The resignation will become official July 2, but White is using accrued vacation until then.

The criminal aspect of the complaint was investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Investigators discussed the case with assistant state attorney Wayne Holmes, who determined that based on the information provided and witnesses' reluctance to come forward, White would not be charged with a crime.

"Holmes indicated that it appeared that departmental administrative actions would be more appropriate," according to an FDLE report.

Palm Bay spokesman Lt. Doug Dechenne declined to comment on the case.

"I am currently restricted by Florida state statute and department policy to acknowledge or discuss active administrative investigations. Once an administrative investigation is complete, the information within the report can be publicly disclosed. It is inappropriate to make a comment at this time," Dechenne said.

White, 33, has been with the department for nine years.

On his last evaluation, his supervisor, Lt. Dave Crispin wrote "Steve has gone the extra mile to make his zone a safe community."

In 2000, his evaluation stated that his continued careless driving could result in termination, but otherwise, White's performance met expectations.

White has received many commendation letters throughout his nine-year career at the Palm Bay Police Department, including his assistance with calls from Riverdale Country School, which is for severely emotionally disturbed students and apprehending burglars.

********

12/10/04 - Florida - The Jacksonville police officer convicted last week of assaulting a female is still suspended with pay.

James Gamel, 52, of Pine Valley Road, was convicted in Onslow County District Court of assaulting Daisy Smith, 59, of Seminole Trail. Gamel, who is an evidence technician, and Smith, who is a custodian, both worked together at Jacksonville Police Department.

When Smith first took a warrant out in October charging Gamel with assaulting her during an altercation the two of them had at work in January 2004, Gamel was suspended with pay.

District Court Judge Joseph Blick sentenced Gamel to 60 days in jail, which was suspended, and ordered him to pay a $50 fine as well as $1,351 in restitution to Smith. Gamel is appealing the decision.

It is now up to Jacksonville police authorities to send Gamel a pre disciplinary letter, which will outline the course of action that the city plans to take now that he's been convicted of a Class A1 misdemeanor.

Once Gamel receives the letter, he will have the option of attending a pre disciplinary hearing.

"When an employee comes in for a pre disciplinary hearing, he can give his side of the story," said John Carter, City of Jacksonville's attorney. "The supervisor may decide the employee did everything proper or the supervisor might decide to uphold the discipline suggested in the letter."

If the supervisor disciplines Gamel in a manner he disagrees with, Gamel can appeal within 10 days to Jacksonville City Manager Ken Hagan.

According to the N.C. Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards, a police officer's certification can be revoked if he is convicted of a felony offense or four or more Class A misdemeanors.

********

May 3, 2003 - FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A deputy used pepper spray on a 12-year-old girl and wrestled her to the ground when she ignored repeated orders to stop jaywalking, the sheriff's office said Friday.

Broward County sheriff's deputy Michael Roberto was issuing jaywalking tickets to students crossing a busy highway Thursday when he asked the girl to stand next to his motorcycle so he could give her a citation, the deputy's report said.

But the girl, who was not immediately identified, became upset and began to curse, Roberto said in the report. The girl also walked away and ignored four more orders to stop and put her hands behind her back, he said.

The girl, who is 5 feet 1 inch and 134 pounds, threatened to hit Roberto and rolled her hand in a fist, the report said. The deputy repeatedly warned her that he would use pepper spray if she didn't listen.

"After the last warning and order, it became apparent that I had to choose between a physical fight and using the pepper spray," Roberto wrote. "I sprayed her in the face."

The girl then knocked the spray can out of Roberto's hand, so the deputy wrestled the girl to the ground and handcuffed her, the report said. The girl, who was not injured, was charged with failure to use a crosswalk and resisting arrest without violence, both misdemeanors. She was released to her mother.

The girl likely won't face any jail time on the charges, sheriff's spokesman Jim Leljedahl said.

Leljedahl said there is no age policy for the use of pepper spray. The police report and witness accounts suggest Roberto acted within the sheriff's office's rules, Leljedahl said.

"Pepper spray is an appropriate response when we meet with defensive resistance," Leljedahl said Friday. "In this case, she was belligerent and aggressive, even."

The sheriff's office was reviewing the arrest, though most pepper spray incidents are not investigated, Leljedahl said. A formal investigation would be launched if the girl's family files a complaint, he said.

Deputies seeking to stop accidents along busy Federal Highway have been ticketing Olsen Middle School students for the past several weeks.

Roberto, a 22-year veteran of the force, was at work Friday, We all know that young teenage ladies are a deadly threat to "the man." Come on folks. Let's not come down too hard on the cop.

After all, he's just doing his job. The girl might have gone berserk, taking out half the town's population if this brave deputy had not pepper sprayed her. Wouldn't surprise me that after he wrestled her to the ground, he copped a few free feels as well.

***********

03/23/05 - Florida - A former El Portal police officer was arrested after police say he chased a man down in a road rage incident.

Miami-Dade police said on March 10, Steven Garcia, 39, the former police officer, and 29-year-old Waraci Marrero were involved in a traffic dispute. Marrero said he became afraid for his life, and he drove away to his place of business to try to get help.

Police said Garcia followed Marrero and chased him into the business in the 1500 block of Northwest 82nd Avenue. Once they were inside, Garcia pulled out his badge and said he was a police officer, investigators said. Marrero said Garcia reached behind him as if he was going to pull a weapon while he continued to scream obscenities. Marrero said Garcia threatened to take him to jail.

At that point, several employees began to yell at Garcia to leave the business, which he did.

Miami-Dade detectives investigated the case, and arrested Garcia Monday for his involvement in a road rage incident.

**************

May 17, 2005 - MIAMI -- A Miami police officer is facing felony charges after teaming up with a self-proclaimed enforcer of business problems.

Officer Milton McKinnon and two other men were seeking retribution after a check for three watches purchased at a Coconut Grove jewelry store was canceled.

Police said it began on April 5, when a person described as a Brazilian national paid the jewelry store owner, David Levinson, for the watches with the $61,000 check.

"When he thought there was a fraud on one of them or short-changed, he canceled the check," Miami Police Department Chief John Timoney said.

Miami police said Levinson then contacted Michael Alexis Kuryla, 31, to help get his money or watches back. Kurlya had boasted that he could take care of business collections for a 10 percent fee.

To help in the task, Kuryla contacted Justin Tavis Bohanan, a bartender at Oxygen in Coconut Grove.

Kuryla and Bohanan then enlisted the help of McKinnon, who worked part time at the club, police said.

According to police, McKinnon was in uniform and on duty when security cameras at a Brickell Avenue condo building caught the trio descending upon the victims, who were described as Brazilian nationals.

Investigators said the three waved guns around and stole a $50,000 Ulysse Nardin watch, one of just five ever made, and $47,000 in cash from the Brazilians, who then contacted the Miami Police Department.

Investigators said three had orders to retrieve the three original watches in question or the $50,000 replacement watch.

Levinson had no comment.

The state attorney's office announced the arrests Monday.

"It's always good in policing when you can solve a crime. It's always a sad day when the individual that committed the crime was a member of your own department," Timoney said.

Charges against the men include armed home invasion, robbery, armed false imprisonment and impersonating a police officer.

"Those of us in law enforcement are always personally affected by the fact that sometimes people with a badge abuse their authority," public corruption prosecutor Joseph Santorino said.

Levinson, the jeweler who enlisted the men to go after his money, has not been charged with anything. Police said they are treating him as a witness.

************

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. - A Houston man was fatally struck Sunday by a Seminole County Sheriff's Office patrol car that was on a call, officials said.

Robert Cline II, 26, of Houston, was pronounced dead on the scene, according to Florida Highway Patrol spokeswoman Kim Miller.

Cpl. Samuel Best, 31, was driving a marked Ford Crown Victoria patrol car about 2:45 a.m. without his emergency lights or sirens on, Miller said.

Best swerved to avoid hitting a group of five to six people walking in the eastbound lane, Miller said. Cline was struck and the cruiser went over a median into the westbound lanes.

No one else was injured.

Cline and the group had recently left Bobby G's Sports Bar and Grill, Miller said. They were crossing State Road 436 about 184 feet from a crosswalk.

Investigators didn't know how fast Best was driving, Miller said.

The speed limit was 45 mph.

Best was on his way to assist in the capture of a burglary suspect, said Steve Olson, spokesman for the Seminole County Sheriff's Office. The suspect was later apprehended, he said.

Olson said Best was responding to a priority level call, during which deputies have the option of driving without emergency lights or sirens. The sheriff's office policy requires that deputies obey traffic laws and standards, he said.

Charges were pending the outcome of the investigation, Miller said.

Altamonte Springs is 8 miles north of Orlando.

**********

December 2nd, 2004 - ATLANTA -- Mayor Shirley Franklin ordered an inquiry into claims of police brutality at Atlanta's main airport, following broadcast of a video showing an officer shoving a woman to the ground.

Any brutality claims made during Franklin's three years in office will be reviewed by the police chief and the general manager of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Franklin said. Inquiry results will be made public, she said.

The order came after news reports of the Nov. 2 confrontation outside an airport terminal. Officer Terence Alexander was trying to arrest Diana Dietrich-Barnes on a traffic violation as she dropped off her mother at the airport. A security video shows him pushing her to the ground.

"As the mayor of a big city, I am always concerned about allegations of police brutality," Franklin said.

He charged Dietrich-Barnes with illegal parking, battery and obstruction, but the charges were dropped after his supervisors reviewed the videotape.

The police officer, who said the woman injured him, then tried to get felony charges filed against her in Clayton County, where the airport is located, but a magistrate refused Monday to hear the case.

Alexander is on medical leave, and an internal investigation is being conducted by police. The officer has been reprimanded or suspended without pay 13 times since 2001 for violating departmental rules, police said.

Airport General Manager Ben DeCosta said confrontations between police and the public are rare, considering how many people move through the busy airport.

*********

11/29/04 - Florida - An independent panel said an Orange County sergeant should not have been exonerated in the shooting of an unarmed man.

The nine-member Citizen Review Board voted Monday to reject the sheriff's internal-review finding and the decision of a grand jury.

Sgt. Richard Mankewich fatally shot Marvin Williams in mid-January when Williams was fleeing from officers. He was mistaken for a homicide suspect.

Mankewich told investigators and a grand jury that he thought Williams was going for a gun because he reached toward his waist. But most of the board members believed Williams was pulling up his pants.

The grand jury had cleared Mankewich and two other deputies of any wrongdoing in the death of Williams.

********

October 26th, 2004 - MIAMI -- Three Miami-Dade County police officers struggled with a man whom relatives described as mentally ill before one of the officers shot and killed the man.

Randy Carlos Baker, a 49-year-old Army veteran, died on the way to a hospital after officer John Saavedra shot him around 5 p.m. Sunday, Miami-Dade police spokesman Sgt. Pete Andreu said. Baker's family said he died in the street where he was shot.

Andreu said Randy Baker hit officer Millie Garcia in the face and officer Della Oros in the back of the head with a police baton, causing injuries that were treated at a hospital with stitches. Saavedra fired at Baker after seeing him beat his colleagues, Andreu said in a news release.

But Baker's relatives said he only fought back because the officers hit him first for no reason.

``I said 'I got him! I got him! Don't shoot,''' said Mira Baker, his cousin, who said he was holding the victim when the officer shot him. ``If they would have listened to me, he wouldn't be dead.''

Police said a homicide investigation was under way. But Mira Baker said Randy Baker was walking down a street in the West Perrine neighborhood when an officer drove up and called him over to his patrol car.

``He said, 'I ain't done nothing. I'm going home,''' he quoted his cousin as saying. As he spoke, he threw his hands up in the air.

The officer got out of the car, grabbed Randy Baker by the shirt and started beating him with his police-issued baton, Mira Baker said. Then two female officers pulled up and also started beating him, he said.

Priscilla Dumas said she was getting off a county bus near the corner at the time police were pummeling Randy Baker. ``They just beat him and beat him,'' Dumas said. ``The man's face had so much blood, he couldn't see.''

Baker's sister, Deborah Burnett, said her brother had recently stopped taking his medication, but that it had not made him aggressive or violent. Baker was in the U.S. Army and stationed in Germany many years ago, she said.

``When he got out of the service, he was just never right,'' she said.

******

09/10/04 - Florida - The former Cape Coral police officer accused of molesting several teens is back behind bars on a new charge.

John P. Murphy, 37, was arrested recently on a charge of perjury after allegedly lying during his March sexual battery trial, which ended in a mistrial.

Murphy was accused of forcing a 16-year-old girl to perform oral sex on March 31, 2001, while he was supervising a police explorer camp at the Boy Scouts Campground, off State Road 74 in Charlotte County.

During the trial, jurors heard from other young women who told similar stories of being molested or forced to perform sexual acts by Murphy, who was often on duty as a police officer during the incidents.

The now 21-year-old woman told jurors she was fondled while riding along with Murphy as a police explorer in his patrol car while she was 16 years old.

The victim was able to provide specific details about where the molestation occurred while Murphy was conducting traffic duties in Cape Coral.

When Murphy testified, he claimed he never performed traffic duties at that location.

But Charlotte County prosecutors have discovered otherwise.

The State Attorney's Office acquired documents from the Cape Coral Police Department indicating Murphy did in fact perform traffic duties many times along the street the victim described.

Now, in addition to facing molestation charges in Charlotte and Lee counties, Murphy has been locked up at the Charlotte County Jail on a perjury charge.

"Perjury charges are not common because they're very difficult to prove," said Assistant State Attorney Dan Feinberg.

Murphy is being held on $20,000 bond for the perjury charge.

*****

October 6, 2004 - The Boynton Beach chief of police is asking the city manager to fire one of his officers.

The chief fired off a memo stating that Sgt. David Leal was caught on camera kicking and punching a handcuffed suspect in February.

While there was not enough evidence to file charges against Leal he can be fired if the city manager sides with the chief.

****

10/18/04 - Florida - A Florida Highway Patrol trooper was placed on administrative leave after he was arrested on charges of domestic battery and child abuse in Hernando County.

Ronald Evans, 36, is accused of assaulting his wife and teenage son Thursday afternoon after an argument at the home the couple shared on Cooper Road in Spring Hill.

Assigned to Troop C barracks in Brooksville, Evans was placed on administrative duties pending the completion of an internal affairs investigation, FHP spokesman Trooper Larry Coggins said Friday. The district includes Hernando, Pasco, Citrus and Sumter counties.

Evans was arrested after a Hernando sheriff's deputy responded to Spring Hill Regional Hospital, where Evans' wife had been taken.

In the emergency room, the victim, whose name is being withheld by the Sheriff's Office because of the nature of the allegations, told the deputy that she and her husband were arguing over his joining the U.S. Army Reserve, a sheriff's report said.

According to the report, the couple has been arguing over Evans' decision to enlist, but the disagreement had escalated over the past month. It is unclear when Evans enlisted. On Thursday around 5 p.m., as the woman returned home from work, the disagreement turned physical, authorities said.

The couple was in the kitchen when Evans became upset because his wife had not accepted a FedEx package for him, the report said. Frustrated, Evans punched the kitchen counter and threatened her. Hearing the commotion, Evans' oldest son, who was not identified, told his father not to hurt his mother and headed into the pantry to grab something to eat.

Moments later, Evans ran toward the woman and grabbed her by the hair. He then slammed her head onto the stove, causing a large bump on her forehead and bruises to her cheek, the report said.

Evans allegedly kicked her as she lay on the floor. Grabbing her by her hair, Evans then dragged his wife through the kitchen and into the laundry room, the report stated.

As his son looked on and pleaded with him to stop, Evans pulled his wife into the garage and kicked her in the back, the report said.

Trying to help his mother, the teen managed to push his father into an air handler. But Evans grabbed his son and threw him across the garage, where he landed on a bicycle, the report said. Evans ordered everyone out of the house.

Unharmed, the teen helped his mother to her feet and took her to a relative's house.

After interviewing the victim at the hospital, two sheriff's deputies went to the Evans home, where they found the blinds closed and the lights off. There was no movement inside the residence - which seemed strange to deputies, because Evans was expected at work around 10 that night, the report stated.

Authorities did not approach the house because the victim had told them her husband has several firearms inside their home. Dispatchers then called the house and left messages on the answering machine, asking Evans to step outside to speak with deputies, the report said.

Evans was taken into custody and booked into the Hernando County Jail at 9:22 p.m. Thursday. He was charged with misdemeanor domestic battery and child abuse, and was released on his own recognizance on Friday after appearing in court, jail records show.

*******

July 20 2004 - A Broward County sheriff's deputy could be the first person fired because of improper clearing of cases at the agency, four sources familiar with the investigation told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Monday.

Deputy Joseph Isabella was suspended and recommended for termination after investigators from the Sheriff's Office of Professional Compliance interviewed him.

Sheriff Ken Jenne has the final word on punishments in the agency and could impose a different penalty.

Isabella, in law enforcement for eight years, worked first as an Oakland Park police officer and became a deputy when the sheriff took over the municipal department.

He was promoted to detective in late 2002, but in an unusual move, he returned to road patrol in mid-2003 for reasons that were unclear on Monday.

Reached by phone, Isabella said he could not comment on the investigation. He referred questions to his attorney, Hilliard Moldof, but efforts to reach him were unsuccessful.

Sheriff's spokeswoman Cheryl Stopnick would not comment on the case. "Until the sheriff signs off on disciplinary matters, we are not allowed to discuss them," she said.

For months, Broward prosecutors have been investigating allegations of criminal misconduct by deputies, detectives and supervisors who are accused of blaming unsolved property crimes on people who could not have committed them.

They are also looking at allegations that crimes were downgraded, meaning that deputies wrongly reported them as less serious incidents.

Prosecutors have not filed criminal charges against any employees.

But Jenne recently acknowledged that his staff's internal investigations found that more than 100 cases were blamed on 27 men, women and juveniles who were locked up when the crimes occurred.

The crimes were exceptionally cleared, which means no one was arrested or prosecuted for them, but detectives filed official documents saying the suspects had confessed or there was sufficient evidence to prove they committed the crimes.

The Sheriff's Professional Standards Committee has already recommended that 12 other employees get suspensions ranging from one to seven days.

Those employees include two lieutenants, two sergeants and eight detectives.

***********

July 4 2004 - The Broward Sheriff's Office discipline review board last week recommended suspending several deputies accused of solving cold cases by eliciting false confessions from suspects.

Several internal and outside investigations into misconduct at the Sheriff's Office are ongoing, and more disciplinary recommendations may land on Sheriff Ken Jenne's desk, according to a Sheriff's Office official familiar with the investigations.

The scandal has been roiling inside the Sheriff's Office since February, when word leaked that Broward prosecutors were conducting a criminal inquiry into whether deputies downgraded crimes and improperly marked cases as solved. That investigation continues.

After a series of newspaper articles revealed that several suspects who confessed to crimes could not have committed them because they were behind bars at the time, Sheriff Ken Jenne admitted the problem was more widespread than he had thought. He made several immediate changes and launched a number of investigations that he said would get to the root of the problem.

An internal investigation by the department's Office of Professional Compliance was part of that move. Investigators turned over some of their findings to the Sheriff's Office's Professional Standards Committee on Wednesday, which made discipline recommendations to the sheriff, the Sheriff's Office official said.

The board, which comprises community members and Sheriff's Office command staff, recommended: a two-day suspension for Sgt. Scott Yurchuckfive-day suspensions for Detective Carol Singstock and Detective Alan Zettekand a one-day suspension for Detective Ronald Cusumano.

Jenne on Saturday confirmed receiving recommendations from the board, but he said he has not decided how to proceed. The sheriff can accept the board's recommendations or mete out more or less punishment at his discretion.

Jenne also said the 90-day deadline he set for the investigations expires next week and he hopes to start seeing what those inquiries found soon.

"This is something we want to evaluate, make the changes necessary and hopefully not have a repeat of the situation," Jenne said.

Jail inmate Ronald Williams, who was incarcerated when 58 of the 154 crimes he confessed to occurred, said Saturday he thinks the board's recommendations are too lenient.

*********

May 21, 2004 - JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Teenager Brenton Butler's murder confession, whether police coerced it or not, should have been allowed in the trial of a Jacksonville man convicted of killing a Georgia tourist, an appeals court decided in overturning the conviction.

The 1st District Court of Appeals ordered a new trial for Juan Curtis, who is serving a life sentence for the first-degree murder of Mary Ann Stephens of Toccoa outside a Jacksonville motel in 2000.

Prosecutors said a new trial for Curtis, in which Butler's confession would be used, would force them to ''defend'' Butler by raising the same police brutality issues that led to Butler's acquittal and prompted an Oscar-winning documentary.

''That's one of the things that I was trying to avoid was descending into all the morass of Brenton Butler,'' said State Attorney Brad King of Ocala, Fla., who was appointed special prosecutor after Butler's acquittal.

''Basically, you would try two different cases. You'd try Juan Curtis ... and they (Curtis's lawyers) would try Brenton Butler, and I'd defend him the same way the public defender defended him.''

King said he has asked the Attorney General's Office to seek a rehearing and appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.

Butler, then 15, was arrested the day Stephens was shot in front of her husband, James, during a robbery outside a Ramada Inn on Interstate 95 in southern Jacksonville. He was identified by James Stephens and confessed to Jacksonville police after a full-day of interrogation that, he said, included beatings and intimidation.

A jury acquitted Butler, and his public defenders tipped police off to Juan Curtis and Jermel Williams, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and testified against Curtis. Jurors convicted Curtis largely on the strength of that testimony and his fingerprint in Stephens' purse, found in a dumpster but never tested before Butler's trial.

Curtis's lawyers told the jury about James Stephens' eyewitness identification of Butler and about the previous charges against him.

But Circuit Judge W. Gregg McCaulie wouldn't allow them to use Butler's confession, citing Florida evidence laws.

The appeals court disagreed, saying Curtis's constitutional right to a fair trial trumps state law.

''In some cases, judges have a duty to admit evidence that does not fit neatly within the confines of the evidence code in order to protect the defendant's right to a fair trial,'' the court said in a 2-1 decision.

*********

Apr 29, 2004 - TAMPA - A 59-year-old man threatens his mother and a health-care worker with kitchen knives, throwing one at a Pinellas County deputy's head while being pelted with capsules of powdered pepper spray.

A day before, a 27-year-old man driving a stolen utility truck drags a Pinellas deputy's patrol car beneath a boat trailer, ignoring commands to pull over.

Sunday, a 41-year-old man tries to burn down his home, threatens suicide and points a plastic-and-metal tool that resembles a gun at a Hillsborough County deputy at an RV park.

Monday, a 20-year-old man suspected of delivering rock cocaine tries to run over a Tampa police officer with a pickup truck, and then leads police on a 20-minute chase after being shot in the chest.

Monday's shooting of Iad S. Suleiman of Temple Terrace is the fourth law-enforcement- related shooting in the Tampa Bay area in as many days, records show.

The circumstances of these shootings, as described by authorities, illustrate the myriad deadly force situations that police face, as well as the necessity of proper training, equipment and shooting reviews that departments use to prevent more deaths.

Since Jan. 1, 2002, there have been 16 police shootings in Tampa, a statistic not unusually high when compared with Florida cities similar in population. Including other agencies in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, there have been about 50 police shootings during that time, records show.

Local law enforcement agencies have added nonlethal weapons to their options, with Tasers, which deliver electric jolts, being the most popular.

``Deadly threats can come in many shapes and sizes,'' said Kevin Durkin, president of the West Central Florida Police Benevolent Association.

Routine Follows Shootings Officers and deputies involved in shootings are routinely placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal review. With the Tampa police, this includes a legal adviser, an Internal Affairs investigator and a homicide detective, said Cpl. T.C. Downes, the department's senior defensive tactics instructor. The state attorney's office also reviews the circumstances and deems whether the shooting was justified.

After any shooting, the officers and deputies also undergo counseling.

Few shootings have been determined unjustified, records show. In 1998, for instance, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office found that a former deputy was wrong when he shot and wounded a fleeing man in the buttocks and arm after a traffic stop. The deputy told investigators he shot the man in self- defense during a struggle. Witnesses and ballistic tests indicated otherwise. The deputy was cleared of criminal wrongdoing.

For every person who tries to run over a police officer with a motor vehicle, or who charges at him or her with a knife, there are thousands of others who comply with commands to submit, said Durkin, from the police union.

``There's really no rhyme or reason to when someone is going to put a police officer in peril,'' he said.