Post by WaTcHeR on Nov 14, 2006 14:33:44 GMT -5
11.14.2006 - BRADENTON -- Credibility is everything for a police officer -- lose it and your career behind the badge is doomed.
A group of Manatee County sheriff's administrators and deputies stressed that fact Monday in upholding the termination of one of their own.
Barrett Biggs was fired in September for his association with the strip club Cleopatra's in Palmetto, a bar the Sheriff's Office raided last summer amid a corruption probe. Two former deputies were criminally charged. Several others either quit, were fired or were suspended.
Biggs, sheriff's administrators say, used his credentials to get free beer at Cleopatra's and turned a blind eye to patrons drinking there after 2:30 a.m. -- a violation of a Manatee County ordinance. Biggs was not charged with a crime, and he denied those claims.
"Cleopatra's gives the Sheriff's Office a black eye," Sgt. Joseph Skala told the Career Service Appeals Board, which was deciding Biggs' employment fate. "The public perception of us is marred."
By a majority vote, the five-member appeals board upheld Biggs' termination. The board sustained allegations of conduct unbecoming and insubordination.
Biggs, the board said, violated the spirit of a memo the Manatee County Sheriff's Office issued in July 2004 that warned deputies not to "badge" their way into adult entertainment clubs and not to accept free stuff.
A deputy for nearly 11 years who worked for the sheriff's Violent Crimes Task Force, Biggs maintained he had done nothing wrong.
He denied ever flashing a badge to get into Cleopatra's and said he didn't solicit free drinks.
But Biggs said many employees knew that he and other deputies who routinely drank at the club were officers.
Biggs said Monday that he was unaware of the time as he drank and socialized at the bar in the 3800 block of U.S. 41. But he had said in earlier statements with investigators that he knew he was drinking past 2:30 a.m.
Friends of the club's owner and managers did not pay for drinks, Biggs said. But the board members said police officers are held to higher standards than most professions.
Biggs said his patronage of the club did not affect his law enforcement duties.
"I felt that it was politically motivated, an attempt to clean house," Biggs said Monday, explaining why he thought he was fired.
Members of the sheriff's professional standards bureau dismissed the allegation.
"I think it is disturbing he feels he did nothing wrong," said Capt. Dennis Dummer, a member of the board.
www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061114/NEWS/611140392/1006/SPORTS
A group of Manatee County sheriff's administrators and deputies stressed that fact Monday in upholding the termination of one of their own.
Barrett Biggs was fired in September for his association with the strip club Cleopatra's in Palmetto, a bar the Sheriff's Office raided last summer amid a corruption probe. Two former deputies were criminally charged. Several others either quit, were fired or were suspended.
Biggs, sheriff's administrators say, used his credentials to get free beer at Cleopatra's and turned a blind eye to patrons drinking there after 2:30 a.m. -- a violation of a Manatee County ordinance. Biggs was not charged with a crime, and he denied those claims.
"Cleopatra's gives the Sheriff's Office a black eye," Sgt. Joseph Skala told the Career Service Appeals Board, which was deciding Biggs' employment fate. "The public perception of us is marred."
By a majority vote, the five-member appeals board upheld Biggs' termination. The board sustained allegations of conduct unbecoming and insubordination.
Biggs, the board said, violated the spirit of a memo the Manatee County Sheriff's Office issued in July 2004 that warned deputies not to "badge" their way into adult entertainment clubs and not to accept free stuff.
A deputy for nearly 11 years who worked for the sheriff's Violent Crimes Task Force, Biggs maintained he had done nothing wrong.
He denied ever flashing a badge to get into Cleopatra's and said he didn't solicit free drinks.
But Biggs said many employees knew that he and other deputies who routinely drank at the club were officers.
Biggs said Monday that he was unaware of the time as he drank and socialized at the bar in the 3800 block of U.S. 41. But he had said in earlier statements with investigators that he knew he was drinking past 2:30 a.m.
Friends of the club's owner and managers did not pay for drinks, Biggs said. But the board members said police officers are held to higher standards than most professions.
Biggs said his patronage of the club did not affect his law enforcement duties.
"I felt that it was politically motivated, an attempt to clean house," Biggs said Monday, explaining why he thought he was fired.
Members of the sheriff's professional standards bureau dismissed the allegation.
"I think it is disturbing he feels he did nothing wrong," said Capt. Dennis Dummer, a member of the board.
www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061114/NEWS/611140392/1006/SPORTS