Sheriff's Deputy Bought iPhones from Druckemiller Too

Does Not Come Forward Until Identified in AT&T Subpoena

- Naked Conch - Posted by Matt Gardi -  October 28, 2012
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As the Monroe County dog and pony show of personnel hearings progress, centered around the FIVE County employees in addition to County Administrator Roman Gestesi, a few small inconvenient truths have systematically been filtered out of public awareness.  It all centers around one very special "Footnote 16" of the eloquently composed Grand Jury Report prepared by Assistant State Attorney Mark Wilson.

You see, buried in "Footnote 16" is the small insignificant fact that Vicki Fleck-Lockwood, one of the individuals referenced on that page as someone who is related by blood or marriage to Lisa Druckemiller is ALSO a County employee.  Our flowery Grand Jury report goes on to paint the picture that friends, relatives and neighbors are somehow less culpable than County employees, as employees should have known better.  But somehow it also seems to excuse those County employees that are also friends and family, as if being part of one subset removes you from the other.  You know, kind of like... if you are an ax murderer AND in the Church choir, certainly there is nothing wrong with the bloody hatchet in your hand.

In this case, while Fleck-Lockwood is able to escape the scrutiny of being a County employee due to the fact she is also related to Druckemiller, the report oddly fails to mention where exactly it is that Ms. Fleck-Lockwood works....or should I say....where DEPUTY Fleck-Lockwood works.  Yes, that is correct.  You see she is employed by none other than the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.

But most disturbing, beyond the fact that she is a County employee, and a Law Enforcement Officer, is how she handled the fact she had purchased an iPhone from Druckemiller.  Recall that in the days and weeks after the story broke it became apparent that there may be a number of iPhones that Druckemiller had sold circulating throughout our community.  Many news reports suggested that the State Attorney was calling for anyone with a Druckemiller iPhone to bring it in for review.  So did DEPUTY Fleck-Lockwood run to the State Attorney to assist a fellow agency with a criminal investigation? No.

Did she turn in the phone a month later?  No.  Did she turn in the phone TWO months later?  No.  In fact, she never came forward to present the phone to the State Attorney.  In fact, according to Investigator Weber's report (See Here) it was only after records subpoenaed from AT&T identified her as someone in possession of a County iPhone, almost FOUR MONTHS later in June, that she admitted to having purchased the iPhone from Druckemiller.  It was only after Investigator Weber went to her to investigate, that Law Enforcement Officer Fleck-Lockwood admitted to buying the phone from Druckemiller.  But she is a blood relative, so I guess that makes it OK.

So while only five County employees are under the threat of potential disciplinary action by our circus of a review process, what does our Sheriff's Office do with their staff member?

I asked Colonel Ramsay both in his capacity as Under Sheriff, and as a Candidate for Sheriff what discipline was meted out and what he would do as Sheriff.  True to form, Ramsay failed to respond.  I guess he thinks our community doesn't deserve an answer, or he only likes to respond to news sources that he has dumped boatloads of campaign cash on.

His opponent, Tom Peteck did respond though.  While he didn't want to directly address Fleck-Lockwood without all the specifics, he did say have this to say:

Yes, a law enforcement officer is held to a higher standard than the general public.  So even if the county fails to discipline their employees the sheriff can and should if its is determined the deputy violated policy or a standard of conduct, discipline a deputy.  In general if a deputy becomes aware of an investigation being conducted by another agency and they believe they might be involved of course that deputy should cooperate with that agency.

I like the use of those words...higher standard.  Has a catchy ring to it, don't you think?  Better than ignoring the issue.  Better than an obscure little footnote, which mind you contains a lot more than meets the eye or is discussed here in this post....more to come.  Footnote 16 kind of reminds me a little of Area 51...there's a lot of mysterious things being hidden in there.  Dig around a bit, see if you can find anything else.