By Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler, Times Staff Writer
Published August 5, 2005
Top brass at the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office are the subject of much taunting this week on LeoAffairs.com, the Web site with message boards dedicated to dozens of Florida agencies including the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office.
Anonymous posters going by names including "You really are an idiot," "Defiant," and "Vigilante" flooded the message board with criticisms of administrators' recent decision to sue LeoAffairs.
Sheriff David Gee - long a critic of the Web site's acceptance of anonymous postings - wants a judge to stop the site from putting any sheriff's officers' posts online that violate the agency's codes of conduct. He also wants to identify through subpoena deputies who left false, crude and revealing messages about the agency. He says the site harms morale and weakens internal discipline.
In a Thursday morning posting titled "Dear Sheriff Gee," the anonymous user dubbed "Defiant" wrote: "You have probably caused an immeasurable amount of harm within your agency with this threatened lawsuit. . . . Try to remember who you work for. The citizens and your employees. Don't get your feelings hurt and don't waste taxpayer money making another lawyer rich in a frivolous lawsuit."
TRAINING EXPERT EULOGIZED: Several hundred people gathered at Nativity Catholic Church in Brandon this week to say goodbye to a longtime Hillsborough sheriff's deputy and tactical training expert who was known for his energy and strength - but who died of a heart attack at age 47.
Tampa native Mario Martinez, husband and father of two, collapsed Saturday in Georgia, where he was leading a training event for High-Risk Training, a company that does tactical training for law enforcement officers.
In the afternoon, he and some other law enforcement officers went into a weight room to start lifting. Martinez collapsed.
"They worked on him for about 51 minutes, but they could not revive him," said his sister, Vilma Martinez of Tampa. "They could not bring him back."
Martinez spent 24 years with the Sheriff's Office and served on the SWAT team in the '80s when it was recognized as the nation's best. He was part of the security detail for Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf after the Gulf War. Most recently, he was working on homeland security plans for the Sheriff's Office, said Lt. Darrell Brown, the agency's training director.
"His zeal and his energy was something you just don't find everywhere," Brown said. "He was constantly going."
Martinez trained hundreds of deputies in tactical maneuvers and hostage rescue over the years, including the deputy who went on to become sheriff.
"He's trained all of us, and when you teach, you touch a lot of careers," said Sheriff David Gee, 46. "When this happens, it sends you a message about the fragility of life." Gee said he plans to rename the department's physical fitness challenge for Martinez.
Martinez leaves behind wife Carrie and two daughters, 19-year-old Nissa and 7-year-old Selena.
Selena was too upset to attend Wednesday's Mass, Gee said.
"It breaks your heart."
DOG GETS REPRIEVE: The chemo is working!
Donovan, beloved St. Bernard of State Attorney's Office spokeswoman Pam Bondi and inspiration for a recent cancer charity drive for the Moffitt Cancer Center, is in what the vet calls "clinical remission" from advanced lymphoma.
Donovan's white blood count is now at 10,000, down from 60,000 and close to the normal range of 5,000 to 8,000. Bondi got the good news Tuesday, less than a week after she started distributing the gold cancer awareness bracelets bearing Donovan's name.
She celebrated by buying her 8-year-old companion a full chicken from Sonny's BBQ. "Now he's eating us out of house and home," Bondi said. "He's getting strong again."
Donovan will finish a 25-week chemotherapy regimen, and the oncologists at Florida Veterinary Services warned that the remission might not be permanent.
"But the vet said he's seen dogs go years in clinical remission," Bondi said. "So we are really happy."
