Review team: Tweak Tampa police DUI policy

Source: Tampa Tribune, Fla.迷你倉Jan. 23--A review of the Tampa Police Department's DUI policy should be tweaked a bit, according to a review team assembled by the department.The review was made in the wake of the firing of a DUI squad supervisor last year.The team recommended no changes to the existing policy, including more thorough reports and expansion of field sobriety tests.The summary of the report makes no mention of cases worked by former Sgt. Ray Fernandez, who was fired in September for his role in a high-profile DUI arrest that prosecutors later labeled a setup.In October, the Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office dropped charges in about a dozen drunken driving cases that involved testimony from Fernandez, a 19-year veteran of the department, and were looking at 40 active cases in which Fernandez played some part. If the sergeant was directly involved, such as initiating a traffic stop that ended with a DUI charge, the case likely would be dropped, prosecutors said.Also in October, Tampa police created a six-member team to review about 60 active DUI cases brought in 2013 that involved Fernandez above the 40 examined by the state attorney's office.Police Chief Jane Castor fired Fernandez on Sept. 27, citing five grounds for dismissal: lack of truthfulness, misuse of authority and failure to meet the department's standards of conduct, 自存倉rofessional responsibility and philosophy of enforcement.In his appeal of the termination, Fernandez said the firing was "arbitrary, capricious, excessive and not progressive in nature." His request to be reinstated to his $92,000-a-year job and get back pay was denied.Fernandez's attorney said the case would be taken to arbitration, the final step in the appeals process.The sergeant was fired after an investigation into Jan. 23, 2013, drunken driving arrest of lawyer Philip Campbell, who was in the middle of a high-profile defamation trial between dueling radio disc jockeys "MJ" Todd Schnitt and Bubba the Love Sponge Clem.The case against Campbell was later dropped when it was revealed the arrest happened after Fernandez received a tip from attorney Adam Filthaut, a close friend of his who worked for the law firm on the other side of the defamation case.Campbell was arrested after drinking at Malio's steakhouse in downtown Tampa with a paralegal working for the Adams and Diaco law firm, where Filthaut worked. Campbell was arrested after he was stopped in the paralegal's car, which she had asked him to move for her.Prosecutors later dropped the charge after concluding Campbell was set up.Copyright: ___ (c)2014 the Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Fla.) Visit the Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Fla.) at .tampatrib.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉出租