1 July 2001: Cryptome spoke with Dennis Cooper today (tel: 305-292-2108) to confirm that all his articles on the cop scandal are available in the KWTN archives cited below, including the ones that led to his arrest.

30 June 2001: Link to Dennis Cooper's blast of June 29, 2001:

http://kwest.net/~kwtn/local_news/01-06-29-KWTN-THE_ARREST_DID_DILLON_LIE_TO_JUDGE.html

27 June 2001


Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 22:32:56 -0400
To: politech@politechbot.com
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject: Police arrest newspaper editor for criticizing Florida cops
Cc: Office@KWTN.com, postmaster@KWTN.com, SSolares@keywestcity.com,
Attorney@keywestcity.com, JAvael@keywestcity.com, BDillon@keywestcity.com,
JWeekley@keywestcity.com, TomO@oosterbooster.com,
merilimccoy@compuserve.com, cpcjr@webtv.net, HBethel@keywestcity.com,
JAnthony@keywestcity.com, carmenturn@aol.com, emc@artifact.psychedelic.net,
cypherpunks@cyberpass.net

Police in Key West, Flordia have arrested a newspaper editor for printing an article that criticized an internal police investigation, according to an Associated Press report. This brutish action by police and prosecutors should be widely denounced.

As of this afternoon, the Key West newspaper's site at kwest.com was still up (I read what appears to be one of the articles in question at

http://kwest.net/~kwtn/local_news/01-06-15-KWTN-FDLE_Investigating_Police_Internal_Scandal.html).

But while the server is still alive -- it responds to ping requests -- connections to port 80 are now refused. Unfortunately, the article is no longer in my cache.

It looks like the editor, Dennis Cooper, is being prosecuted for allegedly violating a state law. Under Florida law, it's a crime to disclose information about a police investigation -- even if you're the person who had filed a complaint alleging police wrongdoing, as Cooper seems to have done.

You can find contact information for Key West officials here:

http://www.keywestcity.com/directory.html

http://www.keywestcity.com/depts/police/policetelephone.html

I've copied the mayor, the chief of police, and other officials. If they would care to reply, I would be happy to extend them the usual courtesy of distributing their response unedited.

If anyone puts up a mirror site with the article [see three articles by Cooper below], please let me know. And I urge you to write to the city officials copied above. (BTW I have verified that the below article did run on the AP wire.)

-Declan

---

From: Eric Cordian <emc@artifact.psychedelic.net>
Subject: Journalist Arresting for Criticizing Cops
To: cypherpunks@einstein.ssz.com
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2001 08:58:05 -0700 (PDT)

In today's news of the truly odd.

-----

KEY WEST, Fla. (AP) -- A newspaper editor and publisher was arrested for publishing an article alleging a cover-up in an internal police investigation he had filed an official complaint about, police records show.

Dennis Cooper, 66, editor of the weekly Key West The Newspaper, was arrested Friday and released two hours later on his own recognizance.

The affidavit for his arrest cites a Florida statute that makes it a misdemeanor for anyone involved in an internal police investigation to disclose information before it has been entered into public record.

Cooper has alleged a police lieutenant lied in court about a 1996 stop of a bicyclist, and that the Key West Police Department covered it up.

He filed a complaint last month with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement accusing an internal affairs investigator of falsifying information about his review of the incident.

[...]

---

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_StatuteSearch_String=&URL=Ch0112/SEC533.HTMTitle=->2000->Ch0112->Section%20533

>(4) Any person who is a participant in an internal investigation,
>including the complainant, the subject of the investigation, the
>investigator conducting the investigation, and any witnesses in the
>investigation, who willfully discloses any information obtained pursuant
>to the agency's investigation, including, but not limited to, the identity
>of the officer under investigation, the nature of the questions asked,
>information revealed, or documents furnished in connection with a
>confidential internal investigation of an agency, before such complaint,
>document, action, or proceeding becomes a public record as provided in
>this section commits a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as
>provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083. However, this subsection does not
>limit a law enforcement or correctional officer's ability to gain access
>to information under paragraph (2)(a). Additionally, a sheriff, police
>chief, or other head of a law enforcement agency, or his or her designee,
>is not precluded by this section from acknowledging the existence of a
>complaint and the fact that an investigation is underway.

http://legal.firn.edu/justice/01law.PDF

>Unauthorized disclosure penalties: Section 112.533(4), F.S., makes it a
>first degree misdemeanor for any person who is a participant in an
>internal investigation to willfully disclose any information obtained
>pursuant to the agency's investigation before such information becomes a
>public record. However, the subsection "does not limit a law enforcement
>or correctional officer's ability to gain access to information under
>paragraph (2)(a)."92


[Thanks to Anonymous for the three articles.]

This is G o o g l e's cache of http://kwtn.com/news/opinions/cooper,%20dennis%20reeves/1999/99-12-10-KWTN-Getting_Fired_For_Having_An_Opinion.html.
G o o g l e's cache is the snapshot that we took of the page as we crawled the web.
The page may have changed since that time.

____________________________________

Key West The Newspaper - December 10, 1999

Getting Fired For Having An Opinion and Writing About It

by Dennis Reeves Cooper, Editor & Publisher

There are plenty of financial disadvantages to running the only newspaper in town without a rich backer. But there is one super-dooper major advantage: Nobody can fire me for having an opinion and writing about it! That wasn't the case for Key West Police Lt. Tom Chapp back in 1997; and it wasn't the case for Joe Pais last week.

On Jan. 10, 1997, an excerpt from a long letter from Lt. Chapp was published in Key West The Newspaper. The full text of that letter was later published in the Citizen. Chapp's letter was rambling and philosophical. But the excerpt that got him in trouble was his opinion that it was OK for Bahama Village residents to fire guns into the air on New Year's Eve because it was a "cultural thing".

Several fellow officers filed Internal Affairs (IA) complaints against Chapp. And City Manager Julio Avael, at that time in a full court press to build a case against then-Police Chief Ray Peterson sufficient to fire him or force his resignation or retirement, reprimanded Peterson for "allowing" Chapp to publish the letter.

Chapp was subsequently fired, not for writing the letter, but for causes that resulted from his letter-writing. He didn't show up for his IA hearings. He says he he was too ill to sit through multiple hearings— they were all scheduled on the same day. And he had a note from his doctor. Too bad, Avael said. You're outta here. Chapp is suing the City. The trial started Monday and will continue into next week.

Last week, former City Commissioner Joe Pais was also fired for having an opinion and writing about it. He was fired from a job at the Key West Art & Historical Society (KWAHS) that he had held for 11 years. Pais' opinion, published last Friday in his regular column in this newspaper, was that soft drink vending machines with large, bright, back-lit panels on the front should be banned from the historical district. A previous column on the same subject had resulted in a lighted machine being removed from the cemetery. Joe's opinion about those who place these machines around town was stronger and stated more colorfully than our's would have been on the same topic— but it was his opinion.

Why would the management of the KWAHS care one way or the other about Pais' opinion on soft drink machines? Well, it seems that the local Pepsi Cola distributor is a contributor to the KWAHS and, reportedly, applied some pressure to some people over there who, apparently, don't stand up to pressure very well. And Pais was fied the same day his column appeared.

But what makes this whole scenario so bizarre is that Pais had already announced that he was resigning to accept a prestigious job up in Tallahassee in early January as Statewide Supervisor of Museum Services for the State Division of Historical Resources. One of his duties will be to administer grants to museums around the state.

So we have to ask: Who's bright idea was it to fire Pais after he had already resigned-- and insult the guy who will be instrumental in determining what museums will get what grants? (Duh!) Was a single member of the KWAHS board consulted before this radical action was taken? We don't know the answer to those questions because, if you can believe this, the official position of the KWAHS is "no comment"!

We called and faxed the office of Attorney Susan Cardenas, the president of the KWAHS. But she was, apparently, hiding under her desk. Maybe we would have been more successful in getting her to the phone if we had told her secretary that we wanted to give the KWAHS some money. No comment indeed!

What could they have been thinking when the snap decision was made to fire Pais after he had already resigned? The answer is that they wern't thinking at all. Didn't it occur to anybody over there that this could blow up into a major scandal? In fact, the five-column, all-caps headline in another weekly newspaper yesterday read: "Scandal Rocks Art & Historical Society!" The man was already leaving town! Those involved in the decision to fire Pais-- and it was, reportedly, a small group of people— may have seriously damaged the image of the Society that many, including Pais, have worked so hard to build. Who would want to give money to an organization that is being managed by people with this kind of witless judgment?

Now, we know Joe Pais pretty well. His "Pais Report" columns have appeared on this page every week since Nov. 10, 1995. We doubt that he will be vindictive when considering future grant requests from the KWAHS— assuming that there's anybody over there that can write a grant request now that Pais is gone. He's far too classy to be vindictive. And far classier than the knee-jerk performance of KWAHS's management last Friday.

We'll miss Joe's thoughtful contributions to our paper every week. Although we often disagreed with his opinions, our philosophy has always been that a variety of voices make our product more interesting. Good luck, Joe!

SEE JOE PAIS' FAREWELL COLUMN ON THIS PAGE; AND TWO RELATED LETTERS TO THE EDITOR ON PAGES 6 AND 7.


This is G o o g l e's cache of http://kwest.net/news/News/2000/00-02-18-KWTN-Clayton_Incident_Is_Not_About_Clayton.html.
G o o g l e's cache is the snapshot that we took of the page as we crawled the web.
The page may have changed since that time.

____________________________________

Key West The Newspaper - February 18, 2000

Why the "Clayton Incident" Is Not About Clayton

HERE'S A HISTORY LESSON FOR "CONSULTANT" CLAYTON. WOULD AVAEL PLOT TO DISCREDIT A CITY OFFICIAL? LET'S LOOK AT THE RECORD.

by Dennis Reeves Cooper

Did you catch the fawning interview with "motivational trainer" Paul Clayton in Solares Hill last week?

An editor's note ballyhooed the interview as Clayton's first public statement since his now-famous incident at the home of City Commissioner Tom Oosterhoudt last December. Clayton, as a City-paid consultant working directly for City Manager Julio Avael, reportedly warned Oosterhoudt that, unless he became more of a "team player", he would be isolated from City Staff and the other Commissioners and become a one-term Commissioner.

Key West The Newspaper was, apparently, the first to interview Clayton shortly after the incident. He told us that he went to see Oosterhoudt wearing both his Trust In Government Committee and Gay Liaison hats— hats that he's paid by the City to wear. After the incident blew into a scandal, however, he changed his story. He now says he went to see Oosterhoudt as a "private citizen"— although he did admit that he reported back to Avael about the meeting. Why would a "private citizen" report back to the City Manager?

One of the things we did learn from the Solares Hill interview is just how absolutely wonderful Paul Clayton is— at least according to Paul Clayton. He says that he conducts seminars all "around the country", teaching people how to "empower" themselves. He says he makes lots and lots of money and that his $27,800 contract with the City is "cheap."

"I can make in a day elsewhere what I make in a month on my contract with the City," he was quoted as saying. Yeah, right, Paul. That may be a good pick-up line in a bar, but it doesn't fly with hard-working Key Westers who are really pissed off that Julio Avael continues to allow you to dip into our tax coffers.

In the interview, probably much to Avael's chagrin, Clayton did admit that he has used his City seminars to get City employees to sign petition cards to help a local politician get on the ballot. This is an interesting admission, because Avael told the City Commission on Jan. 25 that he didn't know anything about it.

But Key West The Newspaper had informed Avael of the allegations, in writing, a week or so earlier. It would be hard to believe that Avael wouldn't ask Clayton about something like this, especially if he thought he might be questioned about it by the Commission. Surely Avael's policy is that City employees should not politic on City time or on City property. Right?

Here's what we think. Of course Avael asked Clayton about it. And when he learned that the allegations were true, he had to fib when Oosterhoudt asked him about it at the Commission meeting.

The City employee who anonymously reported the petition card allegation said he went along with Clayton's request to sign the card— even though he didn't know anything about the politician in question— because he didn't want Clayton to think he wasn't a "team player."

Clayton says he didn't bill the City for the time it took to pass out the cards, promote the candidate and collect the cards. That's good. If you believe it. But those employees sitting in that room were certainly on the City time clock. In essence, that time was stolen and used for something other than City business. But that's apparently okay with City Manager Julio Avael.

But as we have told you before, the Clayton Incident isn't really about Clayton. It's about Avael. Avael, Clayton and Solares Hill would like you to believe that the incident is a tiny tempest in a very small teapot. But it's not. In fact, we believe that it may have been part of an orchestrated effort by Avael to discredit Oosterhoudt— a known enemy of Avael on the Commission— and ensure that he becomes a one-term Commissioner.

Avael, of course, will publicly scoff at this suggestion. "I wouldn't do anything like that," he will say piously. But the fact is that he did do something like that— in 1997 when he systematically discredited former Police Chief Ray Peterson and, ultimately, forced one of the most popular police chiefs in the history of the City to retire! Virtually no one who was here to witness that outrage believes that Avael acted honorably.

Clayton says he "wasn't around" then— although he claims to have lived here for 13 years. But he still blindly defends what Avael did to Peterson.

If you've been in town since 1996, bear with us for a moment while we give Clayton a little history lesson. (Hey, Paul. Clip this and put it in your dossier on Avael.)

First of all, even though Avael won't admit it, most of us know that he had to agree in advance to get rid of Peterson in order to get the job of City Manager here. Mayor Dennis Wardlow blamed Peterson for calling in the FBI to investigate corruption in City government, an investigation that resulted in the Mayor being indicted on bribery charges.

Wardlow was subsequently acquitted, but then the State Ethics Commission nailed him on influence peddling charges. He was fined $12,900 and given a public reprimand.

We reported our suspicions about a possible pre-employment deal in June 1996, even before Avael moved into his new office at City Hall. In May 1997, another candidate for the City Manager job confirmed our suspicians when he told us that he was asked if he would fire Peterson if he got the job.

"When City Manager Felix Cooper announced that he would be retiring, I went to talk to the Mayor and some of the Commissioners," said former City engineering executive Paul Mitchell. "Mayor Wardlow asked me straight out if I would be willing to fire Chief Peterson if I got the job. I told him I would not feel comfortable firing him without cause.

"It was clear that firing Peterson was Wardlow's primary objective."

Former City Manager Felix Cooper also told us in April 1997 that Mayor Wardlow and others repeatedly "leaned" on him to find reasons to fire Peterson.

"I resisted that pressure because I thought Peterson was a fine Chief," Cooper said.

In any event, Clayton and other readers may be surprised to learn that Avael was not the Commission's first choice to replace Cooper. We reported here in May 1996 that Mayor Wardlow and Commissioners Harry Bethel and Percy Curry wanted to promote Assistant City Manager Paul Cates. Commissioners Jimmy Weekley, Sally Lewis and Carmen Turner were leaning toward Kathi Rice, Assistant City Manager up in Clearwater.

Commissioner Merili McCoy was the swing vote. She alone wanted Avael. And here's how she pulled it off:

When a vote was called to name Cates to the job, McCoy voted "no." That gave Cates only three votes, one short of victory.

Then McCoy quickly nominated Avael. Wardlow, Bethel and Curry had no intention of allowing Weekley to choose the next City Manager, so they were literally forced to go along with McCoy.

"At least he's a Conch," they rationalized. Avael is a Key West native and a graduate of Key West High School.

But Avael came with baggage. In January 1993, when he was County Administrator up in Lee County, County Commissioners gave him a choice: Get fired or take a demotion. He accepted the demotion.

After Avael was demoted, the Ft. Myers News-Press editorialized: "Now that two members of last year's special interest troika are out of office (County Commissioners), along with their hand-picked hatchetman (Avael), County government has a chance to move forward . . . Lee County's name has been dragged through the mud for too long now by public officials engaging in questionable dealings that benefited special interests."

In July 1996, three days before Avael officially took over as Key West City Manager, he swore to KWTN writer Mike Smith, "I'm no hatchetman!"

But just three months later, rumors began to circulate that Avael had offered Peterson a retirement deal he wouldn't be able to refuse. But if there was ever a deal, it quickly fell apart. Peterson said he had no plans to retire.

So Avael got busy. If he couldn't force Peterson to leave, he knew he would be in trouble with the Mayor and other Commissioners to whom he had given a get-Peterson commitment.

In early March 1997, Avael unveiled a hand-drawn chart he said illustrated some of the "administrative problems" he had observed in the Police Dept. Primarily, Avael seemed concerned about who reported to whom.

A few days later, however, Avael abruptly suspended Peterson with pay, pending an investigation of unnamed "problems" within the Police Dept.

Enter Tom Oosterhoudt.

"I was outraged when I saw this happening," Oosterhoudt said. "And it seemed that everybody I talked to was outraged. Ray Peterson was one of the best Chiefs we ever had. I couldn't just stand by and allow Avael to get away with this politically-motivated travesty."

Hundreds of citizens turned out at protest rallies organized by Oosterhoudt. Activists Ray and May Chote conducted a "thumbs-up, thumbs-down" campaign on Roosevelt Boulevard at the entrance to the island.

"By far, most people supported Chief Peterson," reported the Chotes.

On the other hand, the police union, the Police Benevolent Association, backed Avael. When we asked for a list of names of the cops who had voted to betray their Chief, we didn't get a response. This is the same PBA chapter that would soon be put on probation by the state organization for "checkbook irregularities." This is the same PBA that would endorse Michael Ritchie for the City Commission in 1999.

On April 10, 1997, Avael unveiled his now-infamous "Blue Book" of charges against Peterson. If it hadn't been such a serious matter, this amateurish and deceitful effort would have been laughable. Most of the charges had no merit at all. And those that may have had some substance certainly would not warrant the firing of a popular Police Chief with an excellent record.

Avael's desperate strategy was obvious. Charge Peterson with anything. Anything. Substance was of absolutely no consequence. It was classic in-your-face Bubbaism. Make the charges, have some kind of hearing, and fire the man. The deed would be done. And everybody would soon forget all about it.

How could Avael get away with this? Because he had the backing of the Mayor and three City Commissioners: Wardlow, Bethel, Curry and McCoy. They were forced to show their colors at a special Commission meeting on July 3, 1997. All four voted to support Avael if he wanted to demote Peterson.

Let's look at a few of the "charges" in Avael's Blue Book.

First of all, he cited the report by the so-called "Blue Ribbon Panel" that had taken a look at "problems" within the Police Dept. in 1995. Avael said that this report pointed to "managerial deficiencies" on the part of Peterson.

That was a lie. The major finding of that panel was that there was too much political interference in the Dept. by elected officials. And the cops were bitching about radio equipment.

"If they're claiming that officers who testified before that panel were complaining about Peterson, that's absolutely wrong," said former City Manager Cooper. "I sat through every one of those sessions. The big concern was communications equipment, not the Chief.

"So we bought new equipment and the Dept. now has a new communications room," he said.

Another "charge" blamed Peterson for "allowing" one of his officers to write a letter to the editor. We're not making this up.

Another charge was a whining protest by Police Capt. William McNeill that a reprimand he received from Peterson— after McNeill loudly and publicly cursed several of his officers— was "improper."

Another "charge" was that Peterson had written a "character reference" letter for a prominent gay businessman— a former Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year— accused of a "lewd" act. Everybody who was anybody in town had written similar letters. But Avael said the Chief of Police's letter was an example of "an attempt to gain popularity despite the character of the individual."

After an almost silly hearing conducted by a virtually clueless retired judge from Miami, it was Avael— not the judge— who ruled that Peterson had been found guilty.

If you were following this story back then, you probably remember the judge's bizarre "ruling": "If true, these charges would warrant dismissal." And the judge took his fee and got out of town as soon as possible.

Avael: "Close enough! Peterson is guilty!"

The City would now negotiate a settlement deal with Peterson and his attorney. This part would not go as well as Avael might have hoped.

Peterson's attorney was top-gun J. Allison DeFoor, former judge, former sheriff, former candidate for lieutenant governor. He whipped the City like a cur dog. Peterson retired at the full rank of Police Chief, with a sizable financial settlement and a pension. And— get this— a letter was placed in Peterson's personnel file that certified that all of those charges against him were "deemed unfounded"! Duh!

But Avael could have cared less about all of that. He didn't care what the settlement cost the City. And he didn't even care that he had to admit that all of those Blue Book charges were just a bunch of baloney. (Heck, we all knew that all along, didn't we?)

All he cared about was that he had accomplished the dirty work that he had promised he would accomplish. He had told them in advance that he would get rid of Peterson if they would make him City Manager. Done deal.

So, Julio, don't you— or your hired apologist— dare try to tell people in this town that you wouldn't stoop to organizing a back-room plot to try to get rid of Tom Oosterhoudt. Your record is clear.

Last year, Tom Oosterhoudt ran for City Commission as an anti-corruption, quality-of-life candidate. Chief Peterson came down from his home in Jupiter to walk door-to-door with the him.

"It was like campaigning with a movie star," Oosterhoudt said. "He still has tremendous support here. Everybody knows that he was terribly wronged."

Tom won by a landslide over a slate of formidable opponents.

Toward the end of last week's interview in Solares Hill, Clayton made a telling statement that reveals his lack of understanding about Key West politics: "I think the whole problem with him (Oosterhoudt) is that he hasn't made the transition from activist to Commissioner."

Paul, in this town, that's a plus, not a minus. Many of the voters voted for Oosterhoudt because he had the courage to stand up for Peterson against the forces of evil. The reason we liked him is because he's an activist. Why, then would we want him to change once he's in office?

If the Clayton Incident was part of a scheme to "get" Oosterhoudt, it blew up in the schemers' faces. Oosterhoudt is probably more popular now than he was when he was elected. If he ran for reelection tomorrow, it is likely that his margin of victory would be greater than it was in November.

Meanwhile, we would speculate that neither Avael nor Clayton could get elected to anything here.


This is G o o g l e's cache of http://kwest.net/news/News/2000/00-06-30-KWTN-Avael_DoublespeakRevealedInPoliceScandal.html.
G o o g l e's cache is the snapshot that we took of the page as we crawled the web.
The page may have changed since that time.

____________________________________

Key West The Newspaper - June 30, 2000

Avael Doublespeak Revealed In New Police Department Scandal

WHEN APPROVING FORTUNE'S PROMOTION TO POLICE CAPTAIN, BOTH DILLON AND AVAEL REPORTEDLY KNEW ABOUT HIS SEXUAL AFFAIR WITH A 17-YEAR-OLD BOY

by Dennis Reeves Cooper

If you've been around town for several years, you remember City Manager Julio Avael's vicious and embarrassing vendetta against then-Police Chief Ray Peterson.

Among the litany of allegations against Peterson in Avael's now-famous "Blue Book" was a charge that Peterson had sent a letter to a judge asking for leniency for a prominent citizen who had pled "no contest" to a charge of attempting a lewd and lascivious act involving a child at a school bus stop.

According to Avael, "This is an example of Mr. Peterson's . . . attempt to gain popularity despite the character of the individual." He held up this "charge" as one reason Peterson should be fired as Police Chief.

But last year, when it was time to fill an opening for captain within the Key West Police Department (KWPD), Avael and Police Chief Dillon selected Thomas "Bill" Fortune, an officer who had previously lost his job as a Monroe County Sheriff's Deputy in 1985 when it was learned that he had had a sexual "affair" with a 17-year-old boy.

Dillon told Key West The Newspaper that both he and Avael knew about Fortune's past when they approved his promotion.

Presumably they both also knew that Fortune had falsified his application when he applied for a job with the Key West Police Dept., representing that he had never been discharged or forced to resign because of misconduct or unsatisfactory service.

On March 5, 1985, Sheriff Billy Freeman gave Fortune the choice of resigning or being fired from his job as a Deputy Sheriff.

"It has become apparent that you do not meet the standards of efficiency, morale and reputation required . . . for the responsible position of Deputy Sheriff with this department," wrote Undersheriff Lawrence Meggs in a letter to Fortune.

Fortune's resignation letter was short and to the point: "I hereby submit my resignation effective March 5, 1985."

The forced resignation came one day after Sheriff's Dept. Inspector Mike Young reported the results of his internal affairs criminal investigation. The report concluded that Fortune had consensual sex with a 17-year-old male high school student on as many as four occasions. On one occasion, Fortune and the boy reportedly spent a weekend together.

The young man had been a participant in the Sheriff's Cadet Program.

On March 6, 1985— the day after he had resigned from the Sheriff's Dept.— Fortune applied for a job with the KWPD, representing that he had left the Sheriff's Dept. because of a "personality conflict." He answered "no" to the question, "Have you ever been discharged or forced to resign because of misconduct or unsatisfactory service?"

Apparently, KWPD officials conducted no background check and Fortune was hired.

In 1991, somebody blew the whistle on Fortune concerning the falsification of his application. There was an internal investigation— and he was given a 10-day suspension.

Fortune's "secret" has been rumored around the Police Dept. for months, but it has been difficult to investigate.

When Fortune was first promoted to captain, a source inside the Police Dept. speculated that it was because "Avael had something on him. He can control Fortune." But our source couldn't provide any specifics.

Early this year, we heard the rumor that Fortune had been involved in "some sort of child abuse maybe 10 years ago."

We called the local office of the State Dept. of Children & Families (DCF) and asked who we might contact to investigate child abuse allegations concerning "a high-ranking police officer." We never heard from anybody at the DCF— but we heard from Chief Dillon that same day.

He told us that there was, indeed, something in Fortune's past that he wasn't proud of— but that he had gotten his life together and that "he is a fine police officer." But Dillon refused to provide specific information.

He also asked us to kill any story we might be planning. But we didn't have a story planned. We didn't have enough information.

Dillon also refused to tell us who at the DCF tipped him off that we were sniffing around. We do know, however, that RaiEtte Avael, the City Manager's wife, is one of the managers there.

When we checked with the Sheriff's Dept., we were told that most of Fortune's records had been purged. But we did learn that an internal investigation had "sustained" an allegation that Fortune had "sexual activity with a juvenile" and that he had lost his job because of it.

Then we wrote to the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement's Criminal Justice Professionalism Program. And we thought for awhile that our request for information had disappeared into that governmental black hole in Tallahassee. But not so.

This week, we received more than 200 pages of documents which provided detailed— very detailed— information of Capt. Fortune's ill-fated "affair," the investigation that led to his departure from the Sheriff's Dept., and the subsequent KWPD internal investigation into allegations that he falsified his employment application.

We have no reason to believe that Capt. Fortune is not a good police officer or that he is doing anything less than an excellent job as one of two captains on the force. The story here is not Fortune. It's Avael's demagoguery and double-speak.

On one hand, Avael argued that Peterson should be removed as Chief of Police— certainly a radical action— because he, along with many other civic, political and business leaders, appealed for leniency for a popular local figure who was in trouble for allegedly hitting on a young boy. Avael gave us all the impression that he was terribly offended and revolted by Peterson's odious and unsavory act.

Then, Avael does a major flip-flop. He actively participated in the promotion— to one of the highest-ranking positions in the Police Dept.— of a man he reportedly knew had had a sexual relationship with a male juvenile.

And, on top of that, Avael surely knew that Fortune had falsified his employment records in order to get his job with the KWPD in the first place. That information is— or should be— in Fortune's personnel file.

So . . . do you think Avael talks out of both sides of his mouth, or what?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Both Chief Dillon and City Manager Avael have been aware for months that we've been researching this story. And we know that there has been at least one "damage control" meeting involving Dillon, Avael and others.

Earlier this week, we informed both Dillon and Avael that we now had the information from the FDLE. We even included Mike Young's very-detailed internal investigation report. And we asked for comments.

On Wednesday, we informed Police Dept. spokeswoman Cynthia Edwards that we planned to go with the story this week— and we again asked for comments.



Date: Sun, 01 Jul 2001 09:13:05 -0400
To: politech@politechbot.com
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject: FC: Embattled Key West newspaper harassed by cops is back online
Cc: flip@kwest.net

---

Background:

http://www.politechbot.com/p-02187.html
http://www.politechbot.com/p-02184.html

---

Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2001 01:31:51 -0400
From: Flip Ferrari <flip@kwest.net>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
CC: politech@politechbot.com, Office@KWTN.com, postmaster@KWTN.com,
         SSolares@keywestcity.com, Attorney@keywestcity.com,
         JAvael@keywestcity.com, BDillon@keywestcity.com,
         JWeekley@keywestcity.com, TomO@oosterbooster.com,
         merilimccoy@compuserve.com, cpcjr@webtv.net, HBethel@keywestcity.com,
         JAnthony@keywestcity.com, carmenturn@aol.com,
         emc@artifact.psychedelic.net

Subject: Re: More on arresting reporters and Florida case, by Paul McMasters

View the New issue of Key West The Newspaper on-line now!  Front Page lead article is the first official statement by our editor/publisher since his arrest.

Last weeks articles (and ALL prior articles dealing with the current police scandal) are viewable in the archives section.

Sorry for being offline a bit earlier this week, and not haveing last weeks articles online until now, it was a technical problem and in no way related to current legal/political situation.

Flip

Webmaster, kwtn.com

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