Until this afternoon, Maybor Bob Buckhorn's voice has been missing from the recent TPD DUI department scandal regarding Tampa attorney Phillip Campbell's drunk driving charges.
Today, Police Chief Jane Castor held a news conference to announce the creation of a six-person team to review previous arrests by the DUI department. The mayor weighed in with his first public pronouncements since the Pinellas County State Attorney's Office released a scathing 24-page report last week that detailed the efforts of a pair of private attorneys who worked with Tampa police to set up Campbell's arrest last winter.
Castor said that the "DUI Review Team" will begin by researching all open cases made by Sergeant Ray Fernandez and Officer Tim McGinnis. Then the team will take a random sample of DUI cases to review the elements of every arrest.
"Over the last week, Chief Castor has decentralized the DUI unit and assembled a team of trusted professionals from both inside and outside of the department to review Fernandez and McGinnis' cases, as well as random sampling of other DUI cases," Buckhorn said in a statement. "These steps can assure the public that the Tampa Police Department handles DUI cases appropriately and that the department will continue to serve our community with the integrity and professionalism that it is recognized for."
The review team will consist of Retired Circuit Court Judge Barbara Fleischer, the Attorney General's State-Wide Prosecutor Nick Cox, Chief Dean Register with FDLE's Inspector General's Office, and former DUI supervisors Sergeant Doug Groves and Lieutenant Eric Ward.
At her news conference, Castor said she would not fire Fernandez, who has had more than one controversial DUI arrest. He also pulled over Cuba advocate Al Fox earlier this year and arrested him for allegedly drunk driving, even though Fox registered a 0.0 blood alcohol level after being tested (Fox has said he is suing the TPD). The state attorney dropped the charges against Fox.
Castor said she is making the moves because not only does the TPD owe it to the community to ensure the integrity of these cases, but also to "our hard working DUI officers who are dedicated to stopping the threat of impaired drivers. They need to have the public support behind them as they are out there every night making arrests to stop drunk drivers, reduce crashes and ultimately save lives."
Castor's remarks imply that the TPD doesn't have the public's support right now; Fernandez's well-publicized case has led some to call for his ouster, though Castor said that is premature and she'll wait for the results of this investigation. Previously Castor said that there was no reason for the TPD to do anything about the situation, because it has been reported that the FBI is also looking into Campbell's civil rights possibly being violated at his Jan. 23 arrest.
Last week, Castor said that Fernandez "utilized bad judgment" when he failed to remove himself from the investigation. It has been reported that Fernandez is close friends with Adam Filthaut, a lawyer at the Adams and Diaco firm, who called him that night and texted with him 92 times during the evening.
Those texts were mysteriously erased the next day. Fernandez said they were erased when he tried to update his smartphone with a new operating system.