Career cop is FDLE top agent
He was one of two to earn the award, for efforts in a car theft, laundering case.
By Dana Treen Mon, Aug 17, 2009 @ 12:00 am | updated Mon, Aug 17, 2009 @ 12:33 pm
Rusty Rodgers cut his shoulder-length hair for a meeting with the governor last week.
A career cop with a tenacious streak, Rodgers said the locks helped him work his cases.
"I blended in, man," said the 52-year-old special agent with the Jacksonville office of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. "Ya gotta roll."
But the look was a little over the top to accept an Agent of the Year award, which he did Tuesday with a shorn head.
Rodgers was one of two agents given the distinction this year and honored at a meeting of Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet.
The award was in part for Rodgers' work dismantling a car-theft and money-laundering operation that also targeted a $5.7 million fraud involving state road money.
The suspect was nabbed in July 2008 at Miami International Airport as he attempted to board a plane for his native Lebanon, according to Rodgers' nomination letter. Most of the money was recovered.
Dominick Pape, the special agent in charge of the Jacksonville FDLE office, said Rodgers can handle any case.
"He is relentless when he gets into an investigation," Pape said.
A retired 30-year veteran of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, Rodgers stayed out of work for eight months, then joined the state agency in 2006.
Last year he wrote 104 FDLE investigative reports, 25 FBI investigative reports and made seven arrests.
"I believe in law enforcement," he said. "I believe in the judicial system."
In his new job, Rodgers was assigned to work Jacksonville Port Authority cases protecting the seaport.
Making the case
What started as a single hit on a stolen car headed to West Africa from Blount Island soon led to a dozen other cars being shipped by a company tied to a Miami man named Ali Hammoud and his brother Mohamed Hammoud. As Rodgers and other agents traced the paperwork, they found what appeared to be millions of dollars in money-laundering transactions involving Middle Eastern countries.
At one point the multi-agency team Rodgers was leading was following six bank accounts and reviewing thousands and thousands of documents, he said.
As investigators closed in, Ali Hammoud started selling property and other assets, Rodgers said.
"We just didn't know what he was going to do before he fled," he said.
In July 2008 an FBI agent in Tallahassee discovered a company tied to Ali Hammoud had tapped into a state disbursement meant for a road construction company. A state check for $5.7 million had been diverted to the company Hammoud controlled and cash was being quickly sent to the Middle East.
The names of Hammoud and his family were found on the passenger list for a July 24, 2008, Air France flight leaving from Miami.
Rodgers hurried to Miami, where Hammoud and his brother were arrested as they tried to board the plane. The men were carrying several high-priced watches and $3,000 cash.
All but about $200,000 of the state money was recovered.
"It was very tedious," Pape said of the investigation. "A lot of other agents probably would not be able to bring that to a resolution in the timely manner that he did."
What made the case different were its subtleties.
"On the surface of it, a couple of stolen vehicles doesn't mean a lot," Pape said. "Rusty developed a bunch of information on a bunch of people."
Rodgers said the investigation has become a case study and he will go to Washington to teach a Department of Justice workshop on how it was resolved.
"We're not the only port," he said.
'...They deserve justice...'
Rodgers said he grew up with a father in the military and admits to being a workaholic who aggressively pursues cases.
"I work on a terrorism squad," he said. "You've got to do whatever it takes."
One investigation he worked as a police officer ended in 2007 with 25-year-old Milton Boston Jr. pleading guilty to raping three women in downtown after being charged in 14 cases.
Rodgers began on that case in 2005, sometimes in operations with 100 other officers. He testified at a sentencing hearing.
Police believed Boston targeted the women because they were impoverished and no one would notice, Rodgers said.
"I believe they deserve justice just as much as someone who lives on the Southside," he said of the victims.
Rodgers also was involved in a controversial 1998 case in which a mentally ill man died after Rodgers applied a neck hold three times when the man fought with about eight officers trying to take him to a psychiatric ward, according to a Times-Union account at the time.
Rodgers was found to have acted within departmental and state policies, the Times-Union reported.
"It was an ugly situation," Rodgers said. "It was horrible. Nobody won."
Pape said he knew Rodgers' nomination was bound to be one of the top two or three in the state.
This year's dual award is unusual, said department spokeswoman Heather Smith. She said those who made the choices found Special Agent Annie White of Tallahassee also had an outstanding year as an investigator. She was instrumental in solving several complex homicide cases and the arrest of a serial killer.
dana.treen@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4091
No comments:
Post a Comment