A story in this weekend’s St. Peterburg Times publicly acknowledged some problems currently experienced by Hernando County’s prosecutors due to the reputation of a local law enforcement officer. Shawn Terry, currently a Brooksville police officer, has been in law enforcement for ten years, first as a sheriff’s deputy in Pasco and Hernando counties. Complaints, investigations and reprimands have apparently made many prosecutions in which he is involved difficult for the state.

The Times article claims that prosecutors say they handle his cases with extra caution. Some defense attorneys have questioned his integrity in jury trials. The question for the Brooksville police department and Hernando prosecutors is whether Terry’s credibility has been so compromised as to make his involvement in cases an irreparable hindrance to conviction.

The PD apparently doesn’t think so. In October, Chief George Turner promoted Terry to detective, calling him a “fine officer.”

“His reputation is for not being totally truthful in his statements, either blatantly fabricating or not being forthcoming,” said lawyer Peyton Hyslop to the newspaper.

“You need to have credibility (as an officer), and once you lose it, it’s very, very difficult to get it back,” said Don Barbee, the top assistant state attorney in Brooksville. The Times article indicated that Barbee admitted that some local prosecutors had concerns with prosecuting Terry’s cases.

Shortly after joining the Hernando County sheriff’s office in 2000, Terry stopped a car in Brooksville for driving too slowly. Tensions escalated, and Terry forcibly removed a passenger from the car. A witness said Terry “body-slammed her” as he made the arrest. Complaints were filed suggesting racism and excessive force.

Although an internal investigation determined that Terry’s actions fell within his discretion as an officer, supervisors were concerned by Terry’s high rate of arrest for resisting arrest and battery on a law enforcement officer. They concluded that he overused physical force and ordered Terry to attend counseling.

In the next two years, Terry was investigated for seven more alleged policy violations, ranging from failing to return messages to making threatening statements to a suspect to excessive force. He received two reprimands.

Despite this history, Terry was promoted to detective in the major crimes unit in 2004.

In August 2005, Terry arrested Ron Shelton for sexual battery against his (Shelton’s) daughter. Records show that Terry called Shelton’s ex-wife Natalie incessantly and declined to investigate the little girl’s additional allegations against others because he thought it would jeopardize the case against Ron Shelton.

Eventually, Natalie Shelton told caseworkers that she performed oral sex on Terry and had sexual intercourse with him in order to get her case more attention. Terry denied these allegations and then resigned from the sheriff’s department. Investigators ultimately cleared Terry of these allegations but prosecutors dropped the charges against Ron Shelton.

A week after his resignation, Terry took a job at the Brooksville Police Department. Seven citizen complaints were filed against Terry in Brooksville by the end of 2007. All were dismissed.

In October 2007, Terry stopped to assist a deputy with a traffic stop. The deputy said Terry recognized the passenger as someone who had previously resisted arrest by Terry. Terry ordered the passenger to step out. The deputy later found a brick of cocaine under the passenger seat. Both the driver and passenger denied knowing about the drugs.

The driver said his uncle had told him to give Townsend a ride that night. According to the driver, Terry then told him what to write to save himself and incriminate Townsend. Terry threatened the driver with 30 years in prison. Terry denied all of this in a sworn deposition later.

Terry didn’t realize that a video camera in the deputy’s car had taped the entire interaction. Terry was caught falsifying events under oath. Prosecutors soon dropped the case against the passenger.

The passenger’s defense attorney suggested that Terry committed perjury. Prosecutors declined to file charges, stating “[t]he charge of perjury is one of the hardest things to prove.You need to prove he knew he wasn’t telling the truth.” Terry told his supervisor he “simply forgot a small part of what occurred.”

The police chief gave Terry a written reprimand for failing to prepare for a deposition.

The article concluded with a story about a not-guilty verdict quickly returned by a jury recently in which the case hinged on Terry’s testimony. The defense attorney attacked Terry’s credibility and reputation. The state lost its case. At some point, police and prosecutors will likely tire of repeatedly fighting the battle over Terry’s history.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 at 5:26 pm and is filed under Florida Criminal Law News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.