VOLUSIA EXPOSED.COM

OFC. MARTHA J. TROBEE was she retaliated against ?

Updated April 4, 2010

“It is the spirit and not the form of law that keeps justice alive.”- Earl Warren



In 1999 an inmate accused an Volusia County Correctional officer of forcing him to perform oral sex. The officer initially denied the accusation, but admitted to masturbating himself while on duty. Apparently, Officer Trobee felt that the acts that the officer had already admitted to was enough to have him removed from duty, pending the completion of the criminal review. VCDC had kept the suspect officer on duty and during this time frame another sexual based allegation surfaced. Officer Trobee wrote the below email requesting the the County Council review why the suspect officer was remaining on duty pending the completion of the law enforcement investigation



In response to Officer Trobee sending her email and because she had identified the alleged victim of an sexual assault, she was criminally charged with identifying a alleged sexual assault victim. (F.S. 794.024 and 794.03)



Apparently, to be able to charge someone with identifying the victim of a sexual assault, the victim of the sexual assault has to file a complaint. Apparently, VCDC filed charges against Officer Trobee and months later learned that they must gain the permission of the alleged sexual assault victim. As indicated by Director Moore's (Volusia County Department of Public Protection) February 2000 letter the jail was unsuccessful in gaining the cooperation of the alleged sexual assault victim in the persuading of criminal charges against Officer Trobee. It was alleged that the victim / inmate held the belief that short of Officer Trobee making this matter an issue that no action would had been applied against the subject officer.



Accordingly, the Florida State Attorney filed an "Annoucment of NO FILE" on the charges filed against Officer Trobee. However, this was many months after these charges had been filed. The delay in dropping the charges against Officer Trobee were considered to be a deliberate attempt to harass her.



Office Trobee appealed her "Letter of Reprimand" in a February 26, 2000 letter to the County Manager. In the end the reprimand was repealed. In this letter, Officer Trobee documents that she was advised my representative of the State Attorney's office that they believed her actions to be 00correct and that the State Attorney office had no desire to be used to advance an political agenda.



The suspect officer did end up losing his job and did serve a minor jail sentence for his illegal conduct.

Officer Trobee left the DOC in 2002 due to medical concerns.