By Alexandra Seltzer and Jorge Milian
Palm Beach Post
As the West Palm Beach police chief and the county’s state attorney get ready for a sit-down today to work out issues regarding their recent, very public spat, more details have emerged regarding two officers and a firefighter who apparently were central to the dispute.
West Palm Beach Mayor Jeri Muoio suggested today’s meeting and was to sit down with Chief Vince Demasi and State Attorney Dave Aronberg at 2 p.m. at the state attorney’s office.
The unusual back-and-forth started last week following an incident in which a career criminal apparently threatened the lives of West Palm Beach officers. When Demasi learned about the suspect’s criminal history, he blamed the state attorney’s office for allowing such criminals to walk the streets. He called the pattern of dropping charges against suspects “offensive.”
Aronberg shot back days later, defending his office’s prosecution rate in the city and calling Demasi’s statements “irresponsible.” He also said the real reason behind Demasi’s outrage was because the state wouldn’t prosecute three cases that Demasi wanted filed. Two involved Demasi’s own officers -- Randall Maale and Eric Morris -- and the other former city firefighter John Ferguson.
Al Johnson, Aronberg’s chief assistant state attorney, said Tuesday that Demasi wanted the state attorney to prosecute all three cases as a cover to fire them. Demasi said while the three cases were important to him, his comments had nothing to do with them.
The Three Cases
Morris: With the department since December 2007, he apparently hit a 72-year-old man in the face at St. Mary’s Medical Center in March. The man was on the phone with his wife when Morris told him to hang up. Morris put his finger in the man’s mouth then ended the call by touching the base of the phone, and directed the man back to his room.
The man turned toward the officer, who then punched him in the face, according to documents provided at the conference. No charges were filed because, according to the state’s attorney, there weren’t any witnesses, the man gave inconsistent statements, and Morris did not write a use-of-force report.
Sources close to Morris said Thursday the officer is expected to resign.
Morris has received four complaints since August 2010 and has been disciplined five times. The discipline includes a 40-hour suspension in April for kicking a civilian’s car while directing traffic, and an 80-hour suspension in February 2012 for not writing a report after detaining a woman in his patrol car and transporting her to another location, according to his internal affairs jacket.
Maale: He’s been with the department since June 1986 and was once in charge of the Entertainment District. He allegedly made contact with a burglary suspect during a felony traffic stop in January and hit the suspect in the face. But the state attorney said because video of the punch did not show whether the man was actually hit, and the man’s actions prior to the punch could not be seen, no charges were filed.
Maale has received more than 30 complaints since 1998 and has been the subject of internal investigations; he’s been accused of having a relationship with a female subordinate, hosting a private party attended by on-duty officers and working out with an injured officer.
The department, under co-chiefs Mary Santos-Olsen and Bryan Kummerlen, initially fired him in January 2012 but ultimately decided to demote him from captain instead. Lou Penque, the Police Benevolent Association’s treasurer, told The Palm Beach Post on Thursday that the party Maale hosted was for team-building, an event commonly held by captains.
Ferguson: An employee since November 1985, he retired in March, said city spokesman Elliot Cohen. Ferguson was investigated for punching a man in August 2012. The man suffered a seizure and was combative, prompting Ferguson to kneel on the man’s chest, verbally threaten him and then hit him in the face numerous times, according to documents. Peter Antonacci, then interim state attorney, declined to prosecute the case.
Demasi brought it to Aronberg this year for a second look. The office again declined to prosecute, citing no reasonable likelihood for a successful case, as paramedics claimed they didn’t see Ferguson’s actions.
Demasi met with Aronberg’s office on one other occasion to talk about the three cases.
“In the meetings, Demasi was talking about how we, as the state attorney’s office, should back up a law enforcement entity on internal affairs matters,” said Johnson, Aronberg’s chief assistant, on Tuesday. “Where he got upset was that he felt the state attorney’s office should be, for the lack of a better word, an adjunct of the internal affairs investigations of West Palm Beach. That’s inappropriate. It’s unethical.”
Demasi said: “These were cases that I felt strongly about and felt they deserved to be prosecuted.”
Police Benevolent Association President John Kazanjian said if Maale had never been fired in the first place, the public spat between Demasi and Aronberg may have never happened.
“Officer Maale should have never been terminated. No way,” Kazanjian said.
Regarding both officers’ situations, he said: “It doesn’t create a good work environment knowing that your boss wants you arrested or fired.”
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