REPORT: POLICE LEAK RUINED DRUG RAID

DAYTONA BEACH -- A drug raid at a house went awry after a Daytona
Beach SWAT officer told a policewoman about an investigation at the
targeted residence, and the policewoman told her girlfriend, an
internal affairs report shows.

The house just happens to belong to the girlfriend's relatives, police
said, and she warned them about the drug bust in advance.

As a result, when SWAT members and the Crime Suppression Team raided
the property at 232 Walnut St. on Feb. 5, they found nothing, the
report states. In addition, residents of the house told police they
had been warned about the bust by someone linked to a Daytona Beach
cop.

According to the internal affairs report, former SWAT member Ladislas
Szabo, 43, started the ball rolling when he told fellow Officer
Claudia Wright about a drug investigation at Walnut Street.

The house is one that Wright frequents often, according to the
investigation, because of her girlfriend Carol Dew and her family.

Wright told Dew what Szabo said, and she told her relatives, police
said.

Passing along the information to Dew and subsequently to the targets
of the drug raid could have prompted a dangerous situation for SWAT
and Crime Suppression Team members, Capt. Brian Skipper said.

In a memo to Deputy Chief Steve Beres on April 29, Skipper said that
since the targets of the drug raid were warned, they could have
prepared themselves to respond violently to the SWAT team.

Skipper said Szabo leaked information about the ongoing investigation,
then lied about it when questioned by his superiors. The captain said
Wright, meanwhile, gave information about an ongoing investigation to
someone outside the department. Skipper also said Wright should have
discussed her predicament with one of her supervisors, instead of
going directly to Dew. Wright should have known that a criminal
investigation was likely going to be compromised, the captain said.

Wright did not a return a phone message Tuesday and Dew, who was not
implicated in any wrongdoing regarding the case, could not be reached.

But Szabo, a five-year veteran of the department who said he always
wanted to be a member of the coveted SWAT unit, vehemently denied
telling Wright about an ongoing narcotics investigation. He said he
merely asked Wright about her girlfriend.

Police union representative Jeff Candage said Szabo's intentions were
good, if misguided.

"He warned her (Wright) about keeping her girlfriend away from a house
(being investigated)," Candage said Tuesday. He never said anything
about an ongoing investigation. But he should not have done that, no
matter how well-intentioned it was."

Wright was given a 10-day suspension and Szabo resigned after Skipper
suggested he be fired, the report shows. The captain had harsher words
for Szabo because he said Szabo lied about his conversation with Wright.

The policewoman, on the other hand, told the truth when she was
questioned, Police Chief Mike Chitwood said.

"It was discussed long and hard to fire her," Chitwood said Tuesday.
"But she didn't lie to us and that is the only reason she wasn't
fired. That was the only mitigating factor."

Chitwood said Wright admitted she had made a mistake when she revealed
information to her girlfriend.

This is not the first time Wright and Szabo are in the
spotlight.

In November 2007, the 27-year-old Wright made national headlines after
she blasted a woman inside the Best Buy store on International
Speedway Boulevard with her Taser. The woman, yoga teacher Elizabeth
Beeland, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and
resisting arrest without violence. Beeland was never prosecuted
because the shopper never did anything wrong, according to State
Attorney's Office officials.

Szabo, a martial arts and weapons expert, made the local news in March
after he accidentally shot himself in the leg while practicing his
shooting techniques at a Flagler County gun range.