In the wake of controversial Police Lt. Al Flowers' two formal reprimands in six months, which resulted in a de facto demotion, critics are starting to pile on. Rod Macdonald said this week that Flowers lied in court back in January 1997— and he produced documents that appear to support his allegation.
Macdonald, who legally changed his name to Shahdaroba Rodd, has asked State Attorney Mark Kohl to investigate— and Kohl's chief investigator, Kirby Owen, is reviewing the case, according to a letter from Owen to Macdonald dated April 30, 2001.
Back on Oct. 29, 1996, Lt. Flowers stopped Macdonald and ticketed him for riding a bicycle at night without a light. He also charged Macdonald with failing to notify the Florida Dept. of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DMV) of a change of address.
In Judge Wayne Miller's traffic court on Jan. 28, 1997, Flowers testified that Macdonald had handed him a drivers license with the address 5415 Little Acre Road, Ebro, Florida, on it. According to a partial transcript of the hearing provided by the State Attorney's Office, Flowers also testified that Macdonald told him that his current address was General Delivery in Key West. And that's what he wrote on the ticket.
"Flowers simply made up the part about the drivers license," Macdonald said. "But when I tried to protest in court, I was told to shut up. I didn't give Flowers my drivers license that night because I didn't have it with me," Macdonald said. "I gave him a state-issued ID card as identification. But even had I given him my license, the address he would have seen would have been Star Route Box 7, Ebro, Florida. My permanent address is Ebro."
Macdonald produced documents this week showing that, on January 2, 1997, he requested the DMV to change his permanent address from the Star Route address to the Little Acre Road address— two months after Flowers stopped Macdonald, but several weeks before the hearing before Judge Miller. He also produced a copy of a letter from the DMV confirming that the change had been processed.
"Therefore, it's impossible for Flowers to have seen a license in October 1996 that showed the Little Acre Road address," Macdonald said. "What we can presume happened is that Flowers, preparing for the Jan. 28, 1997, hearing a day or so in advance, checked the DMV for my Ebro address, wrote it down, then came into court and testified under oath that he saw that address on my drivers license back in October 1996— when he saw no such thing. That's perjury.
"This is simply another example of Flowers abusing his position as a police officer by piling on questionable charges, then lying in court to try to make the charges stick."
Judge Miller dismissed the DMV notification charge, but found Macdonald guilty of riding a bicycle at night without a light. At the hearing, Macdonald produced a flashlight he said he had been using that night, but Miller ruled that it was too small.
At presstime, neither Flowers nor Police Chief Buz Dillon had responded to a request for comment.