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Volusia County, and former under age lifeguard, settles lawsuit Was the former lifeguard's sex abuse lawsuit frivolous? Did the county have knowledge of the illegal sexual culture, within their Beach Patrol, and if so, did they practice an indifference approach? Does the county's past practices indicate that this lawsuit had more merit than county officials were willing to admit? |
April 2, 2012 |
March 31, 2012 DBNJ article on settlement of lawsuit
Apparently, both parties will be responsible for a portion of the court costs, with Ms. Drury's responsibility being around $12,000.
Volusia County official appear to be very pleased with themselves. Both County Manager Dinneen and County Spokesman Dave Byron had plenty to say to the media regarding this settlement. In the below media article, Dinneen was quoted as saying the following - "They finally took us seriously and recognized they had a frivolous lawsuit." - "I think this case sends the message that county government will vigorously defend our taxpayers when we believe the county is not at fault and we will not bow to settlement pressure for the sake of expediency," - "We feel vindicated,". While Mr. Bryon stressed that the county launched an internal investigation when the allegations arose and took "swift and decisive action."
In contrast, after, the nearly one million dollar settlement with Lt. Vroman (Fire Services), these same county officials had little to nothing to say. (pay attention to the last sentence of the below linked media article)
One million taxpayer dollars spent on county fire services Lieutenant Kurt Vroman's lawsuit
While Mr. Dinneen might feel "vindicated" against the allegations lodged by the lawsuit, that the county was condoning a "culture of sexual abuse and depravity", we wonder whether our readers, and the majority of the taxpayers, would enjoy that same sense of vindication? Let's explore the facts of the matter. Let's gaze into the eyes of the 800 pound gorilla in the room, and see if we can find that same sense of vindication, that County Manger Dinneen appears to enjoy.
THE FACTS OF THE MATTER / LOOKING INTO THE EYES OF THE 800 POUND GORILLA
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1. Per the county's own admission, they spent over $300,000 dollars in county resources, defending this alleged "frivolous" suit. How do we know this? Easy, this was the amount the county attempted to secure from Ms. Drury, in their attempt to convince the federal judge that the suit was "frivolous". The judge denied the county's motion for $300,000, and gave clear indication that he did NOT find her suit frivolous. Please refer to the below linked Federal Court ruling - in the particular the last page of the ruling. Court decision denying county's motion for legal costs 3. The fact that, while law enforcement officers were either ignoring or engaging in under age sex with teenage lifeguards, their Deputy Chief was busy downloading over 12,000 porn images on his county computer. Further, that the Deputy Chief was only forced to retire, not terminated. The final insult was that the Deputy Chief had to be caught twice before any significant action was applied. Is this an example of County Spokesman, Dave Byron's concept of "swift and decisive action"? Former Beach Patrol Deputy Chief Bill Bussinger, and his on duty porn collection. 5. The Volusia County Fire Service sex scandal. The Volusia County Beach Patrol and the Volusia County Fire Service are all part of the Department of Public Protection. Did Internal Affairs Captain K. Modzelewski know about the sexual harassment allegations a whole six months prior to two fire captains being terminated for not immediately reporting them? Why didn't Captain Modzelewski take immediate action on these allegations? Is this yet another example of Mr. Byron's concept of "swift and decisive action"? Were the two fire captains made to be the fall guys, regarding Internal Affairs Captain Modzelewski's failure to immediately investigate the sexual allegations? Volusia County Fire Services sexual harassment incident |
2. Let's not forget, that currently two former Beach Patrol Officers have been found guilty of criminal violations attached to this sex scandal. Former VCBP Captain J. Simmons / solicitation to commit perjury Former VCBP Officer Tameris / underage sexual contact 4. The former VCBP Officer Daryl Shone incidents How did this man pass the background check to become a law enforcement officer? Are these poor background investigations an indicator of the quality of the VCDP internal investigations? Notice, he too had sexual allegations lodged against him, with little action being taken by county officials. The Officer Daryl Shone incidents 6. Review how Volusia County officials manipulated and falsified the paperwork attached to the VCBP Officer Gittner investigation / resignation. Can the public have any faith that Volusia County officials fairly investigated any of the allegations coming out of the Beach Patrol, if the Gittner documents have been falsified? The county's falsification and manipulation of Beach Patrol Officer Gittner's resignation paperwork. 7. Did county officials drag their feet in opening an investigation into these sexual allegations? The DBNJ has been developing a Special Report section, that we believe will give our readers a better time line understanding of how the scandal developed, and whether the county took "swift and decisive action", as assured to us by County Spokesman, Dave Byron. DBNJ Special Report on the Beach Patrol Sex Scandal |
So, has the county been vindicated?
VolusiaExposed holds the opinion, that Volusia County has not been vindicated, but rather they have proven themselves vindictive.
In our opinion, the county has targeted their message to the ears of other county employees. The county's message is that, - resistance is futile, any further attempts to expose county corruption will be met by us assimilating your finances.
We do acknowledge, that through, vindictiveness and intimidation, the county has most probably silenced their employees for the time being. With that, we shall return to an era of since "no evil is being spoken of, no evil exists" approach by our county officials.
County Chairman Frank Bruno stated that the settlement was "good news for the county". If his definition of the term "county" was to describe county administrators, then he was correct, the settlement was good news for the county. However, if Mr. Bruno's statement incorporates a broader definition for the term "county", such as the taxpayers or employees of Volusia County, then we would disagree with Mr. Bruno's assessment of the settlement agreement.
Since the problem, (the culture of sexual abuse and depravity) was not appropriately addressed in this go around, it shall be only a matter of time before it will again raise it's ugly head. When that times comes, we, the taxpayers, can expect two things from our county administrators - strict denials of the problem's existence, and a rather large bill in the defence of such denials.