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A judge rules that evidence did not show Sheriff Lee Cannon encouraged deputies to violate suspects' civil rights.
By CHRISTOPHER GOFFARD
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 15, 2000
TAMPA -- Plaintiffs suing Pasco Sheriff Lee Cannon have failed to supply evidence that he encouraged detectives to violate suspects' constitutional rights, a federal judge ruled Friday in tossing out the civilian claim against the sheriff.
'It's a great vindication for me and the office of sheriff," said Cannon after U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas McCoun made the ruling.
The judge also ruled, however, that Deputies Timothy Powers and Rodney Bishop still must face a jury's verdict on claims they falsely arrested Jonathan Dye Jones.
The deputies are accused of fabricating a confession and planting evidence in an effort to frame the Dade City man for the murder of ex-girlfriend Kathryn Murphy in 1993. Jones, who was charged and later acquitted by a jury, now is seeking $14.2-million in damages.
In arguments before the judge this week, Jones' attorneys said Cannon encouraged detectives, as a policy, not to tape-record interrogations in order to conceal violations of suspects' rights.
That policy stemmed, the attorneys said, from the 1987 case of Port Richey shrimper Jeffrey Crouch, whose alleged confession to his wife's murder was suppressed because a tape-recording showed detectives mistreating him.
Without a tape-recording to show how they behave, argued John Mallah, one of Jones' attorneys, police have free rein to lie, threaten, and put words in suspects' mouths. In this case, Powers and Bishop said Jones admitted to killing Kathryn Murphy, though it was not recorded on tape, and Jones denies confessing.
'There's an intentional policy not to record," Mallah said. 'In Pasco County, the ends justify the means . . . and it's got to stop."
Resting his case Friday afternoon, John Jolly, an attorney for the Sheriff's Office, asked McCoun to throw out the lawsuit rather than let it go to a jury. He said there was only 'the slenderest of possible reeds" on which to claim such a policy existed.
'The reed is so slender, it breaks," Jolly said.
McCoun said there was not enough evidence to proceed with the case against Cannon.
'Mr. Mallah may be correct in his view, but it is the court's determination that he has not met the legal burden to show liability," McCoun said.
But McCoun rejected Jolly's request to dismiss the case against Powers and Bishop. A jury is expect to hear closing arguments Monday.
After McCoun's ruling, a relieved Cannon shook Powers' hand and said, 'Hang in there."
When trial resumes Monday, Cannon will not take a place beside Powers and Bishop at the defendants' table. He will sit in spectators' seats.
'I still care very deeply about my two personnel," Cannon said. 'I'll be thinking of them and praying for them."