Post by WaTcHeR on Feb 7, 2006 11:59:06 GMT -5
02/06/2006 - STUART FLORIDA — A Martin County deputy used his dashboard-mounted video camera at public beaches to zoom in on and record bikini-clad females, including one rinsing off under a shower, a sheriff's office investigation reveals.
Martin County Sheriff Robert Crowder fired deputy Jack Munsey after the investigation, released Monday, concluded Munsey broke policy by using the video for unofficial purposes, spending on-duty time on off-duty activities and for improper conduct.
The patrol car cameras are supposed to be used for documenting drunken-driving suspects trying to walk a straight line.
"It is clear that you intentionally manipulated your camera so as to capture an inappropriate view of this female," investigators concluded on one video when the shot zooms in on a young woman as the wind lifts her short skirt and reveals part of her buttocks.
In another segment of the one hour and 19 minutes of tape, the camera zooms in for an extreme close-up of a motorcycle passenger's breasts as she adjusts her bikini top during a traffic stop.
Another segment lingers for several minutes of close-ups on what appears to be a teenager in a brief bikini using the outdoor shower at a public beach.
Munsey, 36, has asked for a hearing to contest his firing and nothing is final until a panel hears the evidence and votes on whether the punishment is fitting, Crowder said.
Munsey and his Police Benevolent Association attorney told Undersheriff M.F. Mann the tapings were not a regular event. They could not be reached for comment Monday.
"The actions by deputy sheriff Munsey were only an isolated, dumb, stupid and (juvenile) event," Mann quoted them as saying.
Munsey has been with the department for 10 years and has two prior disciplinary reports. One was for driving his patrol into a canal on his way to work two years ago and the other was in 1997 for looking at unauthorized Web sites on his department computer.
The most recent allegations surfaced after Munsey showed another deputy the video of the girl using the showers, investigators said. The deputy was disturbed by the footage and told others about it. Word filtered up to supervisors who confiscated all the tapes in Munsey's patrol car in November.
The tapes can be viewed only on equipment similar to the car video cameras unless they are transferred to regular videotape. Munsey said he watched them during his breaks and "downtime."
Investigators found two tapes with footage from beaches, an unidentified Hutchinson Island gas station and the motorcycle traffic stop. In each case, the subjects were at the beach or had just left there.
On the tapes, most of the subjects don't appear to have any idea they are being recorded. Munsey either operated the camera while inside the car, or positioned it and left it running before stepping out to talk, investigators said.
One situation apparently involved a call Munsey was working in which he was talking with several young people in front of his car. A young girl in a tight-fitting tube top is the only one who shows up clearly on the video, which focuses on her abdomen. Her face doesn't show.
Munsey told investigators he meant no harm, he was just amusing himself by photographing pretty females.
But Crowder said that's not in the job description and it's not what the taxpayers expect.
"We're not paying people to do this."
