In the immortal words of Jim Garrison, Orleans Parish DA and later Louisiana Court of Appeals Judge, "What do you expect from a pig but a grunt?" (Corrected) http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2016-03-15
Internal investigation: FDLE agent's conduct 'substandard' in O'Connell case
Posted: March 15, 2016 - 11:48pm | Updated: March 16, 2016 - 6:22am
By JARED KEEVER
jared.keever@staugustine.com
The conduct of Florida Department of Law Enforcement Special Agent Rusty Rodgers during his investigation into the 2010 death of Michelle O’Connell was “substandard,” according to a FDLE report released Tuesday.
The report is the culmination of an internal, administrative investigation into Rodgers’ conduct.
According to an email from FDLE Communications Coordinator Steve Arthur, the investigation found, in part, that Rodgers “left details out when documenting an interview, added a word to a quote in multiple affidavits, and failed to document a text message in an investigative report.”
O’Connell died from a gunshot wound in September 2010 in St. Johns County, where her boyfriend, Jeremy Banks, was a sheriff’s deputy. The gun used was Banks’ department-issued handgun.
The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office conducted the initial investigation into the death, which was initially ruled a suicide.
O’Connell’s family members have said she wouldn’t have killed herself, and some questioned the integrity of the original investigation and said Banks is responsible, though he has denied any wrongdoing.
Rodgers was assigned to the O’Connell case in January 2011 after St. Johns County Sheriff David Shoar requested that FDLE conduct a review of his department’s investigation, according to the FDLE report.
Two independent prosecutors have since ruled the death a suicide.
In July, State Attorney Jeffrey Ashton, from Central Florida, whom Gov. Rick Scott assigned to review the 2010 case, released an investigative report about the death and sent a letter to Scott with his findings and decision. Ashton said his findings confirmed that the case “does not meet the standards established for prosecution” that were set before his review began.
The official ruling from State Attorney Brad King of the 5th Judicial Circuit, who was assigned before Ashton by the governor as a special investigator, was that there was insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against Banks.
But in March 2013, Shoar sent a letter to then-FDLE Commissioner Gerald Bailey requesting that “at a minimum” Bailey “consider directing that an internal/administrative investigation be conducted concerning the conduct of SAC [Dominick] Pape and Agent Rodgers.”
According to a Florida Times-Union story from the time, Rodgers was placed on paid administrative leave in April of that year and Pape, who led the FDLE’s Jacksonville office as special-agent-in-charge, resigned shortly after saying he had gotten another job.
In August 2013, the governor assigned State Attorney William Cervone, of the 8th Judicial Circuit, to investigate allegations of misconduct leveled against Rodgers.
After a two-year investigation, Cervone’s report said he found no evidence of criminal behavior on Rodgers’ part.
“In reaching my conclusions, I would like to note that I do not condone or endorse the actions of Special Agent Rodgers,” Cervone wrote. “He has in my view allowed preconceived beliefs or early conclusions as to what may have happened to Ms. O’Connell to color his actions to the degree where his impartiality is in doubt. In looking for support for his beliefs, he has engaged in questionable investigative techniques, including misleading some witnesses, in an attempt to gather evidence consistent with his beliefs.”
FDLE started its internal investigation upon completion of the criminal investigation, agency spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said in an email Tuesday.
The FDLE’s investigation found that Rodgers “provided specific details in a PowerPoint presentation regarding a text message, allegedly sent from Michelle O’Connell’s cellular phone.” That message was said to have been sent to O’Connell’s sister’s phone around 10:58 p.m. the evening O’Connell died and said that O’Connell was on her way to pick up her daughter.
According to the report, the text message was not discovered in a forensic download of the sister’s phone, and the only record of a 10:58 p.m. text message — apart from the PowerPoint presentation shown to a medical examiner — is in a handwritten note made by Rodgers. Furthermore, Rodgers “did not properly document the verbal receipt of a piece of information” reported by the sister “and as a result failed to preserve the complete facts and circumstances surrounding the information,” the report says.
The investigation also found that Rodgers “omitted a portion of an interview with Deputy Debra Maynard in his Investigative Report No. 82.” That information, according to the report, was that “Maynard reported to him that the family of Michelle O’Connell was contacted by Michelle, through telephone calls or text messages, throughout the day preceding her death.”
The information provided to Rodgers from Maynard “was that the family told Deputy Maynard that they had all received either a text message or a phone call from Michelle on the day of her death in which she asked them to take care of her daughter in the event anything happened to her.”
The third finding was that Rodgers “misquoted a statement made by Jeremy Banks during his telephone call to 911 on the night of Michelle’s death in several search warrant affidavits.”
According to the report, in a transcript of that 911 call Banks is quoted as saying, “It’s Sir, it’s Sir, listen hang on OK let me tell you the truth, I’m Deputy Banks with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, I’m, I work with y’all.” The report indicates that Rodgers wrote in his affidavits that Banks told a female dispatcher that he was “going to tell [her] the truth now.” The report says Rodgers later “advised that he should not have added the ‘now’ to the quote, but that he felt that it did not change the content of the information.”
As a result of the investigation’s finding of substandard work, Rodgers “received written oral counseling and will receive remedial training regarding procedures for documenting investigative reports,” Plessinger said in her email. He returned to work March 10.
In a news release from the Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday, Shoar said he was “pleased that FDLE has resolved this case concerning Rodgers’ conduct, identified issues concerning his performance and that they have implemented an action plan to address their concerns.”
COMMENTS
Peter Swanson 03/16/16 - 08:22 am 00Shoar versus Rodgers
Let me get this straight: Sheriff Shoar, whose office conducted a nationally famous "substandard" investigation of Michelle O'Connell's death, accuses the man who pointed out it's laws of committing criminal wrongdoing. After three years of protracted investigation, no such criminal wrongdoing is found, but yet the Record leads with "substandard investigation" on Rodger's part, even though his so-called offenses would normally only merit a verbal warning from a superior, or at the very worst, a note in his personnel file.
How about "Rodgers Cleared of Criminal Wrongdoing?"
Once again the Record has shown that it is in the tank for arguably the most corrupt law enforcement officer in Florida. Rather than the traditional role of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable, it has taken the opposite path. Shame on you.
Archer 03/16/16 - 09:43 am 53@Peter Swanson
Take heart.
Not many read this duplicitous little rag, let alone care what it says.
In the matter of Michelle O'Connell et al., The Record has stayed true to Sheriff Shoar. Not even facts will change that.
I had hoped with a new and experienced editor at the helm, we'd have an improved product, but it's all still spin-spin-spin.
Treacherous. Disgusting. Hateful. Appalling. Shame on you, Record.
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