By Ludmilla Lelis
DeLAND, Fla. — The police officer who had twice arrested the daughter of State Attorney John Tanner was cleared Thursday of perjury for one of those arrests.
A circuit judge threw out the entire case against suspended Flagler Beach police Officer Nathaniel Juratovac, ruling there wasn’t enough evidence to continue the case, which hinged on a witness who has lied about the incident.
“Does anybody not see the irony of [Michael Matthew] McGuirk lying under oath at four separate occasions and being the sole witness to a charge of perjury?” said 7th Circuit Judge James R. Clayton. “Am I the only one that sees the irony?”
Juratovac, surrounded by his wife, attorneys, fellow officers and union representatives, was relieved, saying that his case proves: “As long as you stick to the truth, you will be set free. . . . The truth prevailed today.”
One of his attorneys, Gloria Fletcher, said the case will have a chilling effect on law-enforcement officers trying to do their job. “I’m disappointed we had to represent a police officer in such ludicrous and deplorable allegations.”
Chip Thullbery, spokesman for 10th Circuit State Attorney Jerry Hill, whose office prosecuted the case, said: “We are disappointed, but we respect the judge’s decision. We had a good-faith belief we were presenting a prosecutable case.”
The acquittal ended the weeklong jury trial, which revolved around McGuirk, his former housemate and Tanner’s daughter Lisa Tanner, and some early-morning carousing in Flagler Beach on Nov. 9, 2005.
The trial didn’t broach the yearslong controversy that has embroiled John Tanner amid accusations he abused his authority in response to his daughter’s arrests.
However, what happened that November night led to the arrest that sparked the controversy.
According to court testimony, Lisa Tanner and some friends drank at her Flagler Beach home, then headed to a bar to drink beer and tequila until closing on Nov. 9. McGuirk picked them up, brought them to her house, then McGuirk took one of the friends home.
McGuirk drove up to South Seventh Street just before 3 a.m., where Juratovac was on foot, searching for a prowler. Juratovac later arrested McGuirk for attempting to run him over, but McGuirk testified he never saw the officer. Lisa Tanner was arrested for resisting police when they came to her house looking for McGuirk. A grand jury under Hill’s direction later cleared McGuirk and Tanner of their charges.
One of Hill’s assistants, Victoria Avalon, prosecuted the case that Juratovac had concocted the story that McGuirk tried to hit him.
In his ruling Thursday, Clayton said that the issue before him is not whether McGuirk had tried to hit Juratovac, but whether Juratovac had lied when he testified, and when he wrote in his police report, that he thought McGuirk had tried to hit him.
Clayton said the case law holds that a perjury conviction requires two witnesses to the lie, or one witness with corroborating evidence, and the judge was convinced the case against Juratovac failed.
Instead, the sole witness was an admitted former cocaine addict who has lied under oath about several details, including the fact that he was on that street to pick up a friend to make a cocaine run. And the corroborating evidence were Juratovac’s actions that night and at a probation hearing.
Avalon tried to argue that if McGuirk had really tried to run him over, Juratovac would have acted differently, but the judge ruled Juratovac acted as a seasoned officer may have in those circumstances.
Copyright 2008 Orlando Sentinel