DIRTY COPS AGAIN?

Corruption Probe Raises New Concerns

Was it a couple of rogue cops dabbling in the forbidden and getting
caught in a sting, or a major racketeering operation protected by
sworn officers of the law?

Both potential scenarios can be extrapolated from the investigation of
a north Manatee strip club patronized by an unknown number of off-duty
Manatee and Sarasota County sheriff's deputies.

Documents from the undercover probe of activity at Cleopatra's
Gentlemen's Club north of Palmetto put a number of law enforcement
officers in a compromising position. The documents allege that Manatee
Sheriff's deputies engaged in bribery, dealing in stolen goods,
protecting drug dealers, destroying evidence and evading taxes, among
other allegations turned up in an 11-month investigation by Manatee
and Hillsborough County sheriff's officers.

But it is premature to reach any broad conclusions about the extent of
the scandal within the sheriff's department. While two resigned
deputies have been arrested, no other charges have been brought
against the club owner, manager, employees or patrons. This could
simply be a case of a couple of deputies forgetting their oaths to
uphold the law and getting compromised by the sort of activities for
which strip clubs are notorious.

Certainly it is a worrisome new element in a community already
stressed out by the perception that crime is out of control. But it
does not appear to be equivalent to the Delta Force scandal that
rocked the Manatee Sheriff's Office eight years ago. There's no
indication it involves the kind of human rights violations that the
Delta scandal did, such as beating of handcuffed suspects and planting
of drug evidence.

Besides the two Manatee deputies arrested, a third has resigned and
two Sarasota County deputies have resigned. Sheriff Charlie Wells says
he expects only three or four more Manatee deputies will face
disciplinary action.

The strip club apparently was a hangout for a number of deputies, in
violation of department rules about patronizing such clubs. The
alleged offenses mostly occurred during officers' off-duty hours, not
while they were on duty, as the Delta Force misconduct did. Certainly
supervisors can't be expected to know how deputies spend their own
time.

But if there was a culture of misconduct by officers, that should have
been picked up by supervisors. And if the club was regularly selling
alcohol after mandatory closing time, as the investigation alleges,
field commanders should have noticed after-hours activity at the club
and checked it out. Use of phony addresses on arrest reports, to avoid
calling attention to the club, also should have raised warning flags.

Ultimately, the buck stops with Wells; he is responsible for
everything that goes on in his department. But in a force the size of
Manatee's, with hundreds of employees, he cannot micromanage every
deputy on a day-to-day basis. However, the supervisors he puts in
charge of departments are expected to. Wells has always been fiercely
loyal to his officers, sometimes to a fault for not seeing problems
until it is too late. Just as we urged back in 1998, this case shows
the need for a tougher system for screening officer candidates and a
better system for checking up on their conduct.