By STEVEN BEARDSLEY
Naples Daily News
LEE COUNTY, Fla. — A Lee County deputy was fired last week after an internal affairs investigation found the officer hit a handcuffed suspect in the mouth when the man taunted him with racist comments.
According to the report, on Dec. 29, 2007, Cpl. Daryl Holton, a road patrol officer with eight years on the job, busted the lip of detainee Cory Coghlan, who had been arrested for DUI.
Witness statements said Coghlan, who is white, taunted Holton, who is black, with racial slurs and comments about Holton’s mother. Coghlan, 25, was handcuffed and seated in the back seat of Holton’s department SUV at the time.
A Lee County Sheriff’s Office internal investigation report dated June 5 concluded Holton used “excessive force resulting in injury.” The office forwarded the report to the state attorney general’s office, said Sheriff’s Office spokesman John Sheehan.
The report found that Coghlan’s claim matched a statement by Holton’s trainee, Deputy Christopher Loughren, who saw Holton strike the detainee “out of anger.”
Holton originally told investigators he “flicked” Coghlan in the mouth with three fingers but didn’t believe he cut the detainee. After being told that Loughren’s and Coghlan’s statements were consistent, Holton later said he didn’t remember how hard he had hit
Coghlan.
The report found another claim of excessive force by Holton to be unsubstantiated. In that claim, Michael Smith, whom Holton arrested for DUI in April, claimed the officer had choked him in the booking area at Lee County jail.
According to the report, video from the booking area showed Holton leaving his desk to grab Smith near his shoulder. The video also seemed to show Smith getting pushed, though much of the action is off-camera.
Holton said he had to restrain Smith, who was moving around, and that he didn’t know why Smith appeared to be pushed at one point.
The Sheriff’s Office began its investigation in May after Smith’s lawyer, Mark Ringsmuth, filed a complaint. The attorney then introduced investigators to Coghlan.
Ringsmuth declined to comment on the firing.
The internal investigation is the second into Holton’s job performance.
In March 2006, Lee County Court Division Chief Larry Justham filed a complaint after Holton missed two consecutive court hearings - one in which he was subpoenaed to testify — without warning the court.
Holton originally told investigators he was sick and felt dizzy on both days.
Ringsmuth, an attorney in one of the cases, noted that Holton’s timecard showed he had worked a 12-hour shift on both of the days he claimed to be sick.
Holton later told investigators that he felt better after the first day and didn’t remember being contacted about the trial the next day, which he assumed had been postponed.
As punishment, the Sheriff’s Office suspended Holton eight hours, Sheehan said.
Copyright 2008 Collier County Publishing Company