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Deputy in sex harassment case resigns
By RYAN DAVIS
© St. Petersburg Times, At the end of each day together, Patrick Lindner told Erica Fernandez that he loved her. That made Fernandez uncomfortable. Lindner, a 23-year veteran deputy at the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, was her training supervisor for her first three weeks on patrol in east Pasco. The end-of-day "I love yous" were just the punctuation on a daily dose of sexual harassment, Fernandez wrote in her complaint to sheriff's officials. Lindner repeatedly touched her arm and bulletproof vest, told her that other women at the Sheriff's Office slept their way to the top, gave her back rubs, told her he liked to be cuddled and said she might want to wear his jacket while she walked naked around her house, she wrote. After a nearly four-month investigation, sheriff's officials substantiated her complaint, but not before Lindner resigned. By resigning on Aug. 17, three days before the investigation was completed, 52-year-old Lindner preserved his full government pension. Fernandez, 23, wrote that she almost didn't file her report against Lindner. The investigation file containing her complaint and transcripts of related interviews was released Thursday by the Sheriff's Office. The Sheriff's Office hired Fernandez on Oct. 25, 2000, and paid her to go through the law enforcement academy. After completing the academy, she spent two weeks in orientation and was assigned to her first of four four-week training stretches on patrol. Her training officer was Lindner. Just three days from finishing her first stint, she was in DeLand to take the state law enforcement exam with two other trainees, she wrote. She confided in them what she had endured under Lindner. The two trainees, both men, told her to file a report, but she was afraid she would earn a bad reputation, she wrote. "Here's this first-phase girl that is claiming sexual harassment, and I didn't want that," Fernandez told investigators. Sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll said the agency's harassment complaint system worked well. "The system in place, if it's followed correctly, is adequate," Doll said. "As soon as she made her complaint known, it was acted upon immediately." Lindner, who was once a detective, was suspended for a day without pay in May 1999 for engaging in dangerous negligence. He also received numerous commendation letters, was named courteous deputy of the month for August 1991, was awarded law enforcement official of the year in 1991 by Pearl of the West Masonic Lodge and received a civil servant award in 1997 for helping more than 100 sick children gain access to the Shriner's Hospital system. Fernandez's 17-page handwritten complaint against him lays out dozens of incidents between April 4 and April 26 that she said made her feel uncomfortable and manipulated. She wrote that: On one occasion, Lindner told her out of nowhere that, "I just like being held. I like to cuddle." (Lindner later acknowledged this to Sheriff's Office investigators.) While eating at McDonald's on April 10, he said, "I feel I can tell you anything." Then he told Fernandez he had cheated on his wife with two women in the Sheriff's Office and asked if she would cheat on her husband. (Lindner later acknowledged this to investigators.) Another time he said, "You can stop at one of the substations, take off your vest and I'll rub your back." (Lindner acknowledged this to investigators.) On April 19, after she pumped gas, he told her that he didn't think she was wearing underwear. (Lindner acknowledged this to investigators.) "I like that. It turns me on," he said. (Lindner denied to investigators that he said this.) On April 20, while Lindner was taking a tour of Fernandez's house, her mother saw Lindner smell her daughter's bulletproof vest, which was hanging in the closet. (Lindner told investigators he was trying to see if the vest picked up odors.) One day at the Dade Oaks substation, he started rubbing her shoulders. Lindner later explained to her it was just a "Daddy" touch. (Lindner acknowledged this to investigators.) Through a spokesperson, Fernandez declined an interview with the Times. Lindner could not be reached for comment. Sheriff's spokesman Doll said, "We don't have any evidence that anything criminal occurred." During interviews with investigators, Lindner denied some of the allegations and acknowledged that some of his comments were inappropriate but that he didn't mean anything by them. He said he told Fernandez he loved her because, "God says we're supposed to love everyone." -- Ryan Davis is the police reporter in Pasco County. He can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6245, or toll-free at 800-333-7505, ext. 6245. His e-mail address is rdavis@sptimes.com.
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