VOLUSIA EXPOSED.COM

Officer McCallister Did he receive special treatment? Why no criminal charges?

Updated August 4, 2010

“Nepotism - We promote family values here almost as often as we promote family members”- Larry Kersten, Sociologist


On March 21, 2010 a Flagler County Jail cook was arrested for allegedly attempting to smuggle in contraband into the county jail. Mr. Louie Scavetta is an employee of Trinity Food Services, a private company contracted to provide food services at the jail. Mr. Scavetta's arrest was profiled in an March 22, 2010 article in the Daytona Beach News Journal

According to the DBNJ article he was charged with attempted introduction of contraband into a detention facility; attempted delivery of a controlled substance into a detention facility; and introduction of contraband into a detention facility. He is also suspected in actually having supplied inmates with contraband.

It is interesting on how Mr. Scavetta was held on a $30,000 bond, but the Volusia County Division of Corrections appears not to take similar violations seriously. In May 2005 Volusia County Correctional staff receive information that at least one (if not more) of their certified correctional officers were smuggling in contraband into the jail. Please refer to the below report written by an Officer N. Wesner #516



Within Wesner's report, it appears that the inmate informant states that certain officer was smuggling in "DOPE" into the jail, does it not?. Due to these allegations the Division of Corrections opened an internal affairs investigation (IA-2005-05-185) within their IA unit in the Volusia County Department of Public Protection.

A request for public records produced the following document. Doesn't this document tend to support that Ofc. Mccallister was receiving payment from an female civilian to bring inmate(s) in contraband?



On May 19, 2005 it would appear that IA Investigator Captain Ken Modzelewski sent then Director of Public Protection, Francis T. Moore a memo that verifies that Officer McCallister admitted to the alleged misconduct, does it not? Please refer to the below document. Why was the investigation closed, just because the officer admitted the violations and resigned? Why wasn't the officer charged criminally in similar fashsion as Mr. Scavetta? Didn't this officer actually admit to the introduction of contraband and didn't he accept a bribe to do such from the female civilian? How about the female civilian, why no charges against her for the corruption of a public servant? Could it be that no charges were filed because Officer McCallister was the son of Jail Captain T. Mccallister? Was this officer protected? Was justice served? Is this how investigations are conducted in the Volusia County Department of Public Protection? Wasn't Captain Modzelewski also in charge of other high profile investigations, ie. the Fire Service sexual harassment and the Beach Patrol statutory rape investigations?



Here is Officer McCallister's CJSTC 78 form -- notice that on line 12 it appears to state that no criminal charges were filed.



What is interesting is that in the McCallister case the paper work tends to support that no criminal charges were sought against either Officer McCallister or the female civilian. Recently, it has been in the media that Osceola County Jail has had some serious problems, to include falsification of records and introduction of contraband by correctional staff. These violations centered around two escapes and one attempted escape involving a smuggled firearm. It appears that Osceola County is at least attempting to address these matters, officers have been criminally charged, terminated or suspended.

This month (March 2010) the Osceola Jail Director, Greg Futch advised the Osceola Board of Commissioners that a large group of his correctional officers live in a culture where they feel they are untouchable from disciplinary action. One is left to wonder - if this same culture of being untouchable is not also alive and well at the Volusia County Division of Corrections. What do you think?



ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:(Update August 4, 2010)

Click here to review a link from the Volusia Jail website that warns the public that introduction of contraband (to include tobacco) is a violation of criminal law.

Apparently, it is a third degree felony in Florida to introduce drugs or tobacco into a correctional facility - that is unless you are a correctional officer in Volusia County who has a father as a jail captain.

Florida Statute 951.22