was the most glaring example of trouble at the police station.
"This is the kind of thing that I pondered over, and I felt that our standards needed to be better," Spina said. "I didn't have confidence in the way the job was being handled."
According to a police report released Thursday, much of which was blacked out, officers entered a home about 3 a.m. Jan. 12 and saw a man they knew to be a felon. They saw drops of blood throughout the house and a handgun on the floor.
The man, whose name was not released, told them he had another handgun between two mattresses in the bedroom. Also on the mattress were about 20 photographs of two teenage girls engaged in sex acts with the man, the report states.
But in the ensuing months, when the case would normally have been turned over to prosecutors, the evidence got lost in the shuffle.
Spina, in a written reprimand to Freeman, questioned why the case was allowed to languish with little oversight.
"The police officer received an "admonishment' for failure to follow procedures, which is the least severe disciplinary action," Spina wrote. "And this disciplinary action came only after the (State Attorney's Office) contacted the (Zephyrhills Police Department) and an acting sergeant notified you of their request for the handgun - which was in the officer's locker for at least four months.
"That alone raises the question: where was the handgun for the other two or three months?"
It was unclear Thursday whether any charges have been filed in the case. Representatives of the State Attorney's Office could not be reached for comment.
A second issue addressed in the reprimand involved the department's ride-along policy. Freeman let officers bring family members with them in patrol cars after they signed waivers.
Spina said the practice exposed the city to liability and told Freeman to change the policy, which now permits only public officials, students and journalists on ride-alongs.
But in one instance, an officer brought her boyfriend on a ride-along, two weeks after another Zephyrhills police officer had arrested the man and charged him with domestic battery against a previous girlfriend.
According to the police report, the man, John Anderson, 38527 North Ave., beat up his former girlfriend on June 25, cutting her lip and bruising her neck.
Two weeks later, Anderson was riding in a patrol car with his current girlfriend, an officer.
Spina called the incident "amazing."
"It must be particularly demoralizing for the arresting officer to see that person riding along in a Zephyrhills police vehicle," Spina wrote in the reprimand.
On Thursday, reaction to Freeman's departure was tense and emotional. Most employees were shocked.
City Council President Lance Smith said he was saddened by the news but trusts Spina.
"It's something that I know isn't a knee-jerk reaction," Smith said of Spina's decision. "It's something that he labored over. I have to trust his judgment."
Mayor Cliff McDuffie said he respects Freeman but thinks Spina was acting in the city's best interest.
"There comes a point in any administrative position that you take steps you don't necessarily want to take," McDuffie said. "If something's not right, you have to correct it."
Police employees, many of whom learned the news late Wednesday, had mixed reactions.
Spina held two meetings with Police Department staff Thursday afternoon to explain his decision and listen to their concerns. He sought to reassure staff members that their jobs are safe.
"My priority is to make sure that we have a professional, functional police department," he told the 30 or so employees gathered in the City Council chambers. "I foresee very few actual changes."
Some officers defended Freeman, who oversaw the formation of the city's first SWAT team and the acquisition of 14 new patrol cars.
"Chief Freeman was about as good a man as I've ever met," said Officer Roy Langley.
"Everything that you've presented to him, there's been a solution," Officer Telah Sorenson told Spina.
The meeting also revealed deep divisions within the department and made it clear that changes are needed.
"The thing people want here most is accountability . . . because we haven't had that," Officer Josh O'Nolan told Spina.
Freeman's management style contrasted sharply with his predecessor's. Freeman let employees use his first name and dressed in a black patrol uniform for work rather than chief's garb.
Former Chief Robert Howell, who retired in 2002 after 40 years, ran the station with a stricter hand. Some officers on Thursday expressed fear of a return to that type of work environment.
"It was a dictatorship," said Sgt. Scott Raymer.
He said Freeman's style was a relief: "There were no closed doors in Freeman's reign."
But Sgt. Jeff MacDougal, the department's No. 3 officer, said he has worked under four police chiefs and recognized there were problems.
"I support Steve Spina," MacDougal said. "He made the only decision he could make."
MacDougal, along with Capt. Randy Belasic, will be in charge during the search for a new chief. MacDougal has been overseeing construction of the new station, scheduled to open in December. Belasic will take on duties such as payroll and finalizing the budget.
A pile of gold-tipped bullets sat on Belasic's desk Thursday afternoon. They had been emptied from the gun Freeman had handed in the day before.
"I hate that this happened," Belasic said. "I don't know all the details about it - I just hate that any of it happened."
- Molly Moorhead covers news about Zephyrhills. She can be reached at 352 521-5757, ext. 29 or toll-free 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6108, then 29. Her e-mail address is moorhead@sptimes.com