City refuses Childers settlement

The Sarasota City Commission has accepted the recommendation of the city attorney, to forgo paying $56,750 in settlement of a lawsuit related to a 2009 case that resulted in the dismissal of the city police chief and a police officer.

Last month, the city of Sarasota received an offer from the nonprofit group Citizens for Sunshine seeking to settle the lawsuit the group had brought against the city’s Civil Service Board. The citizens group filed the suit after it claimed the board violated the state’s Government in Sunshine laws during a break in an April 2010 meeting.

The focus of that board’s session was an appeal, by former Sarasota Police Officer Christopher Childers, of disciplinary measures that led to his firing in November 2009.

A surveillance camera outside the Sarasota County Jail June 26, 2009, recorded Childers kicking a handcuffed suspect, Juan Gomez-Perez, after Childers had arrested Gomez-Perez on a charge of disorderly intoxication. A videotape, which was released to the public, showed Gomez-Perez slithering out an open back window of Childers’ patrol car. It next showed Childers kicking Gomez-Perez in the torso and knocking him back down when he tried to stand up.

Then City Manager Robert Bartolotta fired Childers in November 2009, in the wake of an investigation into allegations not only of Childers’ inappropriate action, but also into whether former Police Chief Peter Abbott had acted unethically to pay off the suspect, to pre-empt a lawsuit against the city.

Bartolotta later forced Abbott out of his position.

During the April 2010 Civil Service Board hearing, Childers was cleared of two disciplinary charges: using excessive force and engaging in conduct damaging to the Police Department.

However, according to the lawsuit, someone overheard two of the board members discussing the case during a break in the meeting.

That prompted Citizens for Sunshine immediately to file for an injunction with the Sarasota County Clerk of Circuit Court, seeking to have the meeting ended.

Because the meeting was halted, the board’s decisions have been in limbo, awaiting a judge’s ruling on whether a Sunshine Law violation had occurred. The case is set for trial in February.

In a Dec. 28 letter, Citizens for Sunshine attorney Andrea Flynn Mogensen, of Sarasota, urged the city to pay her client $56,750 in fees and allow the Civil Service Board once again to consider all three facets of Childers’ appeal.

The makeup of the board has changed since that April 2010 meeting, Mogensen has pointed out. One of the board members at the time — Paul Caragiulo —has been elected to the City Commission —and another board member died. If the city agreed to the settlement, Mogensen said, Citizens for Sunshine would drop the lawsuit.

City Attorney Bob Fournier urged the City Commission to stand fast on the case, saying he believed the agreement would “cut the Southwest Florida Police Benevolent Association out of the process.”

The PBA has filed a motion in the case, to support Childers. The motion points out that Childers “Prevailed on the two most serious charges (before the Civil Service Board) and very well likely could have been exonerated as to the remaining one.”

That third charge was failure to secure custody of the arrestee until the arrestee was accepted by the jail.
Fournier said he wants a judge to rule on the case, knowing any decision most likely will be appealed.

However, Morgensen told the commission Childers simply wants his case to be brought before a new panel of the Civil Service Board.

“The fact remains that Mr. Childers cannot receive another law-enforcement job until this matter is resolved,” Morgensen said. “He needs to be reinstated here and have his name cleared, so he can move on.”