PENDER TO RETURN TO JOB AT TALLAHASSEE POLICE DEPT.

Ryan Pender, the Tallahassee Police Department investigator fired for
his role in the death of confidential informant Rachel Hoffman, will
be back in uniform soon.

Pender will return to TPD on April 10 as a patrol officer, not an
investigator, said Officer Danny Jeter, a TPD spokesman. He'll work an
afternoon shift, when manpower needs are greater, Jeter said.

He will go through a "refresher" training period before he transitions
into his full-time patrol job. Pender isn't banned from being an
investigator again, Jeter said.

"He will be allowed to apply and compete for any position that he
might be qualified for, and he will be treated like any other employee
in this department," Jeter said.

Pender, hired Jan. 8, 2001, was Hoffman's primary police contact and
the lead officer in charge of a May 7, 2008, drug-sting operation that
ended in the 23-year-old's death. Hoffman was supposed to buy drugs
and a gun from two men, Deneilo Bradshaw and Andrea Green, as part of
the operation but was shot to death. Bradshaw and Green are serving
life sentences for her murder.

Pender was fired Sept. 30, 2008, after an Internal Affairs
investigation said he violated department policies.

Paul Villeneuve, Pender's attorney, said his client has had a
difficult time since Hoffman's death.

"He feels like he has been accused of being responsible for things he
was not responsible for," Villeneuve said. "And ultimately, an
arbitrator agreed with him."

Lance Block, an attorney representing Hoffman's family, said the
decision to reinstate Pender was not surprising.

"You have to just shake your head about this and have faith that
someday, justice for the death of Rachel Hoffman will come," Block
said in a written statement. "Despite the fact that the TPD's official
Internal Affairs investigation concluded that Ryan Pender and his
colleagues violated almost 100 policies and procedures in causing the
death of Rachel Hoffman, they are all back at work as if it never
happened. The only way the TPD will ever be held accountable for its
role in the wrongful death of Rachel is through the civil case."

Christopher Shulman, the Tampa-based arbitrator who made the ruling,
said Pender didn't need to lose his job. At most, Pender should have
received a written reprimand for allowing Hoffman to be frisked by a
male officer, he said.

In a written statement, TPD Chief Dennis Jones said, "I respect the
arbitration process, and the Tallahassee Police Department will comply
fully with the arbitrator's decision."