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Inquiry casts doubt on firings
By AMY HERDY © St. Petersburg Times, published December 17, 2000 TAMPA -- Alfred Capitano was killed on Christmas Day in 1996 when a motorist drove through an intersection at E 21st Avenue and N 34th Street and slammed into his car. A stop sign knocked down in a minor accident 19 hours earlier lay nearby. Now, questions are being raised about the firings of two police officers accused of leaving the intersection after the minor accident without making sure the stop sign would be replaced. For four years the officers have insisted they were cleared to leave the intersection by their supervisor, Cpl. Amy Keck. It's a claim Keck has denied. "At this point . . . the case boils down to the word of Corporal Keck against the word of two marginal officers who have since been terminated," wrote assistant city attorney Kirby Rainsberger in a letter dated Sept. 9, 1997, that recommended she be cleared of wrongdoing. Last week, however, details emerged in an unrelated internal inquiry that cast doubts on the fairness of the investigation that cost two officers their careers. Keck had attempted suicide and been committed for psychiatric evaluation three weeks before the fatal accident, a fact not included in the initial investigation. In addition, Keck was living with Deputy Chief John Bushell, the officer who supervised the investigation of the officers' actions. The new information is contained in an internal investigation into a nasty domestic dispute involving Keck; her former husband, Tampa police Cpl. Karl Anderson; and Bushell; and his wife, Tampa Detective Margaret Bushell. It reveals that Keck had returned to duty after her suicide attempt in December 1996 without being cleared by a doctor, as required by department policy. Instead, Keck, who has lived with Bushell and his wife since February 1996, was picked up from the hospital by the Bushells and reported to work the next day. Bushell would later tell investigators he cares about Keck, "like a daughter." The two fired officers, Brian Timmons and Debrynna Garrett, learned about the suicide attempt from reporters last week. They want the department to investigate Keck's mental fitness the night of the fatal accident. So does the family of Capitano, the man killed when another driver failed to stop at the intersection. "What would someone be thinking to give her a gun and put her back on the street after she tried to kill herself?" asked Marty Capitano, the 48-year-old son of Alfred Capitano. After the accident, the Capitano family sued Tampa police and the city but lost in court. He said they didn't know at the time about the suicide attempt, or about her relationship with Bushell. Bushell, he said, "should definitely have known she wasn't fit for duty." Timmons and Garrett say they told Keck several times that night that the stop sign was down. A review of police radio communications confirms that they requested it be repaired that night. Keck has acknowledged talking to the officers several times but contends they never made her aware of the sign. The officers had left the scene to transport the driver who struck the sign to jail. At 6:30 a.m. on Christmas Day, she signed a report prepared by the officers that said the sign had been heavily damaged but stopped short of saying it had been knocked down. Shortly after 4 p.m., the fatal accident occurred. Since the accident, department policy requires officers to stay until traffic devices are fixed. Timmons and Garrett, who received above-average performance reviews while employed as Tampa police officers, were fired after an investigation supervised by Bushell. They said they knew of the relationship between Bushell and Keck. "We asked him (Bushell) personally to recuse himself," Garrett said. "We got no response other than a look as if we were 3-year-old idiots." Timmons now works as a juvenile detention officer in Tampa. "If (Bushell) knew she was (detained for psychiatric evaluation), how did he take her word over ours?" he asked. As for Keck, Timmons said, "She should never have been on the street that night . . . any paperwork she signed would be questionable." Keck did not return calls for comment. Bushell would later tell investigators that he thought Keck's suicide attempt was "reaching more for sympathy than truly having a problem." He said he and his wife, "did everything we could to help her out." Reached last week, Bushell said he told his superiors about his relationship with Keck and asked to be relieved from conducting the investigation of the two other officers. "I went to (Assistant Chief Walter) Sawyer, and went to the Chief (Bennie Holder)," Bushell said. "They told me to handle it," he said. Holder became angry last week when told of Bushell's claim. "That never happened," Holder said. "No way would I have agreed to anything like that." Holder said he was never aware of Bushell's relationship with Keck, or that she had been involuntarily committed to a hospital for psychiatric observation, until it was brought to light by the investigation into the domestic problems. Her fitness for duty the night the stop sign was knocked down, and her word against the two fired officers, raises questions, he said. "Naturally, we have to be concerned about that," he said. It's something, he said, "we will have to look into." Garrett, a single mother who now works in sales in Atlanta, said losing her job meant the beginning of years of financial and emotional struggles. "I've been wrecked," she said. The recently concluded investigation into Keck's domestic troubles includes sordid details of a bitter divorce and contains allegations of trespassing, improper use of take-home squad cars and death threats. The report sustained one allegation against Anderson, her ex-husband, that he had used his squad car to visit his mother in Hernando County. It also found that Keck and Bushell violated policy by not reporting her hospitalization in 1996. Chief Holder said he would review the findings of that investigation and decide on discipline. -- Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report. Amy Herdy can be reached at (813) 226-3386 or herdy@sptimes.com
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