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CANDACE RONDEAUXThe agency has spent months reviewing records in several drug-related arrests.
TARPON SPRINGS - The Tarpon Springs Police Department's aggressive efforts to rid city streets of illegal drugs have attracted the scrutiny of state investigators.
Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents have asked for police records on more than a dozen arrests or instances in which officers used force, according to records obtained by the Times.
A Sept. 9 FDLE letter to the city names Sgt. Michael Trill and retired Officer Romando Black as officers whose actions are under review. Records show the cases, many of them drug-related, involve several other officers as well.
"We have an investigation in Tarpon Springs, and it's ongoing," FDLE Tampa office spokesman Rick Morera said.
Morera said he could not discuss details of the investigation. But he confirmed that the state law enforcement agency has spent several months reviewing records and interviewing people about the city's Police Department.
Tarpon Springs police Chief Mark LeCouris said that FDLE agents have spent the past six to eight months reviewing the records for Trill and Black. But LeCouris defended his department's record, denying that either officer had done anything wrong in the cases the FDLE is investigating.
"We feel we have done everything right according to the book," LeCouris said. "If we haven't, we'll be the first to put the cuffs on the officers."
In its letter, the FDLE asked for information about eight instances from 1996 to 2001 in which officers used force.
In addition, FDLE interim Commissioner Daryl G. McLaughlin asked LeCouris to provide records relating to eight other arrests involving Trill, Black or other Tarpon Springs police officers.
An eight-year veteran of the force, Trill has made roughly 1,500 arrests, many of them drug-related, said Tarpon Springs police Sgt. Jeff Young.
Trill and Black worked together on the department's undercover narcotics detail for more than three years, arresting hundreds of crack cocaine and marijuana dealers. During that time, Trill filed roughly 40 reports detailing any unusual circumstances surrounding the arrests, Young said.
"Mike is very meticulous about everything," Young said. "He documents everything when force is used in an arrest."
Trill, 34, was not available for comment Monday, LeCouris said.
Black, also 34, who retired on medical disability from the Tarpon Springs Police Department in April, declined to comment on the investigation Monday.
Documents obtained by the Times show FDLE investigators are interested in several arrests involving Trill. In one, Trill reported that he used his hands to pry open the jaws of a suspect during a January 1998 arrest. He wrote in a followup report that he wanted to find out whether the man was trying to conceal crack cocaine he had purchased in Tarpon Springs.
FDLE investigators also expressed interest in arrests by other Tarpon Springs police officers. In at least two cases listed in the FDLE memo, suspects were treated for minor injuries at the hospital immediately after their arrest, police records show.
In one 2001 case, a man who struggled with Officers Abe B. Carmack and William Harding was treated at the emergency room for scrapes to his right eye, elbow and knee, according to a police report.
Pinellas-Pasco County Public Defender Bob Dillinger said he was aware of FDLE's investigation in Tarpon Springs and that his office had received dozens of complaints about Black and Trill.
"We have multiple documentation and multiple complaints on those officers," Dillinger said. The complaints "generally support that there were illegal arrests and improper arrests in many cases."
Dillinger declined to say whether his office had been contacted by FDLE agents about Trill and Black, but said he will always "cooperate with whoever legitimately needs cooperation" in any such investigation.
Dillinger said he is concerned that complaints about the officers could indicate a pattern of abuse within the department. Such a pattern could raise serious questions about whether Tarpon Springs police have violated civil rights of the people they have arrested over the years, he said.
"It may well be a civil rights situation that the federal government needs to intervene in," Dillinger said.
The FDLE investigation is not the first time Black and Trill have received scrutiny for their work. Both men have been named as defendants in a federal lawsuit filed by the family of a drug suspect who died eight days after Black arrested him in June 2000.
William Keith Anderson's family contends that Black slammed Anderson's head to the ground when he tried to arrest him for drug possession.
Anderson, 39, of New Port Richey lost consciousness and was hospitalized for more than a week before he died on June 16, 2000.
Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe concluded that Black "was in lawful performance of his legal duty" when he tried to arrest Anderson.
McCabe was out of town Monday and could not be reached for comment.
Police personnel records indicate that Trill has received a mix of complaints and commendations for his performance. LeCouris suspended Trill in November 1999 after several fellow officers complained about derogatory sexual remarks he made, records show. More recently, Trill was suspended for five days last month after he accidentally fired his weapon inside police headquarters during an impromptu training exercise.
This is not the first time the Tarpon Springs Police Department has been the subject of an investigation. In 1987, a grand jury said the department was so compromised by outside political interference that it should be disbanded. Since then, LeCouris said, he thinks the department has made big improvements.
In the current investigation, LeCouris said FDLE has asked for other information and documentation from the department. But he declined to discuss specifics about the scope of FDLE's investigation Monday.
"We have been fully cooperating and have given them every case and everything they've asked for," LeCouris said.
- Times staff writer Richard Danielson and researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. Candace Rondeaux can be reached at 727 445-4181 or rondeaux@sptimes.com