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FDLE ends investigation into hiring of police officer

Zephyrhills' police chief says he's satisfied that Officer Ronald Clark has been cleared.

By JAMAL THALJI
Published December 28, 2005

ZEPHYRHILLS - The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has concluded its investigation into the hiring of police Officer Ronald Clark amid questions about how he filled out his application and found no basis for disciplinary action.

In a Dec. 14 letter to Chief Russell Barnes, the FDLE said the Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission found insufficient grounds for action under Florida law.

Barnes said he's satisfied that the patrol officer has been cleared.

"It'll be a weight off of his shoulders," Barnes said Tuesday.

As for the questions stemming from Clark's last law enforcement job and omissions he made on his financial disclosure form, the chief said those have been resolved to his satisfaction as well.

Ronald Clark is better known as the ex-pastor of the now-defunct Living Water Church of Tampa. The church went from 1,800 members to bankruptcy in 2003 as co-founders Ronald and Belinda Clark engaged in a bitter divorce. Both lobbed charges and counter-charges of illicit conduct.

None of it was proved. Ronald Clark, 48, won custody of their two children in September. His ex-wife is still suing him for slander.

The former military policeman is also remarried, pastor at a new church, the Sanctuary of Tampa Bay, and back in uniform.

But it was his last stint in uniform that dogged Clark at his new job - specifically, Hillsborough County sheriff's memos criticizing his job performance when he was an unpaid reserve deputy there in 2003.

His Zephyrhills application asks: Have you ever resigned or left a job by mutual agreement following allegations of misconduct or unsatisfactory job performance? Clark checked no.

But then-Hillsborough Sheriff Cal Henderson told the Times in 2003 that the memos, and their allegations of poor job performance and violation of department rules, were a concern.

The memos, though, were not in his Hillsborough personnel file at the time Zephyrhills conducted its background check. Barnes said Clark told him he had no knowledge of the memos. The chief said the first copies he saw came from the St. Petersburg Times. A sheriff's spokeswoman said the agency found them after a Times request, and they are now in Clark's file.

After reviewing the memos, Barnes said Clark discussed those issues before his hiring.

"Although he was not aware of the memos," the chief said, "he was aware of the issues because of discussions with his supervisors, and he mentioned these issues to us during the oral board interview."

Clark's family law attorney, Dennis Alfonso, advised his client not to answer questions from the Times submitted by e-mail.

Alfonso said Tuesday that Clark is eager to establish himself as a Zephyrhills officer.

"I'm sure he'll be happy to know that they (FDLE) came back without any adverse findings," he said. "It has been an odyssey that he's been on, and, remarkably, he has been able to overcome a lot of the hurdles."

The sheriff's memos obtained by the Times in 2003 show how unhappy Clark's superiors were with him. They say Clark entrusted his cruiser and agency-issued shotgun to a civilian, failed to show up for duty, failed to return agency equipment and failed to report a deputy's attempt to cover up an accident.

Clark might even have broken the law, a colonel wrote, by failing to hand over his gun when his wife filed a temporary domestic violence injunction against him. Instead of turning it over to police, as the law required, he gave it to a civilian.

But the Zephyrhills chief said all the memos allege are violations of department policy.

"To be honest with you, I'm not really concerned with the memos," Barnes said. "The memos concern internal issues at the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office, from supervisor to supervisor, from supervisor to sheriff, and he mentioned the issues to us. . . .

"What we would have been concerned with is disciplinary action taken, and these memos are not disciplinary in nature."

Barnes also pointed out that a circuit judge was satisfied when Clark entrusted his firearm to a civilian acquaintance.

Another issue is Clark's financial disclosures to the Police Department. Applicants must list all debts over $500. Clark listed none, though a Times review of his financial records revealed several debts: to creditors, to his bankruptcy attorney and the $309,500 mortgage he signed with his new wife in July for their Valrico home.

Clark wasn't required to restate his finances, Barnes said. Instead, Clark was told that an agency credit check entered into the officer's file would do.

So why didn't Clark just check "yes" when the application asked about leaving a job due to poor performance?

The Hillsborough memos say Clark could have exposed the agency to liability problems and recommended he not be retained as a reserve deputy.

But Barnes said the officer didn't have to check "yes." Clark officially resigned from the Sheriff's Office, and Barnes said the ex-deputy was never disciplined by his supervisors or the sheriff.

"The way the question is worded, it's after allegations of misconduct or unsatisfactory conduct," Barnes said. "That seems to imply a cause and effect, that the allegations were the cause of the mutual agreement to leave, and even from the memos that is not apparent."

The field training officer program runs 12 weeks, 14 weeks when necessary. But officers with prior experience in Florida often finish it earlier, Barnes said, and Clark did that in eight weeks.

He began patroling on his own Nov. 29, after his field training officer, sergeant and captain all agreed that Clark had mastered the required subjects, from arrest techniques to knowledge of city ordinances.

"He didn't exactly say, "Yahoo!" Barnes said. "But you could see it on his face. He was very excited and very happy."

Staff writer Molly Moorhead contributed to this report.

[Last modified December 28, 2005, 01:00:23]