By Dan Sullivan
Tampa Bay Times
PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri fired five deputies this week over two separate incidents of misconduct in the jail.
One case involved a lieutenant, sergeant, corporal and deputy who watched, took pictures and ridiculed an intoxicated woman as she struggled to urinate while handcuffed alone in a cell. The other involved a deputy who sprayed Lysol in an inmate’s face after he refused to shut a food tray slot in a cell door.
Gualtieri announced the firings of all five deputies in a Wednesday afternoon news conference.
Those fired in the first case are Lt. Jason Franjesevic, Sgt. Keri-Lyn Colosimo, Cpl. Emmanuel Nomikos and Deputy Katherine Cantrell.
The woman, whom the sheriff did not identify due to the nature of the incident, was arrested May 15 at a Seminole bar on a disorderly intoxication charge.
When she arrived at the jail, she sat in a van inside an entryway for three hours due to an influx of arriving prisoners. In that time, she took off her pants because she needed to urinate. Deputies placed her in new pants and made her wait.
She was eventually brought into the booking room. Jail staff later alleged she refused to look at a facial recognition camera, tried to intimidate staff and refused to answer questions. However, an investigation determined she was merely slow to respond due to being intoxicated.
“She wasn’t doing anything wrong,” Gualtieri said.
Despite her complaints of needing to use a bathroom, the woman was placed in a cell without a toilet. Still handcuffed, she walked to a drain in the floor, squatted and urinated several times, the sheriff said.
She then moved to a bench, lay on her belly and shifted to her knees as she struggled to pull up her pants. As she leaned forward, security cameras caught images of her bare buttocks and genitals, according to a report of the incident.
Jail staff noticed. They began laughing and ridiculing the woman as they watched her on a computer screen.
Cantrell, according to a report of the incident, used her cellphone to take a picture of the woman. She then showed it to Colosimo, who laughed. She sent the picture to her husband and shared it in a social media group chat.
Nomikos did not stop Cantrell from taking the picture, according to a report, and he made comments “drawing the attention of nearby staff.”
A still image of the woman’s rear end was displayed on a computer screen in the booking room, where staff and inmates could see it, according to a report. Multiple people made coarse and lewd comments about the woman’s private parts.
Someone showed the picture to Franjesevic, who was the highest-ranking official on duty. He responded, “Oh, God,” according to a report. He later joined in the ridicule.
He later told internal investigators that he believed the woman had intentionally “mooned” the camera, according to a report. The lieutenant had one of his subordinates print a copy of the image, then showed it to several others before confronting and admonishing the woman.
She tried to explain she didn’t mean to expose herself, but the lieutenant dismissed her explanations, the report states. She became upset at seeing the image, was deemed “uncooperative” and moved elsewhere, according to the report.
After her release, the woman filed a complaint with the sheriff’s office, which spurred an investigation. It concluded that the four violated several policies, with a report noting that the situation created “an environment where immoral and demeaning behavior toward the inmate occurred.” Their conduct “brought discredit and embarrassment” to the sheriff’s office.
Gualtieri fired all four Wednesday.
In the other case, Deputy Jovan Hardwick was terminated over an incident that occurred Aug. 11 in the jail. Hardwick at the time oversaw a group of inmate workers who helped deliver food to a cellblock.
One cell housed a man the sheriff described as having mental health issues. The man was on suicide watch, a precautionary measure officially known as psychiatric observation status.
The workers delivered the man his food through a small door in the cell known as the “food trap.” After the meal, Hardwick told the man to close the food trap, but he refused.
Inside the cell, the man knelt down, placing his hands through the food trap door while trying to talk with the inmate workers.
Hardwick reached into a duffel bag and took out a can of Lysol disinfectant spray. He walked to the cell, reached through the food trap and sprayed the man in his face, the sheriff said.
The man then “became agitated,” Gualtieri said. Hardwick told other deputies to open the cell door. The man charged him before being wrestled to the ground and restrained.
Later, while writing a report about the incident, Hardwick lied, the sheriff said. He claimed he had sprayed the man with water from a bottle, which a video of the incident disproved.
He attached a photo of a water bottle, which the sheriff said his supervisors determined was an image of a bottle printed off the internet. Another photo showed the bottom of the supposed water bottle, Gualtieri said. A serial number visible on the item came back to a Lysol can.
An administrative investigation concluded that Hardwick violated several sheriff’s office policies. Gualtieri fired him Monday.
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