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Police chief on unpaid leave

By JONATHAN ABEL
Published March 24, 2007

BROOKSVILLE - Brooksville Police Chief Ed Tincher was put on unpaid leave Friday after an investigation found numerous misdeeds at the Police Department.

On the same day, the 29-year veteran of the force filed for medical leave because of a heart condition that his doctor says prevents him from coming to work.

Frank Ross, a former police chief from St. Cloud, was named the interim police chief until a replacement can be found for Tincher.

Tincher, 56, has been on paid administrative leave since February, but after the release of the blistering 27-page report about him and his transfer to unpaid suspension, the table has been set for his termination by acting City Manager Steve Baumgartner.

"In the performance of your duties as Chief of Police," the report reads, "you have been incompetent and inefficient."

It goes on to accuse him of numerous violations, including mishandling evidence, discriminating against women and dominating the department through threats and intimidation.

Tincher fired back that the report was shoddy and inaccurate. He promised to refute each of the charges.

"Nobody bothered to verify or validate these allegations," Tincher said. "Anybody that made false allegations that can't be backed up is certainly subject to civil litigation."

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said Friday that it is not investigating any of the allegations involving Tincher.

After six weeks of interviews and hand-wringing at City Hall, Friday marked the beginning of the end of the saga that has consumed the city since last summer.

The report was commissioned by Baumgartner in February in an attempt to get an outsider's perspective on the feud between Tincher and Ron Baker, the city's human resources director.

Baker was arrested in August on a charge of giving Xanax to a co-worker who was having an anxiety attack.

He said the arrest was engineered by Tincher as retribution for reporting an affair between Tincher and a City Hall secretary.

In mid-February, Baumgartner put Tincher and Baker on paid administrative leave and hired James Farley, a former Crystal River police chief, to look into the facts surrounding the feud.

What resulted were two reports: one about Baker, released last week, and one about Tincher, released Friday. Baker also has been suspended without pay.

The report on Tincher draws on the testimony of current and former city employees.

The theme of intimidation runs through many of the interviews.

Sandy Wilfong, a Hernando sheriff's deputy and former Brooksville police officer, told the investigator that if you cross Tincher, "your life is a living hell both on and off duty."

Mayor David Pugh Jr. said he felt threatened by Tincher and Officer John Cavanna at a City Council meeting and had been told to watch his back while driving around town.

Ron Woods, a former detective, said that Tincher had threatened to arrest him if he didn't recant a statement he made about Lt. Rick Hankins trying to borrow prescription drugs from him.

Tincher has said in the past that the accusations of intimidation are ridiculous.

But the report picks up on that theme when it examines the methods used to investigate Baker and the woman to whom he gave Xanax. It says Tincher coerced them into making statements and may have violated their Miranda rights.

The report says Tincher shouldn't have handled the investigation into Baker and should have written up the investigation and forwarded it to the State Attorney's Office to make an arrest.

The scope of Farley's report extends far beyond the feud with Baker, though details in some parts are thin.

It quotes Police Department employees and residents, saying that the chief inappropriately handled guns and other property the department had seized.

Anne Cummings, the sister of convicted drug dealer Geoffrey Cummings, complained the department seized a truckload of property from her brother without filing any of the proper paperwork and then refused to return it.

Hankins said on Friday that an arrangement had been worked out with Cummings' attorney, but no one came to claim the property.

The investigator's report sides with Anne Cummings.

"The Department kept property that they did not file forfeiture on for a period of about 2 years," it said, "despite repeated attempts by attorneys to get it returned."

In another complaint, Officer Terry Elliott recounted an instance from "several years ago" in which Tincher allegedly paid an officer for 12 hours of overtime that he didn't earn so the officer would have money to buy a gun from Tincher.

Code Enforcement Officer Linda Sidor said Tincher is supposed to be notified whenever people turn in guns to the Police Department and that, a couple of years ago, she saw Tincher take a gun that was turned in, wrap it in a blanket and put it in the trunk of his vehicle.

"She says it is common knowledge that the Chief takes weapons that way," according to the report.

Tincher did not address this allegation directly, but he said special attention should be paid to the time frame of some of the allegations.

The report also goes on about problems in the evidence room with property that is not cataloged and in a state of disarray.

Tincher shot back on Friday, saying that the city failed to authorize hiring an evidence clerk.

Tincher will have 14 days to decide whether to appeal the city's findings. He said that he and his lawyers have many options and are considering all of them.

Jonathan Abel can be reached at jabel@sptimes.com or 352 754-6114.

[Last modified March 23, 2007, 22:52:46]