By Cynthia Roldan
Palm Beach Post
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — Two police officers with a history of reprimands were arrested Tuesday after an investigation revealed that they allegedly falsified police reports that inaccurately documented their actions while serving an arrest warrant at a Boynton Beach motel in November.
The arrests mark the second time in a month that a Boynton Beach police officer faces criminal charges. On July 5, former officer David Britto was charged with selling drugs from 2009 to March of this year.
According to the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office, Boynton Beach police officer Michael Mulcahy, 29, is charged with official misconduct and giving a false official statement, while former officer Michael Arco, 26, is charged with official misconduct and perjury.
Boynton Beach Police Chief Matt Immler released a statement saying that the department was “saddened by these events.”
“We realize that our officers must be held to the highest standards of our profession,” the statement said, “and that the preservation of individual rights through proper policing practices and accurate reporting is paramount.”
Immler did not address the disciplinary issues that both officers have had in the past, however.
According to records provided by the department, Arco was disciplined twice -- in 2007 and 2008 -- for not filing an incident report.
Also in 2007, Mulcahy, received two verbal reprimands for not responding to calls for backup and one verbal reprimand for failing to document an arrestee’s property.
Mulcahy, who was hired in 2006, has been on administrative leave since April 4. Arco, who was hired in 2005, resigned on Feb. 23, Boynton Beach police spokeswoman Stephanie Slater said Tuesday.
According to Palm Beach County Jail records, both men were booked around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday and posted bond by 2:30 p.m.
Investigators in the state attorney’s Public Integrity Unit were handed the case in June after Boynton police’s Internal Affairs learned that Arco and Mulcahy falsified supplemental reports as to how they entered a motel room in Boynton Beach on Nov. 30 to arrest 19-year-old armed-robbery suspect, Gary Roker.
Sgt. Michael Johnson, who was in charge of paperwork on that night, noticed that Arco’s report of what happened did not “address several of the questions that (the sergeant) had about the arrest,” according to the probable cause affidavit. Johnson also questioned why Mulcahy had not turned in a report.
Roker’s arrest report filed by Arco stated that he and Mulcahy knocked on Roker’s motel door, before the arrest, Johnson noted. Arco wrote that Roker opened the door and stepped back when he saw police officers were at the door.
But because Mulcahy and Arco had been “untruthful” to Johnson in the past, the sergeant became suspicious when Mulcahy initially refused to file a report.
Skeptical of their statements, Johnson went to the motel where the arrest happened and spoke to the wife of the owner of the motel, who said her husband unlocked the motel room’s door at the request of Mulcahy and Arco.
Because of the discrepancies, the incident was reported to Internal Affairs, which forwarded the case to the Public Integrity Unit on June 8.
Jail records show that the case against Roker was thrown out, and he was released on July 22.
Copyright 2011 The Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.