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what he got. A complete, fair, and t horough
investigation.
Q. Okay.
Did he tell you what led up to his running
Sergeant Cuddeback in this offline search?
A. I don't recall.
Q. I can see that there's about seven pages,
just about seven full pages of the investigative
report that focuses on the lost ID, correct? The
first seven pages?
A. Okay.
Q. How significant was the issue of Sergeant
Cuddeback's lost ID to sir?
1845
A. It's not a violation -- as I stated before,
it's not a violation to lose your ID. It's a
violation not to report it.
Do I consider that serious? Yes.
Considering you read in the paper every day about
home invasions and people running around with police
equipment and badges and ID's, yeah, I had some
concerns with that too. That was just something that
came up during the course of this investigation.
So do I consider it something that -- again
it's just the totality of everything. The order
which the Deputy Chief chose to investigate these
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1846
allegations and these preliminary-- that was his
call.
Q. Okay. Because, sir, your testimony is that
there's one issue here and you were very concerned
about the Explorers being abandoned --
A. Uh-huh.
Q. -- over in Fort Myers?
MS. MEVERS: The City would object as
mischaracterizing. He did not testify there
was only one issue here. I believe the
Chief testified throughout the day that
there was a totality of circumstances.
MS. DUFFY: He said - -
MR. ARBITRATOR: You may pursue. You're
both correct .
THE WITNESS: There was one - - the one
issue that rose to the most concern was the
abandoning of the kids.
There was another issue of concern
down the road as the investigation developed
of, you know, falsifying timesheets, putting
in for time that he didn't work.
And obviously, you know, the
losing of t he ID. I mean, being a sergeant
and not reporting your ID stol en or lost, I
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1 mean, that to me was just, you know, again,
2 just scores a bad judgment.
3 BY MS. DUFFY:
4 Q. Okay. We'll get into your concern of
5 criminal wrongdoing. Trust me on that one. With
6 regards to the lost ID --
7 A. Uh-huh.
8 Q. -- do you have -- you have an Officer
9 Fuentes?
10 A. Correct.
11 Q. Did he lose or misplace his ID?
12 A. Not to my knowledge, no.
13 Q. If that were to happen, is that-- and that
14 employee receives discipline or counseling or
1847
15 something like that, is that something that you would
16 know about?
17 A. Let me explain something.
18 Q. Yes or no and then you can explain.
19 A. Yes. But, you know, I'm the head of a large
20 police organization. I have other people that carry
21 out some of the functions of this organization. I
22 can't micromanage every one of my supervisors. And
23 if I don't know about an incident or something that
24 happens, then pretty much I can't make a judgment on
25 it.
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1848
1 You asked me if I was aware if Officer
2 Fuentes had lost his ID. I told you no.
3 Q. Okay. And if that had happened and if he was
4 counseled, spoken to, or disciplined, is that
5 something that should be brought to your attention
6 given the seriousness as you portray it of that ID
7 being lost?
8 MS. MEVERS: The City objects to this
9 question as it calls for speculation.
10 MR. ARBITRATOR: Overruled. I'll allow
11 him to answer it if he knows.
12 THE WITNESS: I'd have to hear
13 the circumstances of it. Are we talking
14 about someone who lost his ID and reported
15 it, or lost his ID and didn't report it?
16 As I stated early on, we wouldn't
17 even being talking about this if he had just
18 reported his ID lost or stolen, which he
19 knew he had to do as a supervisor.
20 If a patrolman comes in and loses
21 their ID, things happen. And if they report
22 it, then they are well within the confines
23 of policy and procedure. That's what he's
24 required to do is to report his lost ID.
25 At that particul ar point I'd have
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MR. ARBITRATOR: Overruled. She's
asking is there a policy.
THE WITNESS: Is there a policy? I'd
have to look at policy, but I don't think
so.
BY MS. DUFFY:
Q. Okay.
1853
In Sergeant Cuddeback's case with regards to
his lost ID, was a BOLO put out to all the other
agencies or surrounding agencies to be on the lookout
for a lost Coconut Creek ID?
A. No. Because he had already got his ID back
eight days later. And we didn't find out about it
until after the fact.
Q. You didn't find out about what?
A. We didn't find out about his lost ID until
after he had recovered it approximately six to eight
days later. There would be no need for a BOLO. He
had it at that point.
Q. Now, I'm looking at Deputy Chief's, his
Summary Report. And in it he recites a memorandum
that was prepared by Feisthammel in regards to the
lost ID. Do you recall that?
A. I'd have to see it.
Q. Well, it's on Page 4.
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A. What paragraph?
Q. Well, if you look at the bottom of Page 3.
A. Okay.
1854
Q. What it is is he's basically citing on Page 4
the entire memorandum. So I would say it's --
A. Am I looking at the right document? Can you
show me what you're looking at, Counselor? I just --
Q. I'm looking at page --
MR. ARBITRATOR: Page 3.
THE WITNESS: Oh, Page 3. I'm sorry.
BY MS. DUFFY:
Q. At the very bottom.
A. Okay. There we go.
Q. It makes reference to Feisthammel's
memorandum.
A. Uh-huh.
Q. And then he proceeds to, he meaning
Biondolillo, proceeds to I guess copy and paste that
memorandum from Feisthammel into his Summary Report,
which is Pages 4 through 5. Do you see that?
A. Yes.
Q. Okay. Now, June 30th was a Wednesday. If
you look at the top of Page 4 it says --
A. I'm sorry. Can you--
Q. June 30, 2010, was a Wednesday according to
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1 the Summary Report and the memorandum of Fei sthammel,
2 correct? On the top of Page 4, the Summary Report.
3 A. Top of Page 4. Okay. And what line are we
. 4 looking at?
5 Q. Very first line.
6 A. On Wednesday, June 30th, yes. Correct.
7 Q. When was sergeant, I'm sorry, Captain
8 Feisthammel to your knowledge brought i n to
9 investigate any portion of that matter?
10 A. I can only refer to the Deputy Chiefs report
11 at this point. It says on June 3oth.
12 Q. Okay. You said that on the 28th or 29th of
13 June that you communicated with Biondolillo and told
14 him to conduct a preliminary inquiry into the
15 abandonment of the children or Explorers over in Fort
16 Myers.
17 Did Biondolillo at that point or any time
18 prior to June 30th tell you that there was an issue
19 with regards to a lost ID by Sergeant Cuddeback?
20 A. Yes, I do believe he did.
21 Q. Okay. And do you know how that information
22 came into -- came to his knowledge?
23 A. I believe, again, it was-- it had to do with
24 the driver's license check of Mr. Cuddeback, seeing
25 that a replacement license was issued. And at that
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1 particular point I don't know if there was a notation
2 that it was lost or stolen. Checked with the police
3 report and apparently there was a -- attached to that
4 information was a Fort Lauderdale case number for a
5 police report for a lost or stolen ID. And that's
6 how we became aware of it I'm pretty sure.
7 Q. Okay.
8 And Captain Feisthammel, was he assigned to
9 the internal affairs unit?
10 A. He was the patrol captain.
11 Q. Patrol captain. Did you have an internal
12 affairs unit in June of 2010?
13 A. Not really, no.
14 Q. No. Who conducted investigations, internal
15 affairs investigations?
16 A. Prior to that it was Lieutenant Barclay who
17 was the division commander of the detective bureau.
18 I replaced Lieutenant Barclay with Lieutenant Tabel.
19 I don't remember the exact date.
20 And at that particular point Lieutenant
21 Tabel, I don't believe he had any lA investigations
22 up until then. He had no experience in IA
23 investigations. And since I had the Deputy Chief
24 there and again, I knew his capabilities, I basically
25 told him to investigate this.
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