The Police Department was all abuzz (no pun intended) this past week. Everybody seemed to be talking about a bizarre incident that reportedly took place at an internal affairs hearing— a hearing that was supposed to be secret. We've heard from multiple sources both inside and outside the Police Department that a cop called on the carpet for allegedly lying to Capt. Bill Fortune openly questioned Fortune's moral authority to question anybody's truthfulness. Whammo!
Sgt. John Hardy, reportedly the target of an internal affairs investigation for allegedly leaking information about another internal affairs probe to Key West The Newspaper, reportedly told an internal affairs investigator and City Attorney Bob Tischenkel that it was apparent that they had already decided to punish him by sustaining some type of bogus charge against him. But he reportedly threatened to challenge any disciplinary action in court and let a jury decide which cop is the most credible— Hardy or Fortune. Hardy reportedly punctuated his challenge by producing a file of bombshell documents. Those documents reveal that:
• Fortune was forced to resign as a Monroe County Sheriff's Deputy in 1985 after it was learned that he had had a sexual "affair" with a 17-year-old boy.
• Fortune falsified his application for employment with the Key West Police Department when he represented that he had never been discharged or forced to resign from another law enforcement agency because of misconduct or unsatisfactory service.
• Fortune was suspended for 10 days in 1991 after KWPD officials belatedly discovered the falsification.
Can you imagine Fortune being questioned in court about his track record of truth-telling? And can you imagine the moral courage it must have taken for Sgt. Hardy to stand up and tell the truth in an organization in which top management condones lying?! We broke the Fortune story in June of last year, pointing out that both Police Chief Buz Dillon and City Manager Julio Avael knew about his history when they promoted him to captain in 1999.
"It has become apparent that you do not meet the standards of efficiency, morale and reputation required . . . for the responsible position of Deputy Sheriff with this department," Undersheriff Lawrence Meggs told Fortune in a letter dated March 5, 1985.
But, apparently, Fortune was just what Avael and Dillon wanted when they selected their new captain.
With what we all now know about the lying, falsification and misrepresentation that is rampant within the KWPD, it seems ludicrous that Dillon and his henchmen would actually try to go after one of their own for allegedly lying about leaking information to a newspaper. Our theory, which you may have read here before, is that some some of the cops here lie so routinely that they may not even realize that they're doing it. They lie to hide their own incompetence and the incompetence of other officers. They lie to hide their own wrongdoing and the wrongdoing of other officers. Sometimes, they lie for no reason at all!
Example: We recently reported that Lt. Al Flowers forgot to write down an address he said he saw on a drivers license when he ticketed a bicycle rider. Then Flowers learned that he would have to defend that ticket in court. Rather than simply going into the courtroom and telling the judge the truth— that he didn't have enough information to back up his citation— he accessed the Department of Motor Vehicles' database, got the current address, and testified in court that he had seen that address on the license when he wrote the ticket. Unfortunately for Flowers, the address he got from the DMV was a new address. He couldn't have possibly have seen that address on the night he wrote the ticket.
Flowers had no good reason to lie. But he did it anyway, knowing that in Buz Dillon's Police Department, there would be no repercussions. And there weren't.
Key West police officers who won't "go along"— who refuse to join the "Liars Club"— soon find themselves isolated. Or worse.
Why, you might ask, can cops can get away with lying? The answer is simple. Because the Police Chief, the City Manager and the City Commission condone it. We have repeatedly reported the case in which a Key West police officer testified two different ways at two different trials about the same incident. Would you be surprised to learn that not one of our City Commissioners has even bothered to ask Chief Dillon for an explanation? Apparently, they simply don't care.
Recently, when we forced Chief Dillon to investigate allegations that Flowers had lied under oath in court, he grudgingly admitted that the allegation was true— but, he argued, Flowers had fibbed "unknowingly".
But Dillon was so mad about being forced to make that public admission that he had this writer arrested! That dunce-like action made Dillon the butt of jokes in the press around the world. He was ridiculed on national television by no less than Dennis Miller and Bill O'Reilly.
Dillon, himself, has yet to explain why he lied to the Miami Herald about aspects of that arrest. He told the Herald that he had called us to tell us about the warrant— as a "courtesy", he said. He didn't do that, of course. But let's give him the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps he lied "unknowingly."
Dillon also promised Judge Wayne Miller that he would make that courtesy call. Is lying to a judge worse than lying to the Miami Herald?
As far as we know, not one City Commissioner has bothered to ask Chief Dillon why he lied to the Miami Herald and to Judge Miller. And by failing to take the Chief to task about his fibbing— and the fibbing of his officers, they are, in essence, condoning it.
In essence, Buz Dillon has become the Gary Condit of law enforcement. He apparently thinks that if he can lie and stonewall long enough, the truth will never come out. Apparently, that worked just fine in Alpharetta. And it's working to some extent here.
Keep in mind that we still don't know what really happened last month when the police were involved in a violent shootout on Front Street and a dangerous high-speed chase across the island. And the reason we don't know is that Dillon won't talk. His cover story is that the matter is "under investigation."
But, folks, it's been under investigation for six weeks! Does the term "abject incompetence" spring to mind?
The fact that we seem to have an incompetent secrecy freak for a police chief should be a matter of concern for all citizens. But, perhaps, a more important question: When and if we ever get to see the report on the shootout and chase, will we be able to believe it?
We know that most cops here are honest and hard working. Some of these men and women risk reprimand or worse each week by providing us with information about incompetence and corruption within Buz Dillon's police department.