Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Caught in the Web, 2 deputies lose jobs

One deputy is fired and another takes early retirement after an investigation into their computer activities.

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published March 18, 2006

TAMPA - Hillsborough sheriff's Deputy Daniel Green said he did it because he was bored. Deputy Barry Michael told an internal affairs detective he did it out of curiosity.

Both are now out of jobs.

Green was fired this month and Michael took early retirement in lieu of dismissal, after an investigation found that while on duty, the deputies accessed a state database more than 100 times to check driving histories of their peers and superiors. They even looked up actors John Travolta and Tom Selleck.

Michael also admitted writing three derogatory postings about his superiors on LeoAffairs.com, a locally run message board for law enforcement, according to the internal affairs report.

In the postings, done from his home computer, Michael accused one sergeant of cheating on her husband. He called the sergeant's husband and another lieutenant stupid.

Comments like those have fueled Sheriff David Gee's ongoing attempts to get court-ordered access to records identifying the Internet addresses of deputies who post messages on LeoAffairs.

Gee maintains that messages like Michael's violate department policies against abusiveness, disrespect of supervisors and public disparagement.

Gee hasn't won access to the addresses so far, but the case is being considered by an appeals court.

Gee said Michael's fate illustrates the zero tolerance he will have for other deputies who post such messages.

"Here you have a subordinate employee who makes up a rumor," Gee said. "The coffee room chatter, that's fine. But to make up malicious lies, we just can't operate like that."

Green and Michael worked as deputies in the transportation section of the Morgan Street jail. They could not be reached Friday.

According to investigators, the deputies accessed the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles' database of driver and vehicle records more than 100 times each between January and August of 2005.

Green, 33, looked up the driving histories of superiors, including Maj. Robert Lucas, Maj. Elaine White and Col. David Parrish. He looked up actors Tom Selleck and John Travolta, a Scientologist with a home in Ocala.

Michael, 37, looked up fellow deputies and sheriff's Lt. Robert Stein, who works in detention at the Morgan Street jail.

He told an internal affairs detective he did it out of curiosity. Looking up the records when not part of official duties is against Sheriff's Office policy.

"He does not feel it kept him from performing his regular duties," professional standards Sgt. Ron Valenti wrote in a report on the probe.

Green "stated he was "bored' at work and would pass the time by randomly querying driver's licenses," Valenti wrote.

But the driving checks appear not to have been totally random.

Green looked up the driving records of Sgt. Jerry Leggett on July 22, a week after derogatory messages about the transportation bureau and Leggett were posted on LeoAffairs.

He also looked up the history of Leggett's wife, 50-year-old Sgt. Angela Leggett, the subject of LeoAffairs postings that began in May 2005.

Jerry Leggett works at the Falkenburg Road jail; Angela Leggett works in jail transportation.

In mid August, Green filed a grievance against Angela Leggett regarding her recent evaluation of his job performance.

Also about that time, ABC Action News investigative reporter Matthew Schwartz got a tip, later proved false, that Jerry Leggett, 45, had a suspended driver's license.

Green denied having ever posted messages on LeoAffairs. He told IA detectives he never contacted the media about the Leggett rumors.

Valenti said Friday that investigators could never prove otherwise, so they did not uphold the allegation that Green violated the department policy against public disparagement. IA investigators concluded, however, that Green misused communications facilities and was inattentive to his duties.

Green, who was hired in August 2000, was dismissed this month, when the inquiry concluded.

Records show Michael, like Green, looked up the sergeant's driving history in July.

And he admitted to posting three derogatory messages about the Leggetts and Lt. Robert Stein from his home computer. Michael, who joined the Sheriff's Office in May 1995, took early retirement in January rather than wait for the outcome of the IA inquiry.

This month, investigators concluded he violated a total of nine department policies. Among them are policies involving negligence, abusiveness, public disparagement and conduct unbecoming a sheriff's employee.

Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3373 or svansickler@sptimes.com

[Last modified March 18, 2006, 02:30:29]