VIOLATION SENDS EX-DEPUTY TO JAIL

TAMPA - One smoke of crack cocaine was costly for a former Hillsborough
County sheriff's deputy.

On Friday, Hillsborough Circuit Judge Ronald Ficarrotta sentenced
Christopher Madiedo, 28, to six years and 10 months in prison.

Ficarrotta is the same judge who gave Madiedo a huge break in June.

Then, Madiedo pleaded guilty to 20 charges stemming from the theft of
cocaine from a sheriff's department evidence lockup when he was a patrol
deputy from November 1997 until June 2001. The judge ordered Madiedo into
drug treatment but promised the former deputy he would send him to prison
if he messed up.

It was while in treatment at a Drug Abuse Comprehensive Coordination Office
facility in Tampa in December that Madiedo smoked crack cocaine with a
fellow patient, who brought the drug into the facility.

Madiedo was four days short of being transferred into a less structured
program when he was caught smoking the drug, said his attorney, Ron Hanes.

Madiedo admitted to counselors he had smoked crack, then left the DACCO
facility to spend time with his wife.

He was arrested and spent about three months in jail before Friday's hearing.

Madiedo's attorney and a doctor hired by his mother and stepfather told
Ficarrotta that Madiedo is an addict who is also bipolar, a mood disorder
that causes people to swing from depression to euphoria.

"I don't think I was ready for somebody to put [crack cocaine] in my face
like that," Madiedo said about his addiction during the hearing.

"I know I can beat this thing. I'm not going to let it beat me," he said.

"I don't want to be the bad child. I'm sorry for violating," he added.

Ficarrotta said that he was sympathetic, but also said that he had already
given Madiedo a chance.

"For you to have thrown away your career in law enforcement; for you to
throw away the great opportunity you were given," proves how strong cocaine
addiction can be, Ficarrotta told Madiedo.

The judge rejected Madiedo's request to be placed in another drug treatment
facility.

"We've been down the treatment road and it hasn't worked," Ficarrotta said.

The judge could have sentenced Madiedo to 121 years in prison, but instead
gave him the minimum sentence suggested by law.

After Madiedo left the courtroom, his attorney said Madiedo's family will
see that he gets treatment in prison.