By Tom Lyons
Sarasota Herald Tribune
A Longboat Key Police officer made a roadside DUI arrest 13 years ago that I still recall, in part because the video was so good.
It showed two officers behaving with admirable professionalism and restraint while dealing with a very pushy woman who insisted that her obviously impaired husband not be arrested.
The couple were island residents and friends of Tom Coons, then the chief of police, you see.
The wife was threatening to pull strings and make the cops regret the arrest. I’m amazed she didn’t end up in handcuffs, too.
But the good police work stopped when the woman indeed called the chief. He called the arresting officer and leaned on him until he dropped the DUI charge before the man even made it to jail.
I wondered what would have happened if the chief hadn’t gotten his way.
That story came to mind when I read about the recent reinstatement of Venice Police officer Mike Frassetti, who a state hearing officer has ruled, with good reason, was wrongly fired based on a charge that had no evidence to support it.
The allegation was that Frassetti failed to file a routine report on a domestic disturbance incident that was over when police got there, and no one wanted charges to be filed.
Frassetti insisted he filed the report. But even though the department’s computers are prone to glitches that cause files to be lost, the officer’s supervisor insisted Frassetti was lying.
Why? I don’t know, but coincidentally or not, Frassetti had recently arrested his boss’ cousin on a DUI charge. A week later, the boss, Lt. Mike Rose, had started investigating Frassetti.
And after Frassetti was fired, and before he was reinstated, that DUI charge against Rose’s cousin was dropped because prosecutors were told, by someone at the Venice Police Department, that their key witness -- Frassetti -- had moved and left no forwarding address.
But Frassetti hadn’t moved at all. He still hasn’t.
That lie, or mistake or whatever, had real consequences for a case. That’s the lie, or mistake, that now should be zealously investigated.
But Police Chief Julie Williams, who supported firing Frassetti, has consistently failed to return calls about whether she has any such notion.
I have to wonder why the DUI mistake, or lie, isn’t at least as worrisome and important to Williams as an officer’s alleged failure to file a routine report on a dead case where no charges were even contemplated.
Copyright 2009 Sarasota Herald-Tribune Co.