By Lisa J. Huriash
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
PARKLAND, Fla. — The discovery of guns and magazines with ammunition found in a school was so alarming, a top Parkland cop moved to keep it a secret: He instructed detectives to keep it on the “down low” by leaving reports vague or blank, according to newly released records by the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
This summer at Somerset Parkland Academy, faculty members at the K-8 charter school found two guns in a bag left in a conference room that children “had easy and unsecured access to,” sheriff’s records show.
But Parkland’s then-district chief, Capt. Craig Calavetta, told a detective assigned to the case to not write a subpoena for school surveillance video: He wanted the report to be classified simply “as an information report to keep it on the ‘down low’ so people did not find out firearms were found on campus,” the detective recalled, according to records.
The investigation into Calavetta, who’s served with the agency for decades, started as a probe into his actions in June and the alleged cover-up at the Parkland charter school, but wound up branching off into other incidents where multiple people told investigators he tried to downplay crimes.
The Sheriff’s Office relieved Calavetta of his duties, saying keeping the Parkland community’s trust was vital. But he later returned to work, demoted to a deputy and assigned elsewhere in the county.
Calavetta could not be reached for comment Thursday.
After the guns were found on campus, Sgt. Patrick White told investigators that Calavetta had shown up to the school and he “appeared very nervous.”
The sergeant told authorities that “Calavetta stated ‘Keep this quiet,’ and that he did not want this getting out” and he was ordered not to generate a public narrative. The sergeant told investigators that this was the first time a report wasn’t written for a “significant event.”
That sergeant also said it wasn’t the first time “Calavetta had attempted previous cover-ups.” He alleged Calavetta attempted to downgrade a robbery to a theft because the suspect was a doctor who lived in Parkland, and attempted to downgrade a burglary “because he did not want to tell the city manager that they had more burglaries in the city,” according to records.
The sergeant did not reclassify those crimes.
Calavetta officially “separated” from the agency June 14 — temporarily.
Guns and loaded magazines on campus
The South Florida Sun Sentinel was first to report this week that Geyler Castro, the former principal of Somerset Parkland Academy, which opened in 2020, has been charged with bringing guns on campus — after the guns were found in a bag left in the conference room, sheriff’s records show.
On June 2, the faculty members found a zippered, black bag with not just two guns, but alongside two loaded magazines. The bag was not locked, and there was no trigger lock on the guns, records show.
In September, Castro, 40, of Miramar, was charged with two counts of having a firearm on school property and culpable negligence, to which she has pleaded not guilty, court records show.
Castro told sheriff’s deputies she didn’t remember when she put the guns in her car and did not know how they got inside the school, but she told them she “believes the firearms may have been within a box in her vehicle and when other staff members were unloading her vehicle for her, they must have brought the firearms into the school.”
But investigators said school surveillance video for the previous two weeks showed only Castro coming and going from her car, and that “there is probable cause to believe Castro routinely and unlawfully brought two firearms on school property.”
Castro is no longer the principal, has been reassigned at Somerset and is now working with the “network on administrative projects,” according to a school spokeswoman.
‘Asking the detectives to lie’: The internal investigation
Detective Erick Quigley, who came to the school that June day, said he was told by his sergeant, White, that Calavetta “wanted the case to be handled ‘in-house,’ by the Parkland district, which would include an information report with no public narrative.”
Records released by the Sheriff’s Office show the incident was only publicly labeled as “found property.”
While authorities were waiting on a records check on the two guns, “Calavetta stated that hopefully, the firearms were not stolen so Calavetta did not have to make any alerts,” the detective told investigators. The detective said he thought the report had a vague narrative, and that the incident was a crime.
Maj. Aimee Russo told Calavetta to let the agency’s Threat Management Unit, which typically handles incidents involving guns on school grounds, handle the case, Russo told investigators. The major wouldn’t learn until later that the Threat Management Unit hadn’t been called until 24 hours later.
And Lt. Gregory Molamphy elaborated on the allegations of Calavetta previously attempting to cover up crimes, telling investigators when a surgeon was a suspect in a robbery, the doctor grabbed the phone from the hands of a security guard, and destroyed the phone.
But Molamphy was told later by either a detective or a sergeant that Calavetta wanted the incident downgraded to a theft with a battery. When the lieutenant confronted him about “asking the detectives to lie,” Calavetta took to email to notify the city manager, and knocked himself, telling the lieutenant: “I can’t believe I’m such a p----, that I don’t want to notify the city manager about this.”
Months after that incident, there was a burglary at a construction site, and Calavetta wanted it classified as a theft, telling the lieutenant that “Parkland city officials did not like to see burglaries in the city, however, they were less concerned with thefts or grand thefts,” according to the investigation.
The lieutenant refused, telling him crimes would not be reclassified.
A deputy also interviewed about the robbery told investigators that Calavetta wanted it classified as criminal mischief and “it was more of a question of how the situation could go away,” according to the investigation.
One detective, Robert Rutkowski, told investigators that the Parkland district is a “cold place to work,” and said someone at the Sheriff’s Office once told him that “we could not keep giving the city burglaries” when he argued that the robbery involving the Parkland doctor was a crime, complete with a confession and surveillance video.
The detective said he couldn’t remember who said this, “but the conversation regarding the classification was with Calavetta,” a sheriff’s report said.
When Calavetta was questioned, he said the investigation was “initiated by a disgruntled sergeant who he was getting rid of” and that he did “everything by the book,” according to records.
‘Secrets don’t keep’: Parkland’s response
Parkland Mayor Rich Walker, who was interviewed for the Sheriff’s Office’s internal investigation, told authorities he learned of the incident from his child who attends the school, and didn’t get information from the Sheriff’s Office until the next day.
And Calavetta had the Parkland City Hall public information officer send an email to the mayor and commissioners the day of the incident “just in case [it] got out,” according to the investigation.
The email from city spokesman Todd DeAngelis told city leaders that this information was “strictly for your information and not for sharing with anyone.”
DeAngelis suggests to commissioners referring questions to the Sheriff’s Office in case “the info might spread” and since “secrets don’t keep.”
Captain ‘relieved of duties,’ and then rehired
Eight days after the guns were found at the school, Calavetta was “relieved of his duties” June 10. The Sheriff’s Office released a statement from Sheriff Gregory Tony at the time, saying having the community’s trust is essential.
“Since 2019, my administration has worked diligently and relentlessly to earn the trust of our Parkland residents,” Tony said in the statement. “The journey toward that trust required advanced training, enhanced investigative practices, policy reforms, as well as the procurement of essential tools and equipment. More importantly, it required accountability and transparency.
“I will not allow anyone in leadership to compromise the integrity of this office by deliberately providing false information to administration.”
According to a July 21 memo, the investigation on Calavetta was “founded” for three policy violations: conduct unbecoming by discrediting himself and the agency, discretion (not using good judgment when he attempted to conceal or prevent notifications), and not meeting the Sheriff’s Office’s standards, when he gave direction to not complete a report.
Calavetta returned to work one month after that memo, on Aug. 15, demoted to a deputy. But according to an Aug. 12 memo released Thursday, Calavetta had been “suspended without pay” and his new employment agreement means he “waives any appeal rights regarding his suspension and demotion.”
He’s now assigned to “West Broward,” according to the Sheriff’s Office, which declined to be more specific about his current assignment, or comment about why he was brought back after the agency’s findings of the internal affairs investigation.
His salary in June was $161,694, and his current salary is $92,188, according to the agency.
Calavetta started his law enforcement career as a public safety officer in Parkland in 1991, according to his biography that was posted on the Sheriff’s Office’s website when he was district chief.
He started working for the Sheriff’s Office in 1999 as a road patrol deputy in Dania Beach.
He served various roles including Dania Beach detective, a member of the Tamarac district Criminal Investigations Unit and the Broward County Dive Rescue Team, leader of the Sheriff’s Office’s Economic Crimes Unit and patrol commander of the night shift in the Pompano Beach district.
Calavetta was assigned to be the Parkland executive officer in 2021 and promoted to captain that same year, according to the Sheriff’s Office’s website.
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