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Letter to the editor

Inquiry details Largo officer's bar visit

A report alleges drunken behavior. She has resigned.

By JONATHAN ABEL
Published July 12, 2007

LARGO - Officer Melinda DeKyle did the right thing when she took a cab home from a Seminole bar late one night. Where she got into trouble, an internal investigation says, was in fighting with the driver over a $4 fare.

DeKyle resigned at the internal investigation's beginning. The thick report describes the May 19 incident in ugly detail.

DeKyle was already intoxicated when she arrived at the bar. She downed a few more drinks, the report said, but didn't have enough cash to pay the tab.

Another customer covered her bill and the bartender put DeKyle in a cab, said the report.

A short way into the ride, DeKyle, 31, became convinced the cabbie was taking her the wrong way home; she insisted she had already paid him $20.

The driver pulled over on Seminole Boulevard to call the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.

Deputy Robert White responded and later wrote that DeKyle kept changing her story and struggled to give clear answers.

The cab meter said $8.25, but the meter had been running for a while as they waited for police, so the driver said he'd settle for $4.

He told the deputy he didn't want to prosecute because he was losing business every minute he was at the scene.

DeKyle was taken out of the cab in bad shape.

"Melinda was intoxicated to the point that she was not in control of her normal faculties and she was a danger to herself," White wrote.

As DeKyle fumbled with her driver's license, the deputy noticed a Largo Police Department ID card in her wallet. It looked like a fake so he called the department to check.

A Largo police sergeant and lieutenant came to pick her up. They told internal investigators DeKyle was belligerent and cursing them even as they were driving her home.

At DeKyle's house, Lt. Brian Browne took the keys to DeKyle's patrol car, finding the car was unlocked, a violation of department policy that resulted in another internal affairs charge.

An internal investigation began May 21 and DeKyle resigned the same day. She had been making $42,390 per year.

DeKyle had run afoul of department rules before, most notably in 2005 when she was celebrating her 30th birthday at a St. Petersburg bar.

Police said DeKyle sprayed chocolate-flavored whipped cream on a female sergeant and then licked it off from the area just below her collarbone.

Initially, the sergeant, Joan Short, was fired for the incident. But an arbitrator ruled she should be reinstated and demoted to the rank of officer.

For her part, DeKyle was suspended for 10 days.

She could not be reached for comment.

[Last modified July 11, 2007, 22:05:52]