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Tarpon man sues ex-officer for wrongful arrest

He claims the officer mistook him as the man who had hit her, resulting in his jail time.

By CANDACE RONDEAUX
Published July 25, 2004

TARPON SPRINGS - A man jailed for more than a month on charges of battery on a Tarpon Springs police officer has filed a federal lawsuit claiming mistaken identity led to his wrongful arrest.

Timothy Scott Cole contends in a 14-page lawsuit that former Tarpon Springs police Officer Sheila Fowlie "repeatedly misidentified" him as the man suspected of punching her more than three years ago.

The lawsuit alleges that Cole, 39, of Tarpon Springs was in another part of the state that day and that there is "strong evidence" the attack on Fowlie never took place. Cole spent 39 days in jail, according to county records.

"There are some problems with the actual officer, and there were some problems with the (Police Department) that led to an awful arrest," said James Wardell, Cole's attorney in Tampa. "It took them almost two months to figure out he (Cole) wasn't the guy. Meanwhile, he was sitting in jail."

Filed in U.S. District Court in Tampa on June 30, the lawsuit also names police Chief Mark LeCouris as a defendant, alleging that he "recklessly failed" to prevent his officers from arresting an innocent man. The suit seeks unspecified damages.

LeCouris declined through a spokesman to comment on the allegations in Cole's lawsuit, referring questions to the city attorney.

City Attorney John Hubbard said he has referred Cole's claim to the Florida League of Cities for review. The league handles the city's liability insurance and has provided legal advice on more than a dozen claims against the Police Department in the past five years.

Fowlie, 35, now works as a Pinellas Park police officer and told the Times last week that the lawsuit's allegations are "untrue." She said she was advised by the city attorney not to comment further on the case.

Confusion over the attack started almost from the minute Fowlie called for backup Nov. 10, 2000, police records show.

About 7:25 a.m. that day, Fowlie was on a routine patrol when she saw a man who appeared to be unconscious lying on his back on the side of Dixie Highway, records show. When Fowlie asked whether he needed help, the man suddenly jumped up and charged at her.

Her assailant then grabbed the radio, ripped her uniform and punched her in the mouth, according to the report. Fowlie broke away, but the man fled as she radioed for help.

When fellow officers arrived, Fowlie told them her attacker was a white man from age 30 to 40 with dark brown hair and a small scar under his left eye. Other parts of her description were less clear. In a report, she said her attacker had a "goatee clean shaven." A search of the area for her attacker came up empty.

Three months later, Fowlie was on patrol when she identified Cole as the man who punched her. She questioned Cole on Feb. 4, 2001, after stopping him and a friend near Anclote Road and Alt. U.S. 19. When two officers arrived minutes later, she told them Cole was the one who had assaulted her months earlier, records show.

Police did not arrest Cole that day. But they did take him to police headquarters after he volunteered to answer questions, records show.

There, Cole told police he was in Cape Canaveral the day Fowlie was attacked. He said he had arrived in the east coast port town Nov. 8, 2001, when a shrimp vessel he had been working on docked there for a few days, according to police reports. He said Fowlie had mistaken him for someone else, giving police the names of several people who could provide an alibi.

Tarpon Springs police Detective Robert Faugno was assigned to investigate the attack on Fowlie. He questioned several people in connection with the incident. But Fowlie also helped investigate the case in which she was a victim, questioning Cole's one-time employers. Police referred the case to the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office in February 2001. But almost two months passed before the state attorney filed charges against Cole for battery on a law enforcement officer.

"The officer in this case - Fowlie - she was pretty adamant about her identification of Cole," said Fred Schaub, director of the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office felony division.

But the State Attorney's Office had questions about Fowlie's description of her attacker almost from the beginning, records show. Documents obtained by the Times indicate Fowlie identified another man as the suspect about two months before she encountered Cole near Anclote Road.

"The one problem is she's (looked at) a photopack since then and has identified another individual apparently who looks like (Cole)," a staffer with the State Attorney's Office noted in a February 2001 memo.

Questions about the suspect's identity led prosecutors to ask Faugno to track down more information on the case, Schaub said. Meanwhile, Cole, who has a history of arrests dating back to 1986, was booked in Pinellas County Jail on March 30, 2001. He was held there for 39 days in lieu of $50,000 bail, county records show.

Prosecutors dropped the charges against Cole on May 4, 2001. Schaub said his office dropped the charges after interviews with witnesses and other evidence revealed the Tarpon Springs shrimper was several hours' drive from Dixie Highway at the time.

"We have photos of (Cole) at a bank in Titusville with (Cole's friend) Mike Cassidy approximately 16 hours prior to" the attack, an investigator noted in a State Attorney's Office memo. "In the video he does not appear to have a clean shaven goatee. ... The State is no longer able to prove this case beyond a doubt."

Cole was released from jail on his own recognizance three days after the charges were dropped.

"We spoke to other people that he said that he was with, and they confirmed he was with them," Schaub said.

Wardell said he doubts Fowlie's account, adding that she should never have been allowed to investigate a crime in which she was a victim.

"You should not be the investigator of your own case," Wardell said.

Fowlie was hired by the Tarpon Springs Police Department in February 2000. She was a rookie and one of a handful of women on the force. And neither of those things, she later told her superiors, made her job easy. Those factors, in part, led Fowlie to file a sexual harassment complaint against male co-workers in March 2001, Police Department records show.

The complaint focused largely on a soured relationship with her supervisor, retired Sgt. Ron Surmin. But Fowlie also alleged that other officers made inappropriate remarks to her, according to documents in Fowlie's internal affairs file.

Fowlie said Surmin began making advances toward her in July 2000, records show. The advances were unwelcome at first, but eventually she began spending more time with Surmin, according to transcripts of several taped interviews with Fowlie. Their relationship did not last long, however. As rumors about them swirled around the department, Fowlie broke up with Surmin on Nov. 8, 2000 - two days before she was attacked near Dixie Highway, records show.

Tarpon Springs police Capt. Ronnie Holt interviewed Fowlie extensively during an internal affairs investigation in March 2001. But he declined to comment on the internal affairs inquiry or Cole's lawsuit against Fowlie.

Notes included in Fowlie's internal affairs investigation file indicate doubts were raised during the investigation about her accounts of several police incidents, including one detailing the assault on Dixie Highway.

"The chief wants to investigate the car crash, the burglary and the incident (battery)," according to an unsigned, handwritten note in the internal affairs file. "Chief is going to take a polygraph. In order for the chief to do all this he must have some strong evidence against her."

The notes, which police wouldn't comment on, does not provide any context about the statements. For example, they don't indicate whether those comments were made by Fowlie or someone else.

Fowlie resigned May 1, 2001, after signing an agreement with the city, in which neither side admitted wrongdoing. The settlement also released both parties from future legal claims.

Surmin was found to have violated four department and city policies, including his relationship with Fowlie and making derogatory remarks about administrators. He retired May 4, 2001.

- Candace Rondeaux can be reached at 727 771-4307 or at rondeaux@sptimes.com

[Last modified July 24, 2004, 23:57:22]