OFFICER WHO LED FATAL, BOTCHED DRUG STING MIGHT GET JOB BACK

Training, Better Procedures Might Have Spared Rachel Hoffman, Report Says

TAMPA - Ryan Pender, the only Tallahassee police officer fired after a
failed drug sting that led to the death of an undercover informant
from Pinellas County, may get his job back - with back pay.

Pender shouldn't be blamed because the department lacked specific
policies that might have guided him and prevented the death of Rachel
Hoffman, 23, according to Christopher Shulman of Tampa, who mediated
the January arbitration hearing to determine Pender's fate. Shulman's
findings were released Saturday.

"I am not exonerating Grievant for the lapses in judgment the record
suggests he made related to his selection and employment of Ms.
Hoffman as a CI," he wrote.

"It is this arbitrator's view (apparently shared by the Legislature,
which enacted 'Rachel's Law') that greater training, combined with
better procedures, might have avoided Ms. Hoffman's death, if only
because she might not have been a CI and/or might not have been
employed in this Buy/Bust."

Hoffman, who used and sold marijuana, was shot by two men in May 2008
as she attempted to avoid jail time by working the sting, which
involved buying cocaine, Ecstasy and a handgun with marked bills.
Deneilo Bradshaw and Andrea Green each received life in prison without
the possibility of parole for her murder.

The case brought national attention to the Tallahassee police
department, which at first blamed Hoffman for deviating from the plan
to meet the two men in a park, where officers waited. She instead
followed the men, alone in her car, to a dead-end road where she was
shot five times.

Hoffman was wearing a wire that went dead and police lost sight of her
as she drove away to meet Bradshaw and Green.

Pender recruited Hoffman as an informant and was in charge of the
sting that day. Other officers were suspended for two weeks without
pay, and Tallahassee Police Chief Dennis Jones received a reprimand.

Paul Villeneuve, Pender's attorney, said his client is eager to get
back on the force.

"The word 'scapegoat' has been used a lot before, and that is not
inappropriate," he said Monday. "People tried to set this up as Rachel
vs. Ryan. It was never that."

Pender has been working as an investigator with the Florida Department
of Agriculture, but would like to get back to police work "" although
he may not be able to return to the vice unit, Villeneuve said.

"He loves being a police officer," said Villeneuve. "Now his family
can close this chapter."

Hoffman's parents, Margie Weiss of Safety Harbor, and Irv Hoffman of
Palm Harbor, said they expected Pender to get his job back.

"Apparently Ryan Pender's only remorse was for the loss of his job,
without any sorrow for the loss of my daughter's life," Weiss said
today. "Irv and I are committed to do whatever it takes to make sure
that what happened to our Rachel will never happen to another person
or someone else's child.

"Pender's arbitration was never going to accomplish
that."

Irv Hoffman said he holds not just Pender, but the entire department,
accountable for his daughter's death.

Hoffman's parents campaigned successfully last year for the passage of
Rachel's Law, which gives additional protection to confidential informants.

Of the four reasons cited by the city for firing Pender, the
arbitrator said only one was valid "" that Pender had a male officer
frisk Hoffman before the sting, a violation of policy. But that wasn't
enough reason to fire him, Shulman said.

Lance Block, attorney for the parents in a civil case against the city
of Tallahassee, said he believed the city's attorneys fell short.

"The city's case completely ignored the negligence of the more than 20
police officers involved in Rachel's death. They argued trivial
matters such as who frisked her and the fact that the sting money was
lost," Block said.

"It was baffling that the city's attorneys failed to even mention
TPD's 200-page internal affairs report, which documented Pender's
numerous acts of negligence."

Tallahassee police department officials declined to comment. They are
expected to meet Tuesday to determine whether to appeal the decision,
which otherwise is binding.