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Deputies suspended for misusing authority
By JAMIE MALERNEE © St. Petersburg Times, published December 19, 2000 Two sheriff's employees have been suspended for three days without pay after both let personal feelings interfere with professional duties, sheriff's officials say. Deputy William Horvath, 46, was found to have committed "conduct unbecoming an officer" after he wrote parking and watering tickets to settle personal scores, records state. He also did not submit a complete arrest report regarding a teenager whose father had received one of the parking tickets. In a separate case, Sgt. James Holbrook, 55, was rebuked for interfering in an investigation that involved his family members. The investigation regarding Horvath's conduct stemmed largely from trouble that began while Horvath was the girls soccer coach at Springstead High School. According to the reports, the former coach wrote three parking tickets while off duty in January because he was annoyed that cars in the Springstead parking lot were blocking the school bus the soccer team was on. The cars were there because of a wrestling match, and Horvath's actions angered the wrestling coaches, at least one of whom was ticketed. Five months later, after Springstead's principal decided not to rehire Horvath as coach, Horvath wrote the school a watering violation warning. When school officials followed up the ticket with the Southwest Florida Water Management District, district officials said that the school had not been violating any rules, records show. These incidents came to light after a teenager complained that he had been arrested by Horvath in August because the deputy didn't like his father, Ralph DeCristofaro, who was a volunteer wrestling coach Horvath had ticketed at Springstead in January. The teen, Gerard DeCristofaro, was driving a Jeep that Horvath stopped at a drunken driving checkpoint near a house party police were breaking up on the night of Aug. 26. The teen, who was not drunk, told sheriff's officials that Horvath referred to his friend as a "whining b----" and then arrested DeCristofaro. DeCristofaro told authorities he believed he was arrested because Horvath didn't like his father. Horvath, however, insists he did not know who DeCristofaro was and said the teen was arrested because he was acting in a threatening manner toward him. Authorities have since concluded that Horvath did not abuse his power in arresting the teen. They did, however, criticize the deputy for not including in his report the fact that the teen bumped him in the chest when the teen got out of the Jeep. During the internal investigation, Horvath told officials of the teen's behavior, but he never said so in his arrest report. If the teen did bump the deputy, he should have been charged with battery on a law enforcement officer, authorities said. Instead, he was charged with resisting arrest without violence. Officials also rebuked Horvath for calling the other teen a name. And they condemned his writing of parking and watering tickets, saying it "brought discredit upon (deputy) Horvath and this office." In the second case, Holbrook was chastised for interfering in a road rage investigation that involved a neighbor. According to reports, Spring Hill resident Erma Packer called the Sheriff's Office on Oct. 14 to report that she had almost been run off the road by a white truck in her neighborhood. Holbrook, who lives a few houses down from Packer, overheard the dispatch on his radio and recalled that his daughter previously had been almost run off the road, and that the tag number of the vehicle belonged to the Packers, whom he had never confronted with this information. So, although another deputy had already been sent to the Packer house that night, Holbrook also drove there. When he saw the deputy outside, Holbrook told him that Packer was probably the guilty party, not the driver of the truck, records state. The two officers then went into the home. Once inside, the deputy tried to interview Packer, but Holbrook, a supervisor, kept interrupting and accusing the woman of driving recklessly and nearly injuring his daughter in the previous incident, a report said. Packer claims Holbrook screamed at her and reduced her to tears. "I've called the police to come out and help me. I didn't expect them to come out and frighten me more than I was already frightened," she told authorities. Holbrook denies yelling at the woman and said he saw nothing wrong with confronting his neighbor. "I didn't feel I did anything more than anybody else would have done," Holbrook said. "I can't help that she felt frightened." Holbrook has been with the Sheriff's Office since 1983. He has numerous commendations in his record; He was reprimanded in November for failing to pass along potentially important information about a sexual battery investigation. Horvath has been with the agency since 1994. He has no previous marks against his record.
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