VOLUSIA EXPOSED

VOLUSIA EXPOSED.COM

Volusia County Beach Patrol Captain Richard Gardner
faces possible termination over sexual affairs.

Does Captain Gardner allege that the VCDPP Director Mike Coffin is attempting to make him the fall guy in order to protect his (Coffin) political career?

Did the internal affairs investigator violate Captain Gardner's rights?

Did Beach Patrol employee, Thomas McGibeny write the anonymous letters, as indicated by Captain Gardner's counsel?

Are the Beach Patrol's apparent ethical problems rooted in a decade old re-organization of the department?

Here we go AGAIN - more sin, sex and sand.

Updated
October 26, 2011

"When the police are indistinguishable from the bad guys, then society has a serious problem."
District Attorney Lynne Abraham

Volusia County Public Protection Director, Mike Coffin reconsiders case against VCBP Captain Gardner - reopens investigation after Gardner's attorney challenges Director Coffin.

SEE BELOW - FOR NEWLY POSTED (October 26, 2011) DOCUMENTS REGARDING THIS DEVELOPING SITUATION

These matters are currently both VERY active and fluid - therefore VolusiaExposed.Com expects that this webpage will be updated regularly with both new records and commentary on this ever expanding scandal within the Volusia County Department of Public. Protection

Well, apparently, Volusia County Beach Patrol Captain, Ric Gardner has gotten himself caught between a rock and a hard space.

According to the below media reports, and a Notice of Intent to Terminate from Volusia County government, Volusia County intends to terminate Gardner's employment, due to his activities attached to two sexual relationships with his co-workers. (Gittner and Winters)

This situation with Captain Gardner came to light, due to an anonymous letter sent several times, in August and September 2011, to Volusia County officials. We invite you to carefully read this anonymous letter. Are other serious allegations about other Beach Patrol employees referred to in this letter? Here is one quick example of the other serious allegations: - That a Captain Williams was taking showers with younger girls. Who is Captain Williams and how old were these girls?

Are these other allegations being investigated? And why was it necessary for this anonymous letter to be sent several times in order for an investigation to be opened by the VCDPP?

WOW !!, now that takes "balls" (pun intended) - given all the negative publicity the Volusia County Beach Patrol has been under, connected to the underage sex scandal.

Captain Gardner has responded to the Volusia County Department of Public Protection Director Mike Coffin's Notice of Intent to Terminate. We invite you to read Captain Gardner's allegations against both Director Mike Coffin and the VCDPP.

Were Captain Gardner's rights as a Florida police officer under investigation violated by the VCDPP investigator? Was his internal affairs investigation influenced more by the media hype generated over the Volusia Beach Patrol sex scandal, than by the alleged facts and evidence?
Is Director Coffin only trying to protect his political career and his chances of a possible 2016 run for the Office of Volusia County Sheriff? Does this explain why Director Coffin will soon be transferring back to the Volusia County Sheriff Department as the Chief Deputy, from his current position as Director of the VCDPP?. All good questions - we invite you to read not only Captain Gardner's response to Mike Coffin's Intent to Terminate letter - but the supportive media accounts to some of these questions.

Now that you have read the above - we invite you to review the sworn testimonies of the involved parties.

The Beach Patrol employees (Winters and Gittner)
that Captain Gardner had or was having a sexual affair with.

Captain Gardner's testimony

Captain Greene's testimony about her knowledge of the alleged events.

VolusiaExposed.Com has had concerns regarding Captain Gardner for sometime now - we received some disturbing information about this officer, that if accurate, could have precluded his employment as a law enforcement officer. Last August, we requested Captain Gardner's pre-employment background investigation from Volusia County officials.

Volusia County officials reported that they were unable to locate this pre-employment background investigation. (Very disturbing)

We invite you to review our August 2011 article regarding our concerns about Captain Gardner and VCBP pre-employment background investigations.

It should be understood that the problem here is that Volusia County can NOT produce their required pre-employment background investigation on Capt. Gardner.

VOLUSIAEXPOSED.COM COMMENTARY / OBSERVATIONS

The Captain Gardner and the Underage Sex - Beach Patrol scandals* reminds us of another investigation / scandal out of the Volusia County Department of Public Protection (VCDPP). This other scandal transpired within the Fire Services Division of the VCDPP A female fire fighter had alleged that she was being sexually harassed by a co-worker and even though she had been apparently promised by a member of the internal affairs section (Captain Modzelewski) of the VCDPP, that her allegations would be properly investigated, they were apparently not immediately addressed. Only later, (approximately six months) and after her repeating the allegations to another Fire Service supervisior, were these allegations ever investigated.

*Captain Gardner has not been connected to the underage sex scandal - his inclusion into this article is due partly to the county's failure to produce his pre-employment back ground investigation. Some of the officers that have been identified as being connected to the underage sex scandal, have incidents in their back grounds that should have excluded them from law enforcement employment. Therefore, we present the county's failure to produce Gardner's back ground investigation, only to question the quality of these mandated pre-employment back ground investigations.

VCDPP Internal Affairs Captain Modzelewski concluded in his Internal Affairs investigation that the sexual harrassment allegations went un-investigated, due to the failure of two Fire Division captains (Moak and Whalen) reporting the alleged harassment up the chain of command.

In response, the County of Volusia terminated both Fire Captains Moak and Whalen, for failing to report allegations of sexual harassment.

Ironically, available documents tend to support that VCDPP Internal Affairs Captain Modzelewski knew of the allegations, via the direct report of them by the alleged victim to himself, approximately six months prior to either Captain Moak's or Whalen's knowledge of the allegations.

One of the captains appealed his termination to the Volusia County Personnel Board. During this board hearing, the captain's legal representative charged that VCDPP Internal Affairs Captain Modzelewski had such knowledge of the harassment allegations prior to his client's knowledge, and it was he (Modzelewski) that had in fact, failed to properly address and report them up the chain of command.

Both Fire captains were quickly re-hired by Volusia County government - Captain Modzelewski soon thereafter retired. Even though the alleged sexual harassment was NOT sustained in the delayed internal affairs investigation - the alleged victim was quietly given an out of court settlement / agreement.

We invite you to read and compare the current situation with the Fire Services investigation into alleged sexual harassment.

Lastly, VolusiaExposed.Com is preparing an article, that we hope will shed some light on why the Volusia County Beach Patrol seems to be experiencing so many ethical problems. We have uncovered evidence that suggests these problems have a connection to the re-organization of the department over a decade ago. Prior to this re-organization, the Beach Patrol had separate law enforcement and life guard branches. The life guard branch of the division did the life saving, while the law enforcement branch strictly enforced the law on the beaches of Volusia County.

In the late 1990s, Volusia County officials decided to combine the life guard and law enforcement responsiblities into one position. Unfortunately many of the then current law enforcement officers could not meet the physical requirements of the life guard duties. These law enforcement officers were reassigned to other law enforcment positions in county corrections or within the sheriff department.

Some of the evidence we have gathered regarding this re-organization of the Beach division suggests that the required, extensive background investigations that are required of all law enforcement officers were manipulated to allow some lifeguards to qualify to become certified law enforcement officers, that would not have otherwised qualified.

A quick example of these concerns can be seen in the background investigation of VCBP Officer Daryl Shone - this man appears to have submitted not only falsified information regarding his background, ie. false social security number etc., but he apparently was in the country illegally. How was that not discovered in a background investigation?

OTHER INFORMATIONAL LINKS - regarding this developing situation.

ADVISEMENT - There is no evidence to suggest that Captain Gardner has ANY involvement in the underage sex scandal.

VolusiaExposed.Com will continue to follow this developing story and will post relevant documents as they become available.