TRY TO DEFEND CHIEF. DILLON FAILS TO SHOW UP TO DEFEND CONTROVERSIAL ARREST
CHIEF NOW HAS ONLY 15 DAYS TO RESPOND TO FDLE CONCERNING
INTERNAL AFFAIRS SCANDAL.
Over the Fourth of July holiday, Key West Police Chief Gordon "Buz" Dillon— and his apologists, Mayor Jimmy Weekley and Commissioner Carmen Turner— didn't enjoy the usual picnic fare. They were eating crow.
Late Tuesday afternoon— on the eve of our nation's Independence Day— State Attorney Mark Kohl dropped those ridiculous charges against me. The reason: The state statute that Chief Dillon used to swear out a warrant for my arrest two weeks ago had been declared unconstitutional by a federal judge in 1990! Duh!
When the case landed on Kohl's desk, he reportedly remarked to a friend, "Can't he (Dillon) spell `First Amendment'?"
As it turns out, Dillon didn't even consult with Kohl— or the City Attorney or his boss, City Manager Julio Avael— before typing up a request for the warrant. And he may have tricked Judge Wayne Miller into signing the warrant by fibbing on his affidavit. He knew that we didn't violate the law— even if that law were constitutional.
After the fact, Judge Miller apparently felt some tinge of remorse for what he had done. He came over to our office to try to explain that, "I was just doing my job." We disagree— unless his job is to act as the Police Chief's puppet.
The good news is that Dillon won't be— and this is wild assumption— illegally using his arrest powers to try to inhibit the freedom of the press anytime soon. At the City Commission meeting Tuesday evening, several of the Commissioners kicked his ass. Commissioner Jeremy Anthony called for a full review of the arrest incident. Harry Bethel defended the freedom of the press. Tom Oosterhoudt was the most vocal, putting Dillon "on notice."
Oosterhoudt told KWTN that Avael told him that he was ready to fire Dillon this week— until Mayor Weekley talked him out of it. The Key West Citizen confirmed that report in a published interview with Weekley.
But, now, Avael and Weekley, in full damage control mode, are saying that the Chief's job was never in danger. And we all know that neither Avael nor Jimmy would ever lie.
Either way, Buz Dillon is damaged goods. His stature in this community has been significantly diminished. He may or may not have to worry about packing right now. But if he steps in it again, expect to see those Commissioners turn on him like a snake on a rat.
At the Commission meeting, only Weekley and Turner seemed to think that it's okay for the Chief of Police to arrest a newspaper publisher on a whim. "There may be some information we don't know," they whined in unison. But, then, they refused to support Anthony's call for a full review. Go figure.
Of course, we shouldn't be surprised that the concept of a free press didn't get much support from Weekley and Turner. We have consistently characterized them both as obtuse twits.
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads: "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of the press . . ." We wonder what part of "no law" Jimmy and Carmen don't understand.
But even Weekley called Dillon's action an "error in judgment". And Chief Dillon didn't have the balls to show up and defend his bizarre behavior in person.
Why was Dillon so mad at us? Here's the story. But as you read this (again), keep in mind that our reporting of this story is what Dillon had me arrested for. And he bragged around town that, if we wrote any more about it, he would have me arrested again! Okay, bully boy! Here it is. Go get your warrant!
Last May 11, we reported allegations that Police Lt. Al Flowers may have lied in court in 1997 about an address he said he had seen on a drivers license in 1996. Not much of a story. But we became suspicious when the Police Dept. refused to respond to questions about those allegations.
Then we learned that Internal Affairs Investigator Bob Christensen may have declared a citizen's complaint about Flowers' alleged perjury "unfounded"— without conducting an investigation. And we confirmed that by using the state public records law to gain access to the file on that closed investigation.
Suddenly, the story was a lot bigger than just some cop allegedly lying about an address. Citizens who have concerns about the Police Dept. must be able to have confidence that their complaints will at least be investigated.
We even confronted Christensen directly: "You didn't investigate that allegation at all, did you?"we asked. He said: "No comment."
We reported that in our story on June 1: "Internal Affairs Finds Perjury Allegation Against Flowers `Unfounded'— Without An Investigation." But, still, Chief Dillon and his spokespeople remained in their stonewalling mode.
We didn't think that was right. We had uncovered evidence of possible wrongdoing within the Police Department— and the Chief of Police was not only refusing to launch an investigation, he was refusing to even talk about it.
So, to force an investigation, we went to the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement (FDLE) and asked them to get involved. We provided them with all the evidence we had uncovered in our own independent investigation.
At the City Commission meeting Tuesday evening, Mayor Weekley made one of his convoluted little speeches, suggesting that we somehow broke the rules when we became involved in the story. But the only reason that Key West The Newspaper exists is to try to make a difference. Somebody had to try to right the wrongs that we had uncovered. And, apparently, Weekley had no interest in doing that. And, for some reason, he didn't want us to do it either.
But as it turned out, the FDLE was interested. They told us on June 7 that they had ordered Dillon to investigate our allegations and information— and that he had 45 days to respond. The FDLE put no restrictions on how we might use that information. We published it on June 15.
Today, Dillon has only 15 days to respond. And when we see his report, you'll see it.
On June 22, we followed up on our series of stories with a lengthy opinion piece speculating on what Dillon might tell the FDLE. One option we listed was that he might just tell the truth. Imagine that concept! We also summarized several other previously-published news stories and commentaries that supported our argument that Dillon is a coverup artist.
Dillon apparently snapped. That very day, he personally signed an affidavit for my arrest— the first arrest warrant he had signed during his tenure as Chief of Police here. Then he somehow convinced Judge Miller to sign it.
Then he ordered Cynthia Edwards, his public relations flack, to send out a release notifying the press that there was a warrant out for my arrest.
Strangely, the press release went out on plain white paper, rather than on the standard Police Dept. "newshead," with no contact name or phone number. But the media people who received the release knew where it came from. They quoted Edwards in their reports.
So far, there has been no explanation forthcoming as to why Edwards may have sent that release out as a "mystery" document.
That release was also strange because the Police Dept. does not usually publicize active warrants because the targets of those warrants might flee if they find out they're wanted.
Since, apparently, active warrants are now public record, we have sent City Manager Avael a formal request to allow a KWTN reporter to go over to the Police Dept. every Thursday to look at the outstanding warrants so we can publish them in Friday's paper. At press time, he had not responded to our request.
If he turns us down by declaring that active warrants are confidential, how will he explain the Police Dept. press release on my warrant?
Unless you've been out of town for the past couple of weeks, you know that the fecal matter hit the fan when the word got out that the Chief of Police had arrested the publisher of Key West The Newspaper. The Key West Citizen came down on Dillon with both feet— even republishing the same information we had published and daring Buz to come out to the Citizen office and arrest Publisher Bill Barry. Dillon blinked, answering the question for all to see: Was his arrest of Dennis Reeves Cooper "selective"?
Editorially, the Citizen accused the Chief of abusing his authority.
The Miami Herald story, which hit the national wire services, included this quote by a former legal director of the Florida ACLU: "The unconstitutionality of this statute has been so clearly established for so long that the only possible justification for this (the arrest) can be retaliation, and that's not a permissible objective under the First Amendment."
A St. Petersburg Times editorial called for the Chief's badge. Comedian Dennis Miller reportedly ridiculed Dillon on HBO.
A producer for the "O'Reilly Factor" on the Fox News Channel called us Tuesday. O'Reilly apparently saw the story himself and told his producer to track us down. Their challenge is to try to arrange a TV feed out of Key West. If that happens, I'll have an opportunity to talk about Jackboot Boy on national TV. That may or may not help him when he starts looking for his next job.
There is little doubt that Chief Dillon's ill-advised (that's a nice term for "stupid") action was meant to embarrass me personally and to try to stop my paper from continuing to uncover and report corruption and incompetence within his department. But that backfired bigtime.
Dillon is now a laughingstock nationwide. He and his department now have even less credibility than they had before. And we are now motivated to become even more aggressive.
Right now, however, a priority must be to ensure that this outrageous abuse of police power is never repeated here. Dillon's reaming by some members of the City Commission, his near-firing by Avael and the stomping he has received in the media, both local and national, is a start. There is more to come. Stay tuned
A NOTE TO CHIEF DILLON: I'll be at Schooner Wharf Bar this afternoon listening to the music— just in case you want to send your boys after me. DRC