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Investigation stretches into Pasco
By RYAN DAVIS Officials in Charlotte County intensified their search Tuesday for massive amounts of helicopter parts that disappeared during the tenure of former Sheriff Richard Worch, now the No. 3 commander at the Pasco County Sheriff's Office. "The (Charlotte County) Sheriff's Office is missing several helicopters," said lead investigator Ralph Cunningham of the 20th Judicial Circuit in southwest Florida. Cunningham said he has suspects, but Lt. Col. Worch is not one of them. "I have no reason to believe he was involved in any of the illegal things that went on," Cunningham said. "He ultimately is the person that's responsible, but it appears (parts were) stolen from underneath his nose." Investigators would not pin a dollar figure on the missing military surplus parts, but Cunningham confirmed it is well over $1-million. State attorney's investigators, assisted by federal officials, served a search warrant Tuesday on a surplus helicopter parts company at Charlotte County Airport, where the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office has its hangar. "I can't tell you what we found, but it certainly helped in our investigation," Cunningham said. News of the parts' disappearance first surfaced after last year's sheriff election in Charlotte County. Incoming Sheriff Bill Clement conducted an audit after defeating Worch, a three-term incumbent. Clement said he found sloppy recordkeeping and could not account for many of the parts on inventory lists. "We just found some things that didn't look right," Clement said on Tuesday. "We started looking into it and it kind of grew." About five months ago, he handed the investigation to the State Attorney's Office. Investigators questioned Worch face to face in August. This isn't the first trouble to follow him 125 miles up the coast. Worch was forced early this year to turn over a computer hard drive and a police radio to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Clement complained that Worch had taken the items. Worch said Tuesday that the investigation does not affect his ability to work in Pasco. "I don't want to see Sheriff (Bob) White get questioned by a lot of people about what is this guy's doing, when in reality it's just something that happened during my tenure as sheriff," Worch said. "Certainly if I was involved in something, it would be a whole different story." White could not be reached for comment Tuesday, sheriff's spokesman Jon Powers said. When Worch took control of the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office in 1989, it had an aviation unit but no helicopters, he said. Now it has about six, which are shared with mosquito control workers. Much like Pasco, Charlotte built up its aviation unit with military surplus helicopters and equipment. Helicopters cost as little as $100 and parts go for little more than change. But there's a catch. The equipment can only be used for law enforcement and cannot be sold or traded to any agency that is not a part of the military surplus program. "People working in the hangar may have been involved in improperly disposing of or trading those parts," Worch said. "I don't know if it was for personal gain." U.S. Department of Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation are assisting in the investigation, Cunningham said. Worch said he rarely, if ever, saw paperwork and inventories from his hangar. "The sheriff's got a lot better things to do than go through the hangar," Worch said. Said Cunningham: "When you're at the top, it's hard to shirk responsibility for anything." Worch agreed. "The sheriff is responsible for everything that happens under his administration," he said. "I have to be responsible for everything that (happened)." In Pasco, Worch oversees the investigative services bureau, which includes major crime investigations, school resource officers and forensics. He is not responsible for the aviation unit. -- Times staff writer 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
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