A Florida legislator wants to eliminate local sheriffs investigating their own shootings, following the example of other states.
Naturally, Sheriff DAVID BERNERD SHOAR f/k/a "HOAR," the villain of the Michelle O'Connell shooting, is opposed to progress.
SHOAR attacked FDLE special agent Rusty Ray Rodgers with a 153-page report, seeking to have agent Rodgers prosecuted for doing his job. SHOAR stirred up two (2) bogus lawsuits against RODGERS.
Under FBI investigation, Sheriff SHOAR would prefer to keep his dirty paws in multi-agency task forces -- logrolling for police shootings.
Read the Record's editorial, quoting SHOAR/HOAR, below:
More than one way to build transparency
Posted: January 20, 2016 - 11:35pm | Updated: January 21, 2016 - 12:01am
A bill moving through the Florida Legislature is Senate Bill 810. It’s getting quiet attention early on.
The bill would require sheriff’s offices and city police departments to turn over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement any internal investigation involving a death. New language in the Senate bill amends that to any officer involved in an altercation resulting in serious injury.
With all the media focus on cop-involved killings, it’s not surprising that this type of legislation would show up. Transparency in police-involved shootings seems to be taking it on the chin. And whether that’s true or false, it is clearly perceived.
The bill sponsor is Sen. Geraldine Thompson, an Orlando Democrat and a black woman. She’s championing her legislation this week, and held a news conference Tuesday. We liked what she said — and didn’t. She began saying that having the outside probe would “increase confidence in investigations.” We do not know how that could be argued. But she went a step further, pointing out that “disproportionately, the victims of the use of force ... are African-American.”
That may or may not be true, but it is certainly the perception these days. The comment, though, from where we sit, was simply peripheral to the conversation. Any law we make should be for everyone. A “proportionately dead” Latino or white man deserves no less diligence in the probe of his death.
But back to the bill. Is the idea a good one? About a third of the state’s law enforcement agencies currently use the FDLE for internal probes. According to a story by the Daytona Beach News-Journal, the FDLE’s officer-involved shooting investigations have increased nearly 120 percent in the past five years. It asked for an additional 26 full-time positions to be filled and funded this year in order to investigate these cases.
Is it a big problem? The News-Journal’s probe reports that in 2013-14 there were 249 people shot by law enforcement officers in the state: 162 were killed. But that number is low, the newspaper said, because pending cases were not among that number.
St. Johns County Sheriff David Shoar says that the FDLE-mandated probes might help the perception of transparency, but that there’s a better way to make it work. He believes a regional team of trained investigators, for instance, from sheriff’s offices, police departments and state enforcement agencies from, say, a six-county region might be a better method. The number should be as small as practical.
And if, for instance, the shooting was in St. Johns County, its representative on team or task force would “simply stand down” from being part of the probe.
Proximity is a plus, thus having representatives from the city and the Beach immediately available would be important. The first hours of any officer-involved shootings are the most critical in terms of mistakes and assumptions that can be made. A benefit of this approach is the cross-training of regional officers on cop-involved shootings. There has to be a steep learning curve, and the lessons learned arrive in real time. It’s no drill.
Rep. Shevrin Jones wrote the companion bill in the House and told the News-Journal that “there has to be someone outside of the agency to do the investigation just to make sure for the families’s sake and for the community that the investigations are being done fairly.”
While we’re thinking outside the box, might a member of the state attorneys’ offices within a region also have a member tagged for the team? Yes, their job is to act — or not — on the evidence provided by law enforcement, but since they’re dependent upon a clean probe in order to do their jobs effectively, why not include them from the start?
What are your thoughts?
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Ed's response:
I think Sheriff SHOAR doth protest too much. Following his advice on officer-involved shootings would be like following Richard Speck's advice on nursing student housing security. This sick excuse for a lawman is the serial prevaricator who helped cover up the Michelle O'Connell case, not preserving or obtaining evidence (like the water bill for 4700 Sherlock Place). SHOAR is rightfully under FBI investigation.
On January 11, 2016, Michelle O'Connell's body was exhumed and an autopsy was conducted at a local funeral home by a forensic pathologist and two forensic dentists. Michelle O'Connell was shot to death in the home of Deputy Sheriff JEREMY BANKS on September 2, 2010 with BANKS' service weapon. People of St. Johns County: "The truth will set you free!"
Here are links to articles on the Michelle O'Connell case:
The New York Times, "Two Gunshots on a Summer Night" by Walt Bogdanich & Glenn Silber (November 24, 2013): http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2013/two-gunshots/ PBS/Frontline, "A Death in St. Augustine (November 26, 2013): http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/death-in-st-augustine/
See Ben Rich's December 1, 2013 letter, "A storm on the horizon," http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2014/02/ben-rich-former-st-johns-county.html
and our heroic now-Mayor Nancy Shaver's December 2013 letter: http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/07/nancy-shavers-eloquent-december-18-2013.html
The world is watching us. See, also:
The world is watching us. See, also:
NBC News Dateline , "Two Shots Fired" (April 18, 2014):
Folio Weekly: Jeff Billman, "Somebody's lying -- An activist accuses the St. Augustine Record of bowing
to pressure from Jeremy Banks' attorney. The paper accuses her of spreading misinformation" (September 17, 2014), http://folioweekly.com/SOMEBODYS-LYING-ST-AUGUSTINE-RECORD-ACTIVIST-JEREMY-BANKS,10912
Dr. Phil, "The Mystery of Michelle O'Connell" (November 3, 2014): http://www.drphil.com/shows/show/2298
Folio Weekly, "Murder, He Wrote," by Susan Cooper Eastman (November 19, 2014), http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2014/11/michelle-oconnell-shooting-read-folio.html
Folio Weekly, "The Proxy War," by Derek Kinner (March 4, 2015): http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2015/03/folio-weekly-deputy-jeremy-banks-and.html
New York Times, "Agent Cleared Over 2010 Florida Shooting Inquiry, but Lawyer Lashes Out," by Walt Bogdanich (August 27, 2015)
WJXT-4, "Deputy opens up on Michelle O’Connell shooting death,"
Photo credit: The New York Times
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