There's an information leak over at the local office of the State Dept. of Children & Families (DCF). And when we started asking questions, DCF officials all the way up to Tallahassee started shoveling in a feverish effort to cover it up. And, as incredulous as it may sound, Key West Police Chief Buz Dillon is a major player in the coverup.
It all started out innocently enough. We got a tip that a Key West Police Officer might have a history as a child abuser. We called the local DCF office, explained what we wanted to the receptionist who answered the phone and asked who we should be talking to.
"I don't know," she said, "but I'll find out and call you back or have that person call you." That was about 10 o'clock in the morning. We never got a call back from the DCF— but about 3 that afternoon, we got a call from Chief Dillon.
"I hear you're asking questions about one of my officers," he said. And he answered our questions.
But, we wondered later, how did he find out about our call to the DCF? The only way he could have found out is that he got a tip, directly or indirectly, from somebody in that office. Only one person here at KWTN knew about that call and that was the person who made it.
We were curious, so we called back the receptionist who had handled our call originally. She said that she had referred our question to Charla Rodriguez, the local DCF director. We asked to speak to Ms. Rodriguez.
"Did you call Buz Dillon about our question?" we asked.
"No," she answered, aghast.
"Did you discuss our request with anyone else in the office?" we asked.
"No," she said, but she admitted that our message had been delivered to her "in public" and might have been overheard by others. We asked her if that could have included RaiEtte Avael, who is, reportedly, Rodriguez' second in command.
"That's possible," Rodriguez said. "We work together very closely."
Mrs. Avael is married to Julio Avael, the Key West City Manager. Ding!
We called back Chief Dillon. "Who tipped you that we were asking questions over at the DCF," we asked.
"I won't tell you," he said.
"Why not?" we asked.
He wouldn't tell us why not.
We asked both Charles Auslander, the DCF District Administrator based in Miami, and Secretary Kathleen Kearney, who heads the DCF at the state level, if it's okay with them if someone in the Key West office is leaking information.
In a letter we received Wednesday, Auslander told us (presumably with a straight face) that an investigation of sorts had been conducted in the Key West office. All of the DCF employees who were in the office that day were questioned and, Auslander said, they all denied that they had leaked any information about our call to anybody. Duh! Like they're going to admit it, right?
To give you an idea of how "comprehensive" this so-called investigation was, the "investigator" didn't even talk to Buz Dillon to ask who his tipster was! Pretty convenient, huh? Even though the DCF tipster may not have called Dillon directly, it is likely that Dillon knows who that person is.
And we don't think Dillon would have lied or evaded a direct question from a DCF investigator. But he didn't have to. They didn't ask him any questions.
While this little flap does not have much import, the fact that there is a leak in the DCF office could have larger ramifications. What if the tipster overheard that DFC officials suspected a City department head of child abuse and were poised to go the person's house and take his kids? The DCF does that, you know. A quick phone call could enable the department head to whisk his kids out of town to grandmother's house.
Based on our experience with the DCF's investigative capabilities, we assume that all the employees in the office would be asked if they tipped the department head about the impending "raid". They would all deny it. And that would be the end of that.
Of course, we know that our call to the DCF was not particularly confidential. And Auslander confirmed that. So whoever it was that leaked the information to Dillon probably didn't do anything illegal or unethical, right? So . . . if that is, indeed, the case, why is everybody trying so hard to protect and cover up the leak?
We don't know. But we can guess.
What if the tipster was RaiEtte Avael, the wife of Chief Dillon's boss? We don't have any evidence that it was and we are not making that allegation— but any reasonable person might assume that the wife of the City Manager, hearing that a newspaper reporter is asking questions about a City police officer, might just pick up the phone and call her husband— or somebody else at City Hall. Dillon has told us that the person who tipped him does not work for the DCF. And, he said, it wasn't Julio Avael. So let's take a wild guess here. How about Avael's secretary?
Wouldn't this scenario explain why Dillon is so determined to protect his source? Think about it. In a city government like ours, where what you have on others counts, having— and withholding— this kind of information could accrue major points for Dillon. But tattling on the boss' wife could spell the end of Dillon's semi-retirement in Paradise.
The Chief, of course, has a right to protect his sources. We here at Key West The Newspaper do it all the time. But when we do it, it's to keep someone from getting fired— or worse.
We hope that Chief Dillon will eventually come clean. But we're not holding our breath. In the meantime, we would invite DCF and City employees who have information about who leaked what to who to call and talk to us off the record. 292-2108.