Fired officer's case goes before arbitrator this week

The former officer accused the police chief of doing little to investigate another officer alleged to be dealing in drugs.

By LEANORA MINAI

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 27, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- A year ago, Raymond Craig was a St. Petersburg police officer.

Now his sells gym memberships.

Craig, fired from the police force last summer, will ask for his gun and badge back during an arbitration hearing that begins Thursday.

He is the former vice and narcotics officer who said police Chief Goliath Davis III did not do enough to investigate another officer who was accused of buying drugs.

"I've become the icon for ratting out the police department," said Craig, 30.

Lt. Donnie Williams, who is accused of buying powder cocaine from a high-level dealer, has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with any crime. Williams, 45, was promoted in September.

Like a court proceeding, each side will present its case to Miami-based arbitrator Martin Soll. His ruling, which is expected in the coming months, is final.

The city's attorney, Thomas M. Gonzalez, will say Craig violated eight police policies. The most serious violations, the city says, are making false statements, releasing sensitive information about a confidential narcotics investigation and severely hindering it.

The police union will tell Craig's story.

Craig worked surveillance on Williams and grew frustrated when he felt that not enough was being done. Supervisors told him that Davis ordered limitations and restrictions on the undercover investigation, said Bill LauBach, attorney for the Pinellas County Police Benevolent Association.

"How can I get fired?" Craig asked. "I didn't do anything wrong. I only told the truth."

A graduate of Gibbs High School in St. Petersburg and a former Marine Corps officer, Craig lives in Pinellas Park with his wife and two children. He sells memberships to Gold's Gym in Pinellas Park.

He says he has applied to be a deputy with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.

Craig was hired as a police cadet in 1991 and worked patrol and the DUI squad before requesting a detective's opening in vice and narcotics.

He joined the narcotics unit in 1997. A year later, the allegations involving Williams surfaced.

First, a lead undercover St. Petersburg police detective met with a confidential informant at the Pinellas County Jail.

The lead detective, whose name is being withheld to protect his identity, said the informant told him he saw Williams deal drugs at a St. Petersburg bar and other people's houses, according to transcripts of police statements.

"They are the type of allegations where one person says he saw something, and there are no other witnesses, no video, no film, nothing to document what he saw," the lead detective said.

Craig sat in on the next meeting with the lead detective and confidential informant at the Tampa office of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. The confidential informant was considered reliable by St. Petersburg homicide and narcotics detectives, police records say.

At the time, the DEA, FBI and St. Petersburg police were involved in an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force investigation targeting major dealers in the city. The informant told authorities he saw Williams meet and make transactions with a target of the task force investigation three times.

Craig let others in the police department know his suspicions. He told two police officers and LauBach, the union attorney, about his frustrations with the Williams investigation.

An in-house attorney -- Gonzalez, the lawyer representing the city during Craig's arbitration -- was paid by the city to investigate allegations Davis hindered the Williams investigation. He cleared Davis.

If you go

The arbitration hearing is open to the public. It begins at 9:30 a.m. Thursday in the Municipal Services Center, Room 800, One Fourth St. N in St. Petersburg.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.