FOR CHIEF, HOLLYWOOD POLICE SCANDAL IS ANOTHER CRISIS TO DEAL WITH IN
LONG CAREER

A double-cross busted the $600,000 marijuana sting. Undercover Miami
Beach Detective Jim Scarberry, playing a scruffy drug runner, was
hogtied and about to be executed when his backup stormed into the
luxury hotel's Room 1101 and rescued him amid a wild shootout.

Four Miami Beach officers were wounded during the 1985 incident at
the Doral Hotel, including Scarberry, whose shins were scraped by a bullet.

Now Scarberry, 55, is chief of the Hollywood Police Department,
looking down the barrel of the latest crisis of his law enforcement
career. This time, he said, it feels as bad as being shot at.

"I got into this to be a police officer and I never thought I would
be a police chief," said the lifelong South Floridian. "I certainly
never thought I'd be in this situation."

Last week, four veteran officers were charged in a federal
investigation of organized crime and drugs. At the same time, the FBI
is looking into leaks from the department that prematurely exposed
the undercover investigation of the four officers, according to a
federal law enforcement official familiar with the matter. The
arrests were announced Friday morning at a news conference called by
U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta. Scarberry said he knew about the
investigation, but not all the details read aloud by the federal prosecutor.

"As he read on and on, it became more shocking and hurtful,"
Scarberry recalled.

After the announcement, Scarberry gathered most of the department's
337 officers and staff for a 1:30 p.m. roll call, where he read the
allegations to the solemn crowd. Scarberry listed the names one by
one: Detective Kevin Companion, 41; Sgt. Jeffry Courtney, 51; Officer
Stephen Harrison, 46; and Detective Thomas Simcox, 50. Each is
accused of providing services to FBI agents posing as mobsters in
exchange for cash.

Scarberry then urged everyone to get back to work.

"It felt like a funeral wake, and [Scarberry] was directing it," said
Sgt. William Furguson, a longtime member of the force. "He was angry,
but thoughtful of the officers' families. That move has won him a lot
of accolades. He's a cop. He's not a suit."

When Scarberry joined the department in 1999, he was heralded as the
person who was going to straighten up a department plagued by
scandals and internal turmoil. Most of the damage to the department's
reputationstems from a mid-1990s investigation that revealed officers
had been hired despite criminal records. The department has also made
headlines over the years with complaints of brutality and of ignoring
some of the most crime-plagued areas of the city.

Scarberry joined the department after a 27-year career in Miami
Beach, where he rose through the ranks and worked some of the city's
more notable cases, including the shooting death of designer Gianni Versace.

Scarberry said he knew of Hollywood's dicey reputation while he
worked in Miami Beach.

"My understanding of the department was that it had been going
through some tough times. But after I spoke to a lot of people, I
knew they had a lot of good people here who could make changes,"
Scarberry said.

Before he won the job, he had to recount a troubling allegation.
Scarberry told a hiring committee that in the mid-1970s, he was tried
on charges of grand larceny and conspiracy for allegedly taking money
from robbery suspects during his rookie year. He was acquitted and
the record was later expunged.

In Hollywood, Scarberry took over a police department with a long
line of beleaguered chiefs.

The first police chief, in 1926, Virgil White, became so disenchanted
with his job that he quit after five weeks. City commissioners fired
his replacement, George Bausweine, after 21/2 months on the job. By
the end of 1926, the city had seen five different chiefs.

More recently, Scarberry's two predecessors were driven out by
scandals and internal turmoil.

Scarberry, a graduate of the FBI National Academy, replaced Rick
Stone, whose two-year tenure ended with a resignation caused by a
disastrous relationship with the police union. Stone was brought in
to clean up the hiring scandal. Sam Finz, who was city manager at the
time, said Stone did nothing wrong but could not carry on as chief
given the officers' lack of support.

Before Stone, longtime Chief Richard Witt was fired.

Witt, who maintains he was exposing corruption at City Hall and in
the department, is heading back to court next month for the third
time to try to prove he was fired for whistle-blowing. He won twice,
but the verdicts were overturned on appeal.

Even though many city officials and members of the department remain
supportive of Scarberry, he has weathered some criticism, primarily
for his views on discipline.

Scarberry has promoted a number of the officers who were implicated
in the hiring scandal. He said his decisions were based on the
officers' performance under his command.

Meanwhile, Scarberry's relationship with some union leaders has been testy.

In 2005, the Broward Police Benevolent Association filed a complaint
claiming Scarberry unlawfully transferred Lt. Jeff Marano from his
post at the police station on the sole ground he was a union
representative and its treasurer.

But even his toughest critics have been praising the way he has
handled the department's latest blow.

Marano said he thinks Scarberry will prevail.

"He's acted very professionally despite all his mixed emotions," he
said. "He's the captain of our ship now and we're going to follow him."

Staff Researcher William Lucey and Staff Writer John Holland
contributed to this report.