TN THE CIRCU]T COURT OF THE

SECOND JUDICIAL CIRCUIT, IN

AND FOR FRANKLIN COUNTY, FLOR]DA

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STATE OF FLORIDA

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CASE

VS.

NO.

2OL4_CF_63

PAUL BYRD,

Defendant.

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DEPOSITION OF:

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TAKEN

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DATE TAKEN:

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LOCAT]ON:

AT THE

ERIC BRADLEY

TNSTANCE

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SEGREE

OF: The DefendANt

March 24, 2015

34 Forbes St.reet

Apalachicola, Florida

COMMENCING:

I:I'7 p.m

CONCLUDNG:

2:54 p.m

REPORTED BY:

PEGGY OWENS, RMR

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Registered ProfessionalReporter

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PEGGY OWENS

& ASSOCIATES (B5O) 222_601.0

APPEARANCE

EMILY FRAZIER, Assistant

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Second Judicial- Circuit,

Apal achi co1a, Florida

State.
DON

State Attorney,

34 Forbes Street,

Suite 2,

32320; appeared on behaf of the

PUMPHREY, JR . I

of Pumphrey

Prince, 553 East Tennessee

Law Offices

Street., TalIahassee, Florida

of the Defendant.

&

Attorney at Law, of the

32308; appeared on behalf

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INDEX

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PAGE

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lVITNESS

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ERIC BRADLEY

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SEGREE

Direct Examination by Mr.

Pumphrey

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EXHTBTTS

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No. I

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No. 2
No. 3

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Narcotics Checkpoint Ops Plan

207I Ruse Narcotics Checkpoint Ops Pl-an

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Diagram

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Ruse

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DEPOSITION

Whereupon,

ERIC BRADLEY

havlng been first.

cafled as a witness; after

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shrornr ws examined and testified

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O Pl-ease state your ful-f name f or the record.

A Flric Bradley Segree.
Okay. You spell your first, middle and last
a
name, just to make sure we are straight.
A Eric is E-R-I-C, middle is B-R-A-D-L-E-Y,
last name S-E-G-R-E-E.
O Captain, for the record, Don Pumphrey, Jr. on
behalf of Paul Byrd. Also present?
MS. FRAZER: Emily Erazier for the State.
MR. PUMPHREY: F-R-A

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MS. FRAZER: Z--E-R.

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--

Okay. Court reporters always

appreciate it. when we ask things like that.
MR. PUMPHREY:

MS. FRAZER: Of course.

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as follows:

BY MR. PUMPHREY:

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duly

DIRECT EXAM]NAT]ON

SEGREE,

BY MR. PUMPHREY:

So Captain,

I don't think you and I have

a depo together before.

A No, sir.

had

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O I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad

thing. So I'm going to ask you some questions. T
notce you have a copy of the ops plan which is
primarily what we wil-l be talking about?
A
f have a copy of it. Trve al-so got a copy of
the probable cause that Dwayne Coul-ter wrote and the
supplement that R. J. Shelley wroter s wel-l .
O Before we get oriented to the ops plan, \^Iere
you actually on scene and running the operation or
A Yes, sir. I guess you coul-d say that. I l^/as
the supervisor on scene at the time.
O Kind af , I guess what. hras confusing to me is
I coul-dn't establ-ish whether this hias an act.ualcheckpoint or this was just traffic interdiction that
was being done and a concerted effort?
A Right. I guess you coul-d bascalIy cal-l it
just. what it says here. The ruse or fake checkpoint,
if you will. It was, it was set up just l-ike the plan
says, to l-ook for any criminal- activity that. is taking
place on our roadways in Frankl-in County.
O So the reason f started here is because I
thought. about this for the l-ast year and kind of went
through it in my head. f've never seen the ruse
narcotics checkpoint. I actually had to look up what
the word f'ruserr meant. r Lhought I knew what it meant,

but it is basically like a trick or something. So Ifm

like, well, maybe they didn't mean for it to be a
because t.here is t.wo
checkpoint. Maybe that's
beasts we are looking wth, two different analysis.
One is as a l-aw enforcement officer, if you seen
illega1 activity on the roadways or something, you can

take action.

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Sure.

If you have a checkpoint, then certain

requirements and things you have to go through. Thatrs
a different analysis.
A Right.
O So just to start off, I mean, I haven't
talked to you before, have I?
A No, sir.
O OkaY.
A
r donf t bel-ieve we have.
O So sorry I didn't just pick up the phone and
tal-k to you, but prosecutors usually l-ike it if we all
sit down
A
Sure.
and talk together.
O
A Oh, yeah.
O But if this hras something that was more or
l-ess, because this is the Chili Cook-Off .
O

And Miss Peggy,

if f start talking too fast,

please l-et me know.

So my thought was

since 98 comes right

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is it Putnal- Street.?
A Putnal Station, Putnal Street. It was the
ol-d gas station at one time, Putnal Station out there.
It is a buij-ding.
O For those of us who gre\^/ up in t.he Big Bend
area, I had family in Sumatra. So travel-ed the
roadways a little bj-t
A Right.
f remember when there was a station there.
O
A R-ght .
O But Highway 98 is one way in and one hlay out.
The next a.l-ternative route would be in Carrabel-l-e

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maybe?

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through Franklin County

Yes, sir, Highway 61 North.

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O Okay. So once highway, you pass Highway 61

North, headed in the direction to Putnal, 98, there is
no al-ternative routes t.o get to St. George Isl-and

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between Putnal- and 61?

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No, sir.

There is, I mean there is multiple street.s

Okay. No, sir, t.here are no other rout.es or

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t.hat would run, and you could bypass different areas;

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but to get from Putnal- Station basically to St. George

Island, you are going t,o travel- west on Highway 98.
O Okay. And so that hias the direction of
travel- that was, t.hat. you guys were looking at.
A Yes, sir.
O Okay. Were you looking at the other
direction of t.ravel?
A
I wasnfL, oo sir.
O Okay. Wel-l-, now, make sure Irm cIear, you
are the captain who creat.ed the ruse ops plan.
A
I did. Now, I can't take credit for the
idea. We l-earned of this type of activity through a
training cl-ass that \^re had been through. And I have
tried t,o recal-l the name of the cl-ass t oy even what
class it was that I had taken, but. T canrt do that,

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but

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That's okay.
f did l-earn of this type of operation
through a cl-ass that we had sat in.
O Vfhen you say you sat in a class prior to the
date of this operation, was it. a criminal- justice

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standards cl-ass?

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A No, sir. It was, it was an extra c.l-ass or

narcotics identification cl-ass or something along those

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It wasnft, it.

lines.

standards, you know, through Pat

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wasn'L based on

the,

t.he

Thomas.

O Okay. Wel-l-, when I say criminal justice

standards and you correcL fr I fve been out of law
enforcement a long timer so things may have changed
but we used to take c.l-asses and we would get second
dollar funding.
A Right.
O fn other words, you would take a cl-ass. In
exchange for that, because you had a higher degree of
knowledge, you'd get paid money. But al-l of those are
run in some wy, shape or form through criminal just.ice
standards to make sure t.hey are meeting t.he standards
for state law enforcement?
A
Sure, yeah, f would agree with that.
O Okay. Was this cl-ass no\^I' there are all
kinds of cl-asses?
A Right.
O You coul-d have taken a Word Perf ect cl-ass.
And I'm sure that criminal- justice didn't. care about
recording that or keeping'track of it.
A Yeah.
O Vice narcotics, narcotics interdiction,
things, things of that nature, usually there is some
curriculum that is created, power point.s, things like

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that.
A
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Uh-huh.

And so who

put this particular cl-ass orlr if

you recal-l?

A !ell-, that's what I say. I can't recall- what

cl-ass. You know, you try not to create memories, but
myself, R. J. Shelley and Skip Shiver, who you
mentioned earl-ier, Sheriff Shiverr w al-l three went to
a narcotics cl-ass.
It \^ras actually more l-ike a conference' if
you will, out in Tul-sa, Oklahoma/ whil-e he was sheriff .
And if memory served me correct, thatrs where we
learned of this type of ops plan.
O Usually when you get things like this, it is
usually from a training program or something like that.
A Right, you pck up tidbits here and there.
So it is in Tulsa, Okl-ahoma. Was it, how
a
long before this particular operation did you guys go
through that training?
It woul-d have been during t.he four years of
A
Sheriff Shiver's Lerm.
O Okay. And so hie wil-l try to f igure t,hat out
as hre go. If you remember where it u/as l-ocated in
Tulsa, a particul-ar facility or anything else?
A
I believe it was a Hard Rock Cafe in Tulsa.

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O
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OkaY.

Which

is

huge.

O Pret.ty good place to have a narcotics

A Wel-l-, it is a huge convent,ion center is
it is, motel-, convention center, whaL have you.
O All right. So was this a national- law

enforcement. conference?

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what

I bel-ieve it. was with it being held in Tulsa,

Okl-ahoma.

All right.

So, well, that's helping

me

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is it something yrall created,

something you learned. So you l-earned this. So who
gave the input of this particular operational- plan that
was used on this date? Was that. t.otally you or did you

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guys have meetings on it.?

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A
I tel-l- you on this date, I sat in my office
and put the stuff on paper myself on this date.
O Okay. Now when you say this dat.e, the
A Well-, for this ops plan, ys, sir.
O All right. And so we are referencing you are

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showing February z9Lln.

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A Wel-l, this was the dat.e we actual-ly done the

operat.ion. It. may have been on the 21th or so that I
created or put the paperwork together.
O That's okay. I'm just trying to establ-ish a

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because Irm wondering

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time l-ine.
A Right.

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at Your desk, o Your

computer, and created what you have in your hand. By
I think \^/e
t.he wy, after we are done here today
have this in discovery, the State Attorney can look at.
but hie will- mark it just so l-ater there is no
it
question about what we are talking about.
A
Sure.
O Because you have a cofor copy. We will mark
that as Defense 1.
(Whereupon, the document was marked as
Defense Exhibit No. 1.)

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BY MR. PUMPHREY:

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So you

sat

down

wil-f just attach it to it, so it will be

a copy to t.he transcriPt.
A All right.
first of
So when you sat down to do this
a
all, were you at your comPuter?
A Yes, sir.
O Okay. And Rex was actually abl-e to find some
i-nformation that, does indicate that. it \^/as created on
the 2lLht which we had done a II9 request. thinking,
wel-l, that wil-l- tel-l- us when it. is; but. we requested
what is ca.l-fed metadata. Do you know what metadata is?
O

She

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he's discussed it with me, tried to

tell- me what it all entail-s; but flor sir, I don't fully
understand what metadata is.
O Not that Ifm an expert in it, because I have

to go to
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You know,

somebody

Sure.

and l-earn about it;

but metadata is

covered under Floridats publc records law.

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A Uh-huh.
O But bef ore I did the 1"I9, I let Mr. Patterson
know I'm going to do a 1"I9, rather than us having to go
through a bunch of rigmarole to try to do it because I
figured there may be some difficulty figuring out what
we are looking for.
A Right.
O So I t.al-ked to Rex that's his name, right?
A

John Rex.

sorry, Mr. Rex. And I think I

helped him because we got an e-maif that showed the
metadata. And the reason I tol-d him, I saj-d, you know,
our expert is t.elling us that rich text format doesn't
support certain forms of qraphics. And there is a lot
of this stuff that. is over my head. And so when we got
the I1,9 response, there was a graphic in it.
O

John Rex, Irm

This, t.his graphic?

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it was a graphic. It doesn't

O I don't
matter. So we are like, okay, wel-l- w are just trying
to f igure it, out . So I tol-d Rex. I actually wanted to
put him in touch with my guy. My guy is out of the
country and I probably can't know where he is at right

now.

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And Rex f ound

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the metadata.

What \^Ie were

just trying to do s probably what you would have told

us here today. Okay, when was this created? What
changes were made? Did it come from another program or
another document,? In o|her words, sometimes you create
something and you use it over and over again.
A Right.
O You may have used it again this year.
A No, we are actual-l-y wating to see what.
happens with al-l these cases before we do it again.
O Okay. Welf, it is what it is.
A

Yeah.

I always like to say T make l-aw

enforcement officers better at their job.
A As we do you.
O You do. You do make me better at my job.
A Yes, s j-r .
MR. PUMPHREY: Off the record.
(Discussion off the record.
O

So

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MR. PUMPHREY:
BY MR. PUMPHREY:

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Let's go back on the record.

So, /e just had a brief discussion off the

record to orient a couple of issues.

the 21Lh is the first day that this

outl-ine hras ever created. And you are the only one
that created it. Is that my understanding? If Irm

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Ong

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!Vel-l, this, see that's something that me and

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John has tried to determine, I guess, if you wiIl.
typed this document up in my office the day prior, from

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what I understand, from what I can determine, prior to

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this event. Now

O OkaY.
A
back when myself and Investigator Shelley'
or now he is a l-ieut.enant, Lieutenant Shelley, R. J.
Shelleyr we worked the narcotics unit for a period of
time during Sheriff Shiver's t.erm. May have been his
l-ast couple of years in of f ice.

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When we come

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back from this training,

we

attempted a couple Lj-mes to put something like this

together. And during t.hat time when we may would pJ-an

one/ something would fall through. Either we woul-dn't

have enough guys to do the, to take care of the ops

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or the operation but anyway, something just

al-ways f ell throuqh.
So f 've got one on my computer right no\^r
from, it seems l-ike it \^ias a 2013 model- or something
where we
it had different officers' names in it..
Like you can see on this one/ where we assigned each
of f icer to do a cert.ai-n task.
O You are referencing what we are marking as
part of this deposition as Defense 1.
A
I wish I had print,ed and brought. it over. I
donft mind you seeing it.
O That's okay. You can always supplement that.
A
Sure.
O If the st,ate doesn't have any objection,
we'll get a copy of it and make t Defense 2.
A
Sure.
(Whereupon, the document is t.o marked as
Defense Exhibit No. 2 when provided to the reporter.)
MS . FRAZER: That.'s f ine.
THE WITNESS: But any\^Iay, on the one Irm
talking about now, we just had officers, different
officers's names for different jobs or different
pl-an

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tasks.

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BY MR. PUMPHREY:

ttr,

So t.he same template, and

I'm going t.o use

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the word "templatef'.

A Right, sure, sure.

O And what word processing program are you

using that has the template on it, if you know?
A
It is, I think it is Word 2007.
O Okay. Microsoft Vord 2001?
A
f 'm pretty sure that's what it is.
O Okay. So now when you saved the orignal
document -- which is not Defense I, but Defense 2, the
original
A

templat,e
Okay.

did you save that? Did you take any

hay to save it.? Or did you just l-et Microsoft
Word save it. on your computer?
A That's something else I talked with John Rex
about to try to determine. At. the t,ime we were, when
we created this, myself and Shelleyr w were in the
druq unit in the narcotics task force.
O
special

how

O Right.
A
I thought and we discussed it with
Shelley, because t.his metadata, we are trying to figure
out what you are trying to l-ocat.e really. T had
I was a captain before under
thought at one time
Sheriff Mike Mock. Sheriff Shiver come in office, I
\^/as captai-n for a l-ittl-e bit of time under him. Some

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made. I went back to the road for a

period of time and then went. into the narcotics, which
it, hias a good change. It wasn't nothing again, me
and Sheriff Shiverr we are stil-l- great friends.
But anyway, when I l-eft and went into the
narcotics unit, I t.hought I had took my computer with
fle r the big tower or whatever you want to call- it.
changes were

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'-s

sl_r.

A Shelley seems Lo think, flo you didn't take

that with your that we got new computers whil-e we were
n the narcotics unit.
So if , if that is t,rue, f rve got a ruse
checkpoint saved on a t.humb drive. And again, you are
more t.han welcome to see it or get
take a look at
it, whatever, whatever ttre need to do, but
O Wel-l, what r^/e are doing
A So where t.he original
from the time it was
first created and saved on a thumb drive, to this
paperwork here, T can't tel-l you if it ^ras on my
computer, fly, t.he tower, if it. come from my thumb
drive. I just, I can't anshrer that and be, be truthful
about it and be accurate.
O And we are all trying to fol-l-ow
A Change that word "truthful-". I'm being
truthful, but I just can't say if it. come off my t.humb

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drive or off the comPuter.

O Irm with you. Vrle are all t.rying to fol-Iow
this through.
A Yeah.
O I know I t.alked to Mr. Pat,terson. We're
truly trying to follow the chain
Sure.
A
so we el-iminate the time l-ine issues and
O
the development of the plan. But t.he realit'y is, you
didn't really need a plan, you were just going to have
a concerted effort of law enforcement making t,raffic

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stops and things of that nature.

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A They \^/ere looking for criminal- activity or

traffic infractions, Ys, sir.
O And the reason, when I started the first
conversation, if you are just doing certain activities
and it. is what t is, that's one thng.
A Uh-huh.
O In other words, if you are on patrol and you
l-eave here at the courthouse and you see criminalactivity, obviously you are going to stop it.
A We wil-t resPond to it.
O If you get a group of You, five, and you are
just observing criminat activity, we]l, You know, it is

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just you doing your job.

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A checkpointr e actua.l- checkpoint is

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t\

different type of scenario, different set of

circumstances. What I'm trying to get to, because it
said ttrusett.
A Uh-huh.
O So it may be this is just, like you said a
faux, which means a false operations plan.
A Right.
O Not that you were lying about whatfs in the
operations plan

Right.

but there really was no need for an

operat.ions plan if t.here \^ias no checkpoint.. If there
was a checkpoint and this is the operat.ions plan, well,
it is what it is. It is not a ruse. It is, itfs a
checkpoint. I don't know which one it is.
A There r^/as no checkpoint.
O Okay. And so if there is no checkpoint, then
what we have is we have a group of l-aw enforcement
officers coming together and making a concerted effort
to observe criminal- activty.
A Okay.
O Wel-lr Do, I' m asking you.
I agree with that.
A
O Wel-l-, I don't want it t,o be my words because
O

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I didn't put this together and I wasn't thinking it

through on how we are going to do it. So let's start
from where you had the first idea to do this.
Obviously, t,here is a biq event occurring on St. George

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Isl-and.

Sure.

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O There is going to be a lot of traffic.

A
Sure. !e have a drug problem in Frankl-in
County. We have underage drinking in Franklin County.
A l-ot of that happens whenever there is a big event in
Frankl-in County; namely, Lhe Chili Cook-Off at the

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a l-ot of traffic on
the roadways. We assumed there would be a l-ot. of
traffic viol-ations on t.he roadways of Highway 98 and in
Franklin County. Possibly ndividuals with criminalwarrants active that was going t.o be on our roadways in

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Frankl-in County.

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knew there would be

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I say we, I mean I guess you coul-d say I,

it was discussed around the office, hey, let's put
something toqether. This is what. we done.
O But no briefings or staffing or official

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meetinqs where assignments

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W,

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Prior
Right.

t.o?

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No, sir. Now, when we went. out to the

l-ocation to Putnal Street, Lo Putnal- Stationr w al-]
met, the guys, the players that were involved' we met
there.
O When you say playersr You are talking about

the law enforcement officers.

A Yes, sir.
O The record doesn't reflect you are pointing
to the l-ist of officers?
rm sorry.
A
O Don't aPologize. I'm verY good
A Yes, sir.
at making a record.
O
A
Sure.
O And I don't want, somebody to read this later
and think differently of it.
A Right.
O So I'm just. making sure.
A Right.
V{hen you say playersr w are not talking
a
about the I9B7 Buccaneers football- team. We are
talking about the officers and the lieutenants and
everybody. And you are point,ing your hand to the list
of officers in whatrs been
A Yes, sir.

22

will- be entered into the

evidence for this depo as Defense 1. So you can say

players.

1,

5
6

premarked and

A Yes, sir.
O Nothing /rong with that. So the group, your
group or the players got together out at Putnal street..
A We did.

I2

O What time was that?

A Just, just prior to this, this operation
taking place. I can't say a specific time'
O That's okaY.
I would have to go back on record and take
A

13

l-ook.

10
11

1,4

15

I6

I7
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T9

20
21

22
23
24
25

and I was
O So can You, for purposes of this
going to orient you to that because obviously everybody
is checking on or going 10-8.
A Right.
O 10-B means in service?
A Yes, sir.

^
A
\

c* il_l_ ?
rJu-

Yes, sir.

so do officers with the sheriff's office here

in Frankl-in Count.y go 10-B from their home?
A Yes, sir.

Ookay.Sothereisnot]-ikeanactualcheck

23
1,

on at the st.ation like some municipalities or other

departments?

20

A No, sir. If t.hey were going to come and

participate in this, in this operat.ion, they would have
come just for me, example, Frankl-in 3, 1-0-8, signal
15 is on board.
Signal 15, special detail-.
a
A Yes, sir.
O Okay. And sor adam Court Report,er, are the
10 codes okay? I'm very court reporter friendly.
A Yes, sir.
O f don't want. her mad at me.
A No, sir.
So now this is in your mind. It. had been
a
discussed around t.he office for severa.l- years to put
both you and
some kind of operat,ion together
Lieutenant Shelley, after coming back from the training
with Sheriff Shiver; but until you sat down at your
desk and started thinking this t,hrough, had there been
any actual- formal meet.ings to come up with a design or

2I

anything?

4
tr

6
1
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11
12
13
1,4

15

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23

24
25

No, sir.

O Okay. So the first time this comes about,

know that the Chili Cook-Off is going to occur on the
2BLh, r think. rs that right?

24

z
3
4
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10

It was going to be on the first '

A
O On the first?
ATheChiriCook_offisgenerallythefirst,
weekend.This\^lasonaFriday,the2BL:r]\^IaS.That
Saturday was March 1st.
O Okay. And so hist'orically, having been in

Franklin county a long time and many chili cook-offs,

you know the majority of traffic coming from?
A Comes from, I guess you coul-d say west' or
eastbound, rather.

O
A

11

72
13

come from

L4
15

big

Eastbound on HighwaY

Yes, sir.

98?

Well-, they are westbound' but they

the east on 98.

Okay. Right'. Vrle have to

remember

it is

bend.

I6

r'7

Osothisparticularareawassefectedforwhat

1B

20

O
A

22
23

24
25

Oh, Yeah, Yeah.

reasonf any Particul-ar

I9
2I

of the high traffic area'

High traffic area.
Yes, sir.

Because

OAndallthepeople,al-lthectizenscoming
from wherever they are comj-ng are going to come down
mainly HighwaY 9B right there?
A Yes, sir.

25

Okay. Now, why Putnal Street, why was that

area

I guess you coul-d say the, the area

that we were in or the location, t.here was' one, a good
staging area with Putnal- Station. You have the parking
area. So we coul-d stopr w coul-d meet, 90 over the ops
plan. V{e had just the design I guess of the operation,

itsel-f

3
4
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Because

18

O And now when you say ops plan' are you

talking about. just l-ike, hey, I want you to go here, I
want you to go there? In other words, this wasn't a
formal- document handed o'u: the day before?
I didn't hand
A
O A formal briefing?
Did. not, hand it out. When we met at that
A
locat.ion I want. to say it \^/as just after lunch,
because you know us law enforcement officers, we like
to eat, so we wil-l make sure \^Ie get l-unch first. But

I9

anyway

10
11

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13
74
15
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at

l-unch'

So

or

the 1unch, you didn't have like a briefing

anything?

No, sir.

24

O It. is just like, hey, you guys meet me over

here. We are going to go over what hle are going to do

25

today.

23

26
1

Yes, sir.

We

met at Putnal station.

We

gathered in a circl-e. I read the ops plan. I ddn't

or t.wo guys may have had a copy

simply from being at the offce with me. But T donrt
think they did; but anyuiay, I read the ops plan while
we were at Putnal- Station. Said, hey, you are qoing to
do this. This is what I need you doing. And then we

took our postion.

hand any

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25

out.

One

briefings so people
could study what their exact responsibilties were. It
is kind of like, okay, you are going to be at, this
location. I want you to look out for this. You are
going to be over here at this l-ocation.
A Yes, si-r .
O In other words, it is, although you guys
weren't changing location, it h/as more of a roving
situation. Everybody is helping everybody out.
A Yes, sir.
O Okay. And sor now, explain how everybody is
helpinq everybody out. In other words , if you had
multiple cars stopped, who woul-d come and help as
backup. Obviously, you have officer safety issues.
A We do, yes.
O So explain to me how each of t.he officers
woul-d change or woul-d be abl-e to change in their own
O

Now, so t.here were no

21

discretion, different Positions.

A Depending on whether there was a traffic stop
that \^/as taking place say I made a t.raf f ic stop.
O Yes, sir.
A And you \^Iere parked on Put.nal- Street and you
didn't have flY, anythng t.hat. you were doing, if you

was

2
3
4

10
11
T2

13
L4

not invol-ved in a traffic stop yourself , you would

simply pu1l over and assist. t.hat. officer that had the
traffic stop and the investigation taking place'
OOkay.Andhowwererhowwerepeopledirected
off of 98 onto Putnal- Street?
A They, theY were not directed.
O
A

They weren't?

No, sir.

I9

O Okay. How did they get on Putnal Street?

A They simply decided to turn I believe to
avoid. the, what they thought \^Ias a checkpoint'
O Now, when You say
A Have you looked at a map? Or I could draw

20

you something.

15

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21.

22
23

24
25

O
with me.
A
O
A

I have looked at a map. I didn't bring

I'm goi-ng to hand you a pen.
Yes.

We'll- mark t.his as

You want me

Def

ense

to write on back of this

PC?

one

2B

I can give you a paper. Here.

MR. PUMPHREY: Fine, You can do that.
(Whereupon, the document was marked as
MS. FRAZER:

Defense Exhibit. No. 3.)

MR. PUMPHREY: We can go

he draws a

map.

THE WITNESS: YCAh.

(Discussj-on

off t.he record.

MR. PUMPHREY: Let.'s go back on

10

off the record while

the record.

BY MR. PUMPHREY:

I4

off the record, the captain was kind

enough, a pi-ece of paper \^Ias offered by the State
Attorney. And he has drawn a map that is not to scal-e.
So if you want to explain this map to us ' It

15

looks like you've even goL a north, south, east

I6

west.

11

I2
13

So whil-e

I1

Yeah, sort of make shift , if you wil-l-.

1B

O
A

okay.

and

20

This is all the bay area over here. Highway

98, which I didn't put that on there. Anyway. V{e are

2I

eastbound on Highway 98.

1,9

22

^y

Va<
'-j

Sl-f.

24

This would be where, what we had on Highway

gB hras several cones that \^iere set up in the middle of

25

t.he road.

23

29
1

2
?

O
A

Okay. Now, the cones being reflective

O
A

Orange cones, what height?

Orange cones.

74

traffic cones. I would say

approximately 3 feet t.all-.
O Okay. So these are the large
A Yes.
traffic control device traffic cones. I
O
think the Department of Transportation has some, Some
rul_es or guidelines that, you know, delineate traffic
cones. They probably do. Did these have ref l-ect.ors on
the top?
I can'L answer positively on that..
A
O That's all- right. So three big cones in the

15

middl-e

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6

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27
22
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Orange

of the road.
A Now, I wrote three there. It could have been
five. I canrt say for sure of that either.
O What \^ias the Purpose of the cones?
A Wel-l, that's, we al-so at. the area t.hat we had
cones, w had a patrol caf on each side of the roadway.
write patrol car. Both of them marked with emergency
lights on.
O So marked patrol units wit.h fl-ashing blue
lights.
A Yes, sir.

30

I
2
?
4
6
6
1

ONowrinFloridawehavetherandatthet'ime
of this we had the Florida
A Slow down, move over.
O Sl-ow down, move over law.
A Yes, sir.
O Highway 98 at this locatj-on is a doubl-e
yellow line or single passing? vrlhatever the roadway is

II

I think it is at it is a single passing lane,

yes, sir, in this area.
Okay. Single for the eastbound' to pass
O

1"2

around?

10

zz

Althinkbothdirections.Thiscurvehere
ways up. so I'm pretty sure
woul_d be on quite a little
it is passing on bot.h sides.
OAnyreasontothnkit'ischangedsincethe
date of this?
I don't think so.
A
O OkaY. So we can go and look at it '
A Yeah.
O All rightr so
A We have patrol cars there, ftashing lights to

23

simulate a checkPoint.

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25

O
A

Okay.

All right.

vrTe

had signs back up here on this

31
1

curve.

Now, when you say signs?

They hrere

the flashing, fl-ashing message

boards.

tr

O Now, when you say flashing message boards,

like the ones that are on two wheels you can t.ow around.

and maneuver

A
O
uses , I'
A

Yes, sir, ys, sir.

that t.he Department of Transportation

10
m talking about big, l_ike 6 by B f oot
11
Yes, sir.
I2
or something like that?
O
13
A Yes, sir. We have a couple, the sheriff's
I4 office has.
15
O And because of the time of year and the
I6 particular time, we are going to get to were they
I7 lighted where you could see them?
1B
A
They were, ys, sir.
T9
O So they are lighted boards. And there is two
20
of them.
2I
A Yes.
22
O Approximately, for the record and for the
23
court reporter, where \,vere these signs located on the
24
roadway leading up to where the two flashing blue
25
lights were?
9

32
1

4
5
6
1

A
f would estimat.e probably hal-f a mile,
quarter to a hal-f mile at l-east between where the sj-gns
were and the deputy sheriffs on the roadway.
O And the space between the signs, themsel-ves?
A A couple hundred yards.
O
A

Couple hundred yards?

Yes, sir.

15

O And the signs \^Iere all on the eastbound side

of traffic?
A Yes, sir.
O To indicate to the eastbound trave.l-ers
whatever information was on the sigrns?
A Yes, sr.
O Vrlhat informatj-on was on the signs?
A Well-, the first sign was narcotics checkpoint

I6

ahead.

T7

20

O Okay.
A
The second sign was caution, K-9 working
ahead. I'm pretty sure t.hat's what it said on it.
O Any documentation as to what was to be put

2\

those signs?

22

10
11
T2

13

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24
25

on

No, sir.

O Is Lhere I don't understand how Lhose

signs work. Is there a keyboard or something you type
on it?

??

1,

tel-l you al-l- about that.

And does that program come off of a laptop

O
computer?

No, sir.

Does

There is a program that Sergeant

Ryan Sandoval- coul-d

3
4

There is.

it just have a keyboard in its

oI^In

computer?

T1

It has got like a handhel-d device al-most the

A
size of my cell- phone, probably twice as biq as that.
It has got an arrow pad or arro\^// whatever you want to
cal-l- it.
O So you have to l-ike
A Keypad.
O You have to move it over and punch the
l-etters out?
A Yes.
O Okay. So but no el-ectronic record on what

1B

\^/aS

10
1,7

I2
13

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I6

19
20
21
22
23

24
25

on there?

A We didn't save anything. If it keeps records

j-nternalfy, Sergeant Sandoval should be abl-e to answer
that for you.
O Okay. Did y'all take a pict.ure of them to
preserve it for l-at.er?
A No, sir.
O That's because it is not a checkpoint?

34

A
O
A

isn't

Right.

Okay. This is afl a facade.

Tf you will, Yes, sir.
Okay. V{e11, I mean, either it is or it

13

It is, yeah.
O Okay. And so these signs are util-ized t'o do
what,r s far as traffic in general? Not in this
operation, in general, what are the signs
In general, they are' rne use them to advise
A
the general motoring public that, hey, there coul-d be
an issue up ahead. There coul-d be smoke on the
roadways. There could be a detour ahead. Just l-ike

14

we've al-l seen them on the roadways

7
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24
25

it. before on the Chili

cook-off. we may have even had one set up that day as
you come of f the bridge onLo St.. George f sl-and
advising, you know, to slow down for pedestrians,
things of that nature.
O So its intent is to affect the fl-ow of
traffic?
A
Sure. Yes, sir.
O Wel-l-r flo, Lf it is not.
To advise the motoring public of upcoming
A
issues or to ad.vise the motoring public of what they
We've even used

35
1

2
?
4
q
6

7
B

10

I guess you coul-d say.

Now, I notice on your map there is, there are

coul-d see ahead,

O
two roads

Uh-huh.

O
A
O
A
O
A

that stem to the

It woul-d be north. Vfe wou]d cal-l- it north'
Okay, north. The first road here?
Is going t.o be Putnal.
Is Putnal-, okay. And the second road?
Al-most positive that.'s Hinton Street right'

1,r

t.here.

I2

Okay. Now, the blue lights are visible from

when you come around the corner after the two signs?
A Yes, sir.
O Okay. On Putnal* Street, would Putnal be a
way to get around having to slow down for the t.raffic
checkpoint or the fake checkPoint?
A Yes. Yes.

13

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t_5

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27
22

O OkaY.
AYeahrforgivemerlcan'trememberthename
of this road, but it is a back street that runs it
runs the full- length of Lanark Village
OkaY.

24

O
A

25

So if John O.

23

on the north end of

Citizen wants to t'ake a right

36
1

2
3
4
q

and go down Putnal so he doesn't

traffic,
A

get caught up in the

he can do that?

that, Ys, sir.

O Okay. Any special lamps or lighting on
Putnal- Street, auxliary tight.ng or anything, you know
He can do

6
7

I
9

10

II

A
O

f rm not. sure .
you know how they have those tower lamps

they use when they work on roadwaYs?

A As far as streetlights or something, I don't
know of dfy, no. I mean al-l this was occurring during

I4

the daylight hours.

O Yes, sir.
A But I'm not sure about any streetl-ights or

15

anything on Putnal.

I2
13

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21,

22
23

24
25

O I went back and checked the times on

Mr. Byrd's case. And if I remember correctly, it was
around 5:oo, a littl-e after 5:00 in the afternoon. And
you've got the rePort.s.
A Yes, sir.
O So I'm not trying to make somet.hing up.
A Yes.
O But from the information that we received, it
1aras, it would have been the time under Fl-orida Statute
where you woul-d have to have your head lamps on.

31

A
O
A

2
3
4
q
6

Okay.

that. sound right or incorrect?

I don't recall- the headlights myself .
Because one thing we did, once it got dark and became
more d.angerous for our officers to be on the roadway,
we cal-led it . I didn't want' the operation to go on
Does

after dark.
O What \^Ias the official- time of ending the

operation?

I4

A We didn't have at say 5:00 o'clock or 6:00

o'cl-ock. Just once it got to where I f elt like it was
going to endanger t.he officers, I saidr h"y' we are
done. We are through with the checkpoint.
O Did you radio in any check-off start times or

15

end ti-mes, anything we can orient?

10
11
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13

2I

A You know there may be something on the radio

fog; but for just recalling it right noh/' h.y, allrightr w are 1O-B on the Signa1 15 or what have Your
we would have to l-ook at the radio log. I canrt answer
for sure.
O Would you say 10-B on the Signa1 15 or would

22

you

76

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20

23
24
25

Say, 10-6 or something along those l-ines ' We

may have used that. 10-6 being busy, of course, if you
are famil-iar with that. But that's something we would

3B

13

to look back on the radio fog.

O So if someone decid.ed they wanted to avoid
t.he fl-ashinq btue lights and what. they believed up
front was a checkpoint, and they turned on Putnal
street, were they al-lowed just to cont.inue on Putnaland go around the checkPoint?
A Yes, sir.
O Okay. So were there any officers -- well,
first of all, were there any officers that \^Iere ever at
this corner of Put,nal and Highway 98?
A We generally had two officers on this street;
and we have, would have two officers on this street to
observe any possibl-e criminal activity that took place

1.4

once they turned.

3
4
5
6
7
B

10
11

I2

have

1B

O Right. This street being Putnal- and the

other street being?
A Hinton, ys, sir.
O Okay. So really you guys had every street

I9

covered?

15

I6
T7

20

Yes, sir.

22

there rn/as really rror no way to

avoid l-aw enforcement in this whol-e area at this t.ime

23

heading eastbound?

21,

All right.

24

Yes, sir.

25

Okay.

lVel-l

So

, if that 's not correct

39

2
3
4
5
6
7
B

10

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24
25

I'm agreeing with you' They had' had they

travel-ed on 98, or if they turned north on Putnal- or
A

Hntontheywou]-dSeea]-awenforcementvehic]-e.
O They woul-d encount'er law enf orcement '

Yes, sir.

Okay. Now, h/as the purpose of setting up the

biq signs to try to get people to turn on Putnal or
this other street and thinking they were avoiding t'he
two big blue lights with the cones and the checkpoint?
A The purpose, prett'y close to what you are
saying. The purpose of the signs uiere to' I guess if
someone is committing a criminal act or if they have
active warrants or if they are in possession of drugs
or \^/eapons or anything of that nature/ qenerally that'
indviduat is going to try to avoid l-aw enforcement
contact. so we left thos two roads avail-able as an
out, if you wi]l.
in
O And when you say an out, it was there
other words, y'all \^/ere looking for people who woul-d
O

turn off; right?

A We were looking for people
commit.ting traf f ic of fenses.
O
A

who were

True.

if theY turned off, then of course it

would draw Your attent.ion to that indivdual even more.
And

40
1

O
A

Did anybody turn off Putnal- and -Hinton.

Hinton that werenft stopped?

O
A
f can't tel-l- you that. I wasnrt on any of
these roads. f woul-d assume that oo, t.here wasn't.
If there was no traf f ic infract j-on, they woul-dn't be

stopped.

3
4

10
71

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1,4

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21,

22
23

24
25

O And the reason I -- u/e've got a designated

activity going on here.
A Uh-huh.
O And was there any\^iay t.o determine whether or
not you were actually infringing on somebody's right to
go t,o St. George Island not being impeded?
A
If they wanted to drive straight throughr w
did not impede anyone. If they turned on Putnal- or
Hinton Street and were not, violating any traffic laws,
they were not impeded.
a, So let me ask you t.his, Captain. The traffic
\^/as very heavy at the time of Mr. Byrd's stop, whatever
time that was. And we wil-l rely
A
Sure.
on the CAD logs. Does that sound accurat,e
O
or inaccurate, on Highway 98?
A
I must have missed your question. Try again.
O That.'s okay. Please, if I ask you a quest.ion

47
1

and it doesn't seem clear or you are unsure, stop

We

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1
B

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11

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16
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20

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24
25

are all- tryng t,o be on the

A
O

me.

same page here.

Sure.

First of all, did the two signs that were

placed on the roadway prior t.o Putnal and -A Hint.on.
O Hinton, Irm sorry, I will get it sooner or
l-ater. Did they have an effect on slowing the traffic?
A
Sure. Yes.
O Okay. And so t.he traf f ic at this point. in
time is already anticipated to be heavy. Was it heavy
on 98 that day
A Yes, sir.
at the time? In other words, around the
a
time Mr. Byrd stopped, and this is I think between 5:00
and 6 : 00, let I s l-ook at the report .
A Well-, Dwayne didn't note what time it was
when he stopped, in his narrat,ive.
lr]e have it in the PC. St.uf f we can f ind. I
0
just want to orient. you to time so we are t.alking about
the right time?
MS. FRAZER: All- right, just a second.
What's the report time? Sorry. I am just
muttering to myself, trying to find a time. Okay.
THE WTTNESS: Yeah, that's something that's

42

frustrating with our system. The report time

don't refl-ect the same time, of courser s the
traffic stop and when the officer don't, note it in
his narrative.
MS. FRAZER: At this point we would just have
to get the CAD logs' right?

4
5
6

THE WITNESS: YCAh.

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BY MR. PUMPHREY:

T9

O All right. So the time that the stop took

place and for purposes of thisr w are going to say
around 5:00 in the afternoon or after.
A Yes, sir.
O Whenever it is dusk, dark, whenever you have
to turn the headlights on.
A Yes.
O And does that sound generally about t'he time
Mr. Byrd was stopped or are you even familiar with
Mr. Byrd's stop?
I was not personally involved with Mr. Byrd's
A

20

stop.

10

IL
72
13

t4
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^y

Wa<

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But it hias l-ater in the detail-, so I wil-l-

23

24
25

-'i

Sl-f.

agree with you t.hat it rnias sometime around 5 :00

o'cl-ock. Without revi-ewing the CAD report, You know,

obviously I wil-l we will- just have to agree.

43

10

O Okay. If we find the CAD report, I think the

state woul-d agree we wil-l- request that.
A Sure.
O We wil-l hopefully get a better time because
they woul-d have run a 28, 29 check.
A Yes, ysr sir.
O And 28, 29 check is wants and warrants.
A Yes, sir.
O And that wil-l also tel-l- us, because we can
get the NOAA weather report and see when sunset \^as and

11

hal-f hour before sunset, headlights and everything

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el-se. You agree with that?

A Yes, sir.
O That's what the stat.ute says, I think.
A Yes, sir.
O Okay. So the traffic, because of the
flashing blue light,s and because of the two signs, was
slowng down in this section prior to Putnal- and
backing up. Is that
A They were never really backed up, rtor sir.

22

O
A

We

23

But was it, what's the speed fimit, at that

2I

Okay.

had a conti-nuous f l-ow of traf f ic.

wel-l-, this whol-e area that

24

area betweenr o 98

tr
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have, you have drawn on here, is it

45?

we

44

I7

It, is 55.
Fifty-five, okay.
Yes, sir.
O And the speed limit in regards or in reacLion
to the two signs, you think that sl-owed to what speed
limit ?
I mean, just an estimation, some vehj-cles
A
woul-d slow to 40, 45 . Then, of course s they
approached Putnal- or Hinton and prepared to turn, they
even became a l-ot, sl-ower than that.
O Okay.
A But never sl-ow enough that \^/e had mul-t.iple
vehicl-es backed up at any given point.
O Now, you say t.hat. lr7hen you say backed up,
let t s make sure i,tre are both cl-ear on that . I don't
mean people are backed up like come to a complete stop,
because you werenrt actually stopping anybody at the

18

two cars.

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A

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No, sir.
But there was obviously officer presence

here?

24

A
O
A

Yes, sir.

25

The sl-ow down law requires you

zz
23

Yes, slr.
There is a s.l-ow down law.

to go to

what

45
1,

4
5
6
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10
11

a two-l-ane roadway?
A You know, I dontt even know what it states'
to be honest with you.
O Whatever it is, it is.
A Yeah.
O But you would agree that t.he motoring public,
when t.hey see bl-ue lights and they can't switch l-anes
like on I-10, they sl-ow way down?
A They slow way down, ys, sir.
O When they see checkpoint ahead?
A They start preparing to sl-ow down.
speed on

24

O Sl-ow down.
A Yeah.
O And so it would, it woul-d seem to reason if
and when I say
t.here is a heavier traffic flow on 98
back up, not that cars came to a complete stop, but the
vehicles were in some wy, shape or form slowing down
because of what they are observing?
A
Sure, ys, sir.
O Okay. And when I say backed up' they are
starting to get bumper to bumper as they go throuqh
here, maybe not completely stopped, but they are
slowing down at a s.Low enough rate of speed so the
traffic is building up to where there is just a line of

25

cars.

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13
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15
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46

A
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3

No, sir.
Okay, then tell

me.

No, we never more than

and it is not

1,4

I know it is just for debate. But I

woul-d Say there never woul-d have been more than four to
f ive cars that hlere bumper to bumper.
Because once they made it to the checkpoint,
if you will, our checkpoint where the two patrol cars
hiere parked and the cones were in the road, once they
got here, the officers simply waved the individuals
right on t.hrough.
Now, sure they may have sl-owed to a 15 mil-es
per hour, 10 to 15 miles per hour' even thinking they
i^rere going to have their l-icense checked or what have

15

you.

I6

their minds it would be quite colnmon

that they believe they u/ere going to be stopped?
A Yes, sir.
,';
O Okay.
A But there was never, never vehicles that h/ere
backed up more than f woul-d just estimat.e four to five
vehicles at a time. And then they were, again, just,
waved right through.
O Okay. Now, how many vehicles were actually
stopped on 98 past Putnal- and Hinton?

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5
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documented, so

So in

41

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A
frve got the number of infractions or
criminal viol-ations that \^ie deal-t. with that day. I
don't have them with me. The actual- number of vehic]es
that. were st.opped totally, I don't, I donrt know if I
can produce that for you unless it is in the CAD
report, itself, where they, sy, someone had pull-ed on,
turned, and officer made cont.act with them. There
shoul-d have been either a warning citation, because
there was a t.raf f ic of f ense.
If they turned onto Putnal-, Hinton, or if
they \^iere stopped here on 98, there hiere vehicl-es that
were stopped along Highway 98 because of a traffic
infraction.
O Now, when you say j-nfraction or warning, is
there a difference between those two?
A Wel-l, when I say an infraction, f f m just
referring to viol-ation of the traffic laws. When I
said warning, f'm saying they were either given a
verbal- warning or they were given a written warning or
a citation.
O Okay. And how long let's go through how
long it takes to issue each of t.hose. On this
particuar day, what is the time frame it, takes to
issue, first of all, a verbal warni-ng?
A Wel-l , by the time the off icer approaches the

4B

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8
9

vehicle, asks the driver for t.heir driver's license,

proof of insurance, registrati-on, advise that
ind.ividual why, the reason f or the stop. Go back t.o
their vehicle is generally what our guys do, or maybe
walk to the hood of their vehicl-e '
Radio dispatch, ask for 28, wants or warrants
or a d.riverts license check, make sure the drver's
lj_cense are valid. It coul-d t.ake B to 10 minutes,
would sy, if they, if -- verbal- warning, that may be

10

even

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to

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a little

longer. I would say

maybe 6

minutes,

8.

Iftheyaregoingtowriteawrj'ttenwarning,
it is going to go as far as 10 to 1"2 minutes maybe.
But t.hat's, al-I that's just approximate. If I go out
and stop one right now, because I've not done it in so
long, it may take me 15 or 20, so'
O Now, were t.here people did you document
the people that were, that turned on Putnal that were
just tol-d theY coul-d just go on?
If there \^IaS no traffic infraction where
A
t.here was a documented writt.en warning or a citation' I
don't think we have that documented, other than
possibly on the CAD where their tag was ran or t,heir
license was ran.
O So this was completely discretionary for

each

49

icer in these l-ocations.

A Yes, sir.
O OkaY. When I saY discretionarY
A Yeah, I mean
O If you are on the road, and PauI Byrd turns
down Putnal-, and maybe you've already got somebody
stopped, and you don't initial-ly see anything' just

wave hm on bY, t.hat would be okaY?

4
6
6

10
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of f

Sure.

O
A

But that woul-d be the of f icer's

That's that officer's discretion, Ys, sir'

13

Ookay.Andthesamewithal]-theofficers'
theyhadcompleted"iscretiontodo,makestopsornot

1,4

make stops?

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A
O

Yes, sir.

Okay. In other words, noL every vehicle

on

98, Putnaf and Hinton was stoPPed?

If, if there h/as a traffic infraction and the

A
officer not.ed it, they hlere advised to make that stop.
Understand.
a
I mean, I see the direct'ion you are going
A
wth it.
O Well, I'rfl just t'rying to understand what the
d"j_scretion was with the officers. You know, you've had
this situation, you only have so many officers that can

50
1

make so many stops

A
O

at a period of time.

Sure.

if you've got cars cont.inually coming

down, obviously you don't have officers to deal with

those cars.

A
O

And so

Right.

2I

trying to stop, too.

And so you've run into an officer safety issue nou/.
A Uh-huh. Yes, sir.
O Those are yeses. And so what did you guys
even document how many cars were or weren't stopped or
was t.here no set number?
A We didn't, 0or sir.
O And" were there people who had safety bel-t
viol-ations that \^iere given a verbal warnlng?
A None that I'm aware of.
O Okay. How would you know that someone hlas
given a verbal warning?
A V{e woul-d have to t,alk with each officer that
hras on scene that day.
O Okay, but was t.here/ was there somebody

22

documenting verbal- warning here?

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24
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And those people may be

No, sir.

Okay. In ot.her words, sometimes you might.

see somebody you know locally and you recognize them,
O

51
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just wave them on bY?

A No, sir.
O Vrfell-, I'fi saying thatr You know
A Again, because I feel like I know what
drect,ion you are going, but fror sir. If there \^Ias a
traffic violation, then they woul-d get some either a
verbal- warning t ot they would get a written citation'
or a warning citation.
O Agree with you there. But what I'm saying is
if somebody just turned down Putnaf and nothing is
visibly
]f there was no visib]-e traffic violation,
A
they were all-owed to go through, Yes, sr' Just
because they turned. onto Putnal- or Hinton, 1n/e didn't
top them simply for turning onto these two streets.
O OkaY.
AThey\^Ierestoppedforatrafficviolat,ion.
And so where h/ere the officers al]owed to
o

be

20

outside their vehicl-es on Putnal Street?

A Where were t,hey a]-lowed to be outsj.de their

21,

vehicl-es?

I9

22
23

24
25

Or were they in their vehicles t'he whol-e

time?

A No, they \^/ere in their vehicl-es ' Each

officer that was stationed on Putnal- and Hint'on,

each

52
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(
6

vehicl-es. Had either patrol vehicles, or like

I bel-ieve Investigator Johnson who was down there with
us or maybe Johnson wasnrL t.here with us .
I know t.here \^/as a couple of unmarked
vehicles down here on Putnal- or Hinton Street, but
one had

t.here was nobody on foot,.

O
A

Unmarked?

1,1

ThatIs a ttyestt?

1B

Yes, sir, Itm sorry.

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I didn't misl-ead you.

O You are not misl-eading me. Irm just trying
obviously, there were a l-ot of people, a
t.o go by
large number of vehicl-es t.hat travel- through this area
between the signs, the first sign you set uP, the
second sign, and the two cars with blue lights
A Yes, sir.
in this whol-e area?
O
A Uh-huh.

Okay. And t.here are' because of the large

vol-ume of traffic, there was al-so traffic that travel-ed
down Putnal- and Hinton for whatever purpose to avoid
what. they saw up ahead, you know, blue lights, if
not.hing else, or maybe cars just slowing down for
whatever reason, right?
A Yes, sir.
O

53
1

2
3
4
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the volume of t.raffic that travel-ed

d"own Putnal during the period of t.ime from l-unch to the
end of your operation or your
I can't give you a number . V{e didn't, that
A
was

What was

not

documented.

1,1,

O That's okay. So it was comPletelY

dscretionary in that area absent what you told us
already? In other words, the officer ias basically on
his ohrn.
A No, sir. Well, T mean we had offj-cers all- in
that area. Irm not, none of them h/ere on t.her o\^in at

1,2

al-l-.

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on. Let me back up a minute. I don't

mean they were on their own l-ike they didn't have
backup. I mean the officer in his own mind had
discret.ion to do and do his job as a law enforcement
officer.
A Yes, sir.
O Okay. And so he could choose to stop a car,
if he saw a viol-ation he coul-d choose not to stop a car
if he didn't see any violation.
A Right.
O Okay. And so but there is no documentation
as to the number of vehicles t.hat t.ravel-ed down Putnal?
A No, sir.
O

Hol-d

54

1,4

O No one was assigned to keep t.rack of t.hat'

none of that?
A No, sir.
O Okay. And the only way to avoid the check
point would be to go down Putnal or Hinton.
If they chose to avoid it, Yesr sir.
A
O Okay. Now, in your mind in preparing this'
was there kind of a thougtht that you would focus more
on those two areas where people woul-d turn off than any
other area on 98?
A Yes, sir.
O Okay. I mean, sounds like a pretty sl-ick
plan. And the ruse then was the fact that everyone
driving down the road bel-eved they were about to be

15

stopped.

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Yes, sir.

24

Okay. And so everything you did on Highway

98 indicat.ed people were going to be stopped, and not
only hrere they going to be st.opped, there was going to
be a narcotics checkpoint up ahead.
A Yes, sir.
O And t.wo marked units with blue light,s
flashing and cones in the center of the road \^/ere
indicating al-l- intent.s/ concerns' people were going to

25

be stopped.

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55

A
O

Yes, sir.

there any indication as to t'he number

that were going to be stopped or anything else?
A No, sir.
O Okay. And so were there officers outside
directng traffic in both directions for the two
vehicl-es that are on the sides of the roadway just

ahead

Z
1

4
5
6

of Hinton and Put.nal- Street?

A Yes, sir. Excuse me, Ys, sir'
oAnddidtheyhavetrafficvesLsoranything

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Was

el-se?

ATheywereinfu].Iuniform.I|mnotsureif
at the time we had the traffic vests on' We do
nowadays, any officer that is out' on the roadway'
O Just a safetY issue'
A Yeah. Sure.
ODidtheyhave,didtheyeveruseflashlights
what's the long orange thing?
with
ATheorangeconeont'hemorwhathaveyou;but
ror sir, we didn't have to use those' By the time it
got that late, w called off the checkpoint '
O Okay. You stilt got to cl-ear out the

24

checkpoint, though?
A Yes, sir, but we never used the cones or

25

mean

23

the

wands.

56

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OWhoweretheofficersthatwereassignedto
wave traffic through and were assgned to the two cars
with the bl-ue lights and responsible for removing the
cones? or three officers. I don't know how many
officers were there.
A Yeah. Other than, you know, looking here,
and it is not even stated on here. So I can't answer
that.
O When you say here
A Yeah, on our oPS P1an, Irm sorrY'
O
A

Okay, so

the operation I am sure that,

you know, if this officer st.arted out on here at the
checkpoint or at the cones, he may have been rotated
simply because, I mean, to be honest, he wanted to get
in on some of the action, be invol-ved instead of just
sometime during

sitting there being a flag waver.

So during the checkpoint, itsel-f , I' sure
those officers were rotated in and out.. Different ones
were here. Dif ferent ones were invol-ved with the
Osonobodyhadaset,assignment.Youa]]-owed
them to rotate freely, as long as they \^/ere covering
the points.
A Yeah. But I mean it was run through me' If,
and agan, it may be on the radio log. It may be to

57
1

have been done by cel_l_ phone, hey, Lieutenant, Newel-l- or

Lieutenant Hogan, h"y, why don't you rotate in wit.h

this other officer at this point. And he is going t.o

10

relieve you at the check , oT the simul-ated checkpoint.

O Okay. !as t.here a l-ot of communication? Did
everybody who was on scene between the signs, this
entire l-ocation you have drawn a map for us
A Yes, sir.
that. hie've marked as Def ense 3, I think
O
that's right, did they al_l_ have cell- phones that hlere

11

utili

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zed?

I mean, Irm sure everyone of

13

phones t,here.

14

O
A

t.hem had

cell

A couple t.hings.

I7

try to l-imit any cell phone communj-cation

because it is important. to be on the radio 1og.
O Right, but there is nothing wrong with using

1B

cel-l- phones

L9

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23

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25

O
A
O
A
O
A

We

Sure.

in today's societY.
Yeah.

remember when we

didn't have cel-l- phones .

Right.
How

long have you been j-n l-aw enforcement?

Twent.y-three years.

58
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to

it

O
A
a
A

before cel-l- phones came out..

Yes, sir.

Or when they i^Iere too expensive for officers

You remember

Yes, sir.

have.

A Uh-huh, ys, sir.

O But good officer safety, sometimes more
readily accessibl-e t.han a radio if you wanted to have a
long discussion, so you are not tying up the radio
traffic.
A Yes, sj-r.
O And from an officer safety standpoint, why is
it important, especially if you are running a bunch of
officers who are doing drug interdictj-on activity,
whch is what you guys \^iere primarily focused on here;
is that right?
A Primarily focusd on?
O Drug interdiction. The ruse ops plan came
from a drug narcotics convention.
rr did.
A
O You worked j-n vice narcotics.
A Yes, sir.
O And alt.hough, you know, you can enforce any
l-aw violation, traffic or otherwise, there j-s a reason

59
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you had a dog and everybody in this l-ocation.

A Yes, sir.
O And that's because you are doing narcotics
interdiction.
A We are looking for any criminal- el-ement on
the roadways.
O The reason I bring up narcotics is because
there is greater safety concerns when dealing with
people invol-ved in
A Yes, sir.
O
A

narcotics?

Yes, sir.

I6

O Okay. So f mean' you've worked in vice

narcotics. Most of the people you deal with are either
users or deal-ers; but anytime you are around a drug
situation there is a heightened l-aw enforcement

I1

awareness.

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O

Yes, sir.

Okay. So how many dogs did you have at t.his

l-ocation on your

Vfe

map?

had two K-9 of f icers there.

23

O Okay. Now, how often is it that two K-9

offcers are in one l-ocation within a mile radius of

24

each other

22

25

In Franklin

County?

60

I
2
3
4

in Frankl-in?
O
A Not very oft.en. We generally, I mean un-l-ess
this is a special operations, as this was, our two K-9
of f icers are on completely opposit,e shif ts.

I2

O Okay.
A One is working t.oday and t.omorrow. And whil-e
he is off, the other is working the next two days.
O Okay. And because of the volume of vehicl-es
and t.he purpose behind t.hisr You had two K-9s at the
same location at the same time on the same shift.
A Yes, sir.
O Okay. And that doesn't. happen in Franklin

13

County very often.

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6

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Not very often, flor sir.

15

Can you

ever t.hink of another time that's

16

happened?

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22

A We have had them both on duty during Chili

Cook-Offs. We've had them on duty at tmes during our
Seafood Festival-, which is of course is a huge event
here in Frankl-in County. Whenever we do a drug round
up, we have our K-9 officers out and about.
O These K-9s aren'L bomb sniffing doqs' are

23

they?

1B
1,9

20

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25

not, ror sir.

What is the scope of t,hese particular
They are

two

6T

K-9s that. were util-ized on this d"y, February

28.

2BL]nt 20L4?
o
A These two dogs are primarily for narcotics.
O Okay. Now, /ere both of the dogs, had they
been util-ized for a long period of time prior to this

operation?

3
4
5

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11
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Let's see. Maybe, maybe a year prior to

this, year and a half prior to this is when we got
A

these two new dogs.

Okay. And the handl-ers that have the dogs'

had t.hey had prior K-9 experience, t.o your knowledge?
A Not prior to, not prior to being issued t,hese
two dogs. Ifm sorry' I'm pointing to the ops plan'
O

But when they got these dogs, Jody Martina and Lawrence
Brannon was the first K-9s that they had been issued by

1B

the sheriff's office.

OReally?Thesetwou/erethefirstrtheset'wo

79

dogs

1,7

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21,

22
23

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25

Now, we've had dogs

in the past'' I'm saying

these two officers.

O Okay.
AThiswast.hefirstt'imetheyhadeverhad
K-9s wit.h the sherif f 's of f ice.
O Okay. So \^/ere they cal-l-ed to specif ic

62

locations? Or were t.he K-9s positioned at a cert.ain

location on your map? And if you coul-d show us where

t.he K-9s were positioned.

5
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basically
Putnal- Street and where the checkpoint, if you wi1l,
was set up. If an officer made a traffic stop whether
on Putnal- St.reet, Hinton, there were traffic stops made
on 98, wherever a traffic stop was made, and that
officer felt it. was necessary to have a K-9 there on
scene, they woul-d cal-l f or the R-9, and he woul-d
respond to t.hat location.
O Do you have anyh/ay of telling how many

They woul-d be positioned between

traffic stops were made on Highway 98?

A Ve woul-d have to qo to the CAD report.
O Does the CAD report show everything?
A To be honest., I would say no.

okaY

i
A
I mean if the officer, because we well, I
wonrt get into that.
O I want you to get int.o it.
A Wel-l, this was an officer that I was going to
mention, that he've had to l-et go. But anyway
O Who was that officer?
A On this particular day it was if an
officer made a traffic stpp and he did not want t.o cal-l-

63

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n his 10_50, or traffic sLop, for the record, that \^/aS

not, he was advised' not. t.o do that' They were told'
you know, it. is important. You being in l-aw
enforcement, prior l-aw enforcement'r You know how
-mportant it is to know where you guys are at '
OButalsohavingbeenpriorlawenforcementl
know there are times
A Yes, sir.
where officers don't radio in'
O
A Yes, sir.
OAndthereisnorecordoftheactualstop?
A Yes, sir.
O And did you have any quality assurance that
happened on

this

daY?

If an officer made a traffic stop down here

on Hinton st.reet and I was not there and he didn't cal-l
it in, I can't say whether he did or didn't'
O Same waY with Put.nal?
A Putnal- Street', s well'
O HighwaY 98?
AHighwaygB,Ibe]-ievelcou]-dhaveSeen'Seen
the officer had he made a t.raffic stop. But it is very
possible with me being busy, with everything t'hat is
going ofrr it could have been made and not be called in.
A

When

you say busy and" everything going ofl

64
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3
4

what did you mean by that?

A Just this, the amount of traffic flow, the

radio traffic, ssisting other officers. Just things
of that nature, everything that is involved wit.h the
ruse checkpoint.

actually stopped on
Hghway 98, Putnal St.reet, and Hinton Street that had

no viol-ations whatsoever?

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11
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How many vehc1es were

That were stopped without any violations?

O
A

Uh-huh.

O
A

Okay.

I would say none.

76

If they had no vj-ol-ations whatsoever/ there

is no reason for a traffic stoP.
O Understood. But how many were actually
physically stopped, even if it was just for a moment

71

and t.hen they were waved on through?

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\^ias

Yes, sir.
would be down oflr at the, the simul-ated

checkpoint.

23

24

that I coul-d say that

possible

20

22

The only place

Let

me go

through a scenario with you.

that coul-d have happened or not

happened. Officers are busy. You mentoned that
tell

me whether

You

65
1

earl-ier, right ?
Yes, sir.
A

Okay. Of f icers are t.rying to ident if y

viol-ations of state statute, whether traffic or

otherwise.

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)^

Yes, sir.

O Okay. And so an officer canrt look in two

drections at one time.
A Right..
O So in order to make sure he is seeing
everything in the vehicle, seatbelts, headlights, I'm
sure you guys had some kind of Bolos or something
before you went out there on wanted people.
A Okay.
O I don't know, did You?
I d.on't. recal-l- any of those t flot sir' We
A
didn't pass out any flYers.
O
A
O

Okay.

to be on the l-ook out f or this guy'

Okay. But. sometimes an of f icer will- just
stop somebody and sy, fior go on. Not a traffic st,op,
but just a temporary step. Does t.hat. make sense?
It does.
A
They need

OWiththismuchtraffic,thereasonl'masking
you that

66

Uh-huh.

I2

is you are not able to actually see and

control_ this entire area, although you are trying to?
A Right.
O I bel-ieve that.
A Rqht.
O But it. is up to each indvidual officer, if
they feel like, wel-l-, there might be something here,
I like to call it, what.'s
l_et me stop them a minute
that thing that officers have, it is a sense, it is
l-ike something is not right here. Might not see
somethj-ng, but something is not right. You know what I

13

mean?

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I don't know, t is al-most l-ike a sixth

sense. something, the hair on the back of your neck

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stands up.

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Okay.

O Something, you don't see anything right away'

but usually that little voice wil-l tell- you something'
A Right.
O Were the officers in a position where they
not talking about blue lighting
coul_d do that
somebody, not talking about stoppinq them for a long
period of time? But did t.he officers have the
discretion, just as they woutd any other time on the

67
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road\^rays, t.o

temporarily stop

somebody and

check,

and

18

go, okay, go on?

A None of our officers should stop a vehicl-e
without probable cause or without noting a traffic
viol-ation. Our guys shoul-d not stop that vehicl-e.
O Do you know how manY vehicles were
temporarily stopped and when I say stopped, in their
travel- in the roadway because of the operat-on, t.he
vehicl-e was physically stopped?
A No, sir.
O Okay. Do you know for a fact. that never
happened on Highway 98, Putnaf, and Hint.on?
A No, sir. I don't know for a fact that did
not happen.
O Does that make conmon sense, t.hough, that
even if the vehicl-es had to stop for other vehicl-es
beng pulled over? I mean it could be a number reasons
a vehicle stopped. May have nothing to do with l-aw

L9

enforcement.

20

Right.

2I

Did you guys track that or observe that at

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anytime?

A
O

No, sir.
You would understand why

this area that

you

have delineated on Highway 98, Putnal- Street. and Hint.on

6B
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Street., with all- this l-aw enforcement act.ivity,

hlhy

23

just that activity, itself, could cause somebody to

stop or change their direct,ion of travel-?
A
If t.hat driver for whatever reason came to a
stop, f mean, T don't see where it can be directed
toward l-aw enforcement causing that individual- to stop.
Just. because we had this set uPr the normaleveryday motorist, they are going to pass right
through. Again, you know, it is what hle not.ed in here.
O Let me ask you this, Captain.
A Go ahead.
O You are driving down the road. Out of
uniform, in your regular car.
A Uh-huh, ys, sir.
O You see blue lights flashing ahead. Whatfs
the first thing
A
I sl-ow down immediately.
O You hit your brakes?
A
Take my foot off the gas.
O Take your foot off the gs, hit the brakes?
A Yes, sir.
O What's the second t.hing you do?
A
r start watchj-ng, make sure to see what|s

24

going on ahead.

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All right.

I always see how fast I'm going.

69
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is human nature, right?

A Yes, sir.
O Okay. Had none of this stuff been on this,
that you put up here, the two cars with fl-ashinq blue
lights, t.he b.l-ue (sic) cones, officers direct,ing
traffic on the eastbound and west.bound l-anes, the sign
So it

that says checkpoint, checkpoint, means what?

A That there is a checkPoint ahead.
O Rght. StoP. Slow down.
A Yeah.
O Wel-l- o . I mean, I 'm asking you .
A Wel-I, basically
O
A

The word checkpoint

I7

don't say stop. It just, it is advising

the motoring public there is a checkpoint ahead.
O Okay. And so you are saying here today that
none of this change, the motoring public's actions on

1B

Highway

I9

frm saying is, it would not cause the

general motoring public to stop on the highway un.Less

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15
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They

98

What

22

instructed to do so.
O Okay. But you would agree it had an affect

23

on t.he motoring public?

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24

A
O

It did, ys, s j-r .

What affect did that

have?

10

13

A
I would say it. caused the general motoring
public to sl-ow down, to become more al-ert, to be more
aware of their surroundings, to pay attention to what,
they were being instruct.ed to do possibly at the
checkpoint, itsel-f , ot the simulated checkpoint.
And it caused the criminal- el-ement to start.
taking action to avoid l-aw enforcement, which in your
client's case he turned onto Putnal- Street.
O Okay. Do you know whet.her or not there h/ere
ever any officers that \^/ere directing traffic at
anytime whatsoever off of 98 onto Put.nal?
A No, sir.
O And what I s the assurance you have that never

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occurred?

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not instructed to. There woul-d be

no reason for the officer to direct traffic off of 98

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onto Putnal- Street.

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O
Florida,
officers
sort of .
A

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21,

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They were

All right.

Years ago I worked in South

and sometimes u/e would get so busy that

direct people over and have them staged,

Those are my t.erms, not yours.
Yes, sir.
And so during the period of time that

woul-d

Mr. Byrd was st.opped, do you actual-ly know why he

turned off of 98 onto Putnal-?

77
1

No, sir.

11

O Okay. Is it possible I know you directed

is it possibJ-e that
your officers, not saying that
first, let. me st.op you here. Were
an individualthere any non-law enforcement personnel assisting on
this day?
A No, sir.
O Were there any plain-clothes individuals
anywhere in this area that were l-aw enforcement?
A Yes, sir.
O Okay. When I say plain-clothes, whaL cl-othes

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were they wearing?

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A Blue jeans and T-shirt possbly. It woul-d be

one of our investigators or detectives that would have
been out about helping us. It would have been our drug
guys out there helping us. Investigator Harrel-l- and
Dwayne Coul-ter, and again I'm pointing t.o our ops plan.
O Who was assigned to the area of Putnal Street
during the time Mr. Byrd was stopped? Uniformed or

20

ununiformed?

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It woul-d be ununiformed because, the reason I

A
say that is because Sergeant Dwayne Coul-ter, who at the
tj-me then and still is, is our narcotics investigator.
And he is the one that noted the traffic violat.i-on,
Mr. Byrd not wearing a safet.y belt..

72

1,6

O How did he make that observation? I notice

that in there. Where v\ias that observation made? On
Putnal- Street or 98?
A That If m not sure, ot.her than looking here at
the report. Just saw him t.urning onto Putnal street
and Lanark where he noted it.
O So if there are mul-tiple people that arenrt
even stopped here, that never went down Putnal, never
went down this, who indicate t.hat there were officers
directing people off of 98 onto Putnal, I mean, frm not
talking about one person.
A Right.
O What would be the explanaton for that? Was
there some civil-ian
A They are giving you fal-se information. There
\^ias no one directing traffic from 98 to Putnal- or to

1,1

Hinton.

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I'm noL saying it hias

O If that was true
t,rue, I wasn't there t.hat night.
A Right.
O And you di-dn't see Mr. Byrd's vehicle taking
off or going from 98 t.o Putna.L, correct?
A No, sir, I don't recal-l- seeing t.hat.
O Okay. Well-, if you did I want. to know.
A No, I didn't.

73

1,

3
4

So how cl-ose

to Highway 98 \^Iere the officers

supposed t.o be positioned?

Just.

on Putnal-.

O
A

10

Just out of sight on 98.

O And when you sa just out of sight, off, dL
the very corner of 98 or a hundred yards down? where
were they parked?
A Yeah, pretty much, just wherever they parked.
They were advised just sY, just be out of sight so

11

whenever

1,2

viol-ations.

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6

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tt

13

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15
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the vehicl-e turns you coul-d see any

O Okay. Now when you say when the vehicl-e

turns, what u/ere they instruct.ed to do?
If they not.ed viol-ations' they are to conduct
A
a traf f ic st.op.
O Okay. Now, do You know anYthing in
particular about this vehicle that Mr. Byrd was

21,

traveling in?
A Other than what we've l-earned since, since
the traffic stop, since the arrest.. I guess it was a

22

Leon County

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25

O I'm talking about physical appearance.

That's obviously a
A No. No, sir.

74
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O What about tinted windows?

A None that f recal-l . No, sir. I mean, I
didn't., f don't even recall- going to l-ook at. the
vehicl-e even at our impound yard.
O Okay. Do you recal-l- specif ica1ly the purpose
of the stop for Mr. Byrd's vehicl-e?
A Other than what's in the report.r o, sir.
O' Okay. And how many officers affected the
stop on Mr. Byrdrs vehicle?
A
f know that, again based on the report, it
was Sergeant Dwayne Coulter who was in the narcotics
unit. And shortly after I know K-9 officers Jody
Marti-na arrived on scene to conduct the K-9 snif f .
O And when they do the R-9 sniff , t.he time
wel-l-, fj-rst of all, did they call
between the stop
out l-0-50 on Mr. Byrd's vehicl-e, to your knowledge?
A Not to my knowledge, o sir. I havenrt.
l-ooked at the CAD report.
O What is 10-50?
A
Traffic stop.
O Okay. lrlere the of f i-cers because you
talked about it.'s important to document on the radio
hrere the officers instructed to document when they
stopped a vehicl-e?
A You know, I don't reca.l-l saying that' that

75
1

day, whil-e we r^/ere at our meet.ing going over the ops

plan, hey, l-ook when you st.op a vehicl-e you need to

I6

call 10-50 or you need to sy, f 'm invol-ved in a

traffic stop.
As I've come through the ranks, it is cornmon
knowledge you shoul-d call- 10-50; but again, I canf t say
that day when Sergeant Coulter stopped Mr. Byrd that he
said 10-50 over the radio.
O Did he have any radio traffic to start? Vfhat
ilm doing is r'm saying t; sLart the clock.
A Right..
O Obviously there is a stop.
A Yes, sir.
O And so there is somewhat of a delay after the
stop to do t.he next. activit.y, that hopefully is on the
CAD logs, and that's the 28, 29 check for wants and

T1

warrants.

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Yes, sir.

that, to your knowledge, the protocol

foll-owed in this case?
A
It shoul-d have been. Do I have proof of that
right here? No, sir.
O Okay. And I'm not holding you to that.. The
CAD logs hopefully will show you us.
A Right, ys, sir.
O

Was

16

11

O But your concern is that possibJ-y those CAD

logs don't actually indicate the stops al-l the time.
If it is radioed in, it woul-d ref l-ect that.
A
O I agree with that, but I'm saying it is not
always radioed in. I might have misunderstood you?
A No, I agree. Like we discussed earlier,
there could be times where an officer does not cal-l- 1n
a traffic stop.
O Okay. And so once t.hey run the 28, 29 check,
the purpose or the identifiabl-e violation has already
been identified. That's only t.he purpose of the stop,

L2

right

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Yes.

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Okay. And the officers who would have been

making t.he st.op h/ere positioned a dist.ance away from
Highway 98, out of sight . So t.he person woul-d actually
have to travel- down Putnal- before they woul-d be able to
physically observe anything?
A Depending on where Sergeant Coulter was

20

parked.

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just so the record is cl-ear, r'm

not holding you to what you didn't see.
I know.
A
O ffm just holding you to what instructions

25

were

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And Captain,

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1
2

A
O
A

Sure.

given and not given.

Yes, sir.

10

it. sounds l-ike t.here \^Ias no

instruct.j-on to document each st.op, if Irm right.
A Yes, sir.
O Okay. And so you gave no instruction to
document each and every stop, so there is the
possibility there were stops that were undocumented.
A Yes, sir, T woul-d agree with that, it is very

11

possible.

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O
A
O

Because

Okay. It. is just. human nature.

Yes, sir.
It doesn't mean anybody is trying to

do

nothing wrong.

Right.

O It is just what \^/e can document and what hlas

part of the idea going on here.
A Yes, sir.
O And so the cel-l- phones that were used, do you
know for a fact that cel-l phones l^Iere util-ized in this
particular area in this operation?
I have no doubt that there \^Iere phone cal-ls
A
made. To who, specificalJ-y, different officers calling
who, there is no \^/ay to answer that.

78
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2

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of the officers pri-or,

when you had your meeting before, did you identify what
cel-l- phones woul-d or woul-dn't be used?
A No, sir. No.
Did most of the officers have
a
O

That's okay.

Do each

department-issued cel-1 phones?

A Yes, s j-r.

O
A

Thank goodness.
Yes.

About time they started issuing cel-l phones.

11

O
A

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Did any of the officers that were there

10

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Yes.
have

personal cell- phones s well-?

that I'm aware of .

O, Okay. And the reason being, there is an
Attorney General- opinion that most l-aw enforcement
officers don't l-ike, that allows us to get the tme
logs . ie don't want the numbers.
A Right..
O There is a security issue with that.
A Right.
O Depending on how the t,ime l-ines come out,
anticipate thatfs going to come.
A
Sure.
O And the State Attorneyrs herer so she knows
None

19
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f rm not tryng to get anybody's personal cel-l- phones;

1B

but if we can identify the number that is assigned to

the name, if you want to provide that to the Stat.e
Attorney for the guys who were actual-J-y there
A Right.
then a l-ot of times what we can do, we can
O
get the phone records and that will- give us time lines.
A
Sure.
O And so it s just anot.her electronic device
just like t,he CAD is that helps us document things.
A Yes, sir.
O Sometimes that information benefit.s you.
Sometimes it benefits me. It is what it. is.
A Right.
So in any event/ were there any officers or
a
law enforcement personnel when I say l-aw enforcement
personnel, I know in t.he :rural counties that the
Highway Patrol- works with you guys, the FWC works with

I9

you guys and helps out.

20

rn other words, if an FWC officer is coming

by, sees bl-ue lights up ahead and everythinq, may pull
over and tal-k to you and check it out or if you need
help or backup.
Do you know of any other l-aw enforcement
agencies that were involved at anyt,ime whatsoever j-n

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80

this l-ocation that you dre on the map marked Defense

Exhibit 3?
A No, sir.
O I had to think all that t.hrough.
A No, sir. I donrt recal-l any other agency

being invol-ved.

2
3
4

11

you obviously, we can depose

everybody who was there if \^re know who everybody is.
A
Sure. Yes, sir.
But do you have the ability to t.alk to these
a
guys and sy, hey, do you remember any other agencies

I2

stopping

7
B

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13

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A
O
A
a

So could

by?

Sure, yes, sir

f'm just trying to do my due diligence.

I understand.
If there r^/as an FHP officer that stopped by

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25

I agree. You have to be thorough.

O, And if you get wind of that, can you l-et the
State Attorney know and just l-et us know, because then
we can go to that agency and get records?
A Absol-utef y, ys, sir.
O The vehicles used on Putnal- St.reet and
Highway 98 and Hinton Street, do al-l- the sherj-ff 's
vehicles, marked or unmarked, have GPS locators on

81
1

them?

A
O
A

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4

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No, sir.

of them have
No, sir.
Do any

GPS

locat.ors?

O Do they have mobile data terminals?

A We did at one time, if it is what I'm
thinking, to where we coul-d insert a card into our
laptops and have communication through our CAD system.

Vac
l_E

T6

Is that. what you are referring to?

It is a mobil-e data terminal-?
We've have had t.hat in t.he past, but we've
been very unsuccessful- with that because of our service
at the time. Our surface area through this county was
very poor at the time. We can do some research, but. T
honestl-y don't think we had that capability at that

1,1

time.

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A
O
A

That's okay, Captain. If You on

February 2BLh, 20L4, if there are any other el-ectronic
devices -- we are just trying to coll-ect all- the data.
A Yes, sir.
O Because it is what it is.

Yes, sir.

That's one of my favorite sayings. But if

one guy is using it or somebody else, I want to make

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sure I do my due diligence.

Yes, sir.

O
A
O

are not. all- knowing.

Maybe I shoul-d be t.aking notes.
Hol-d on. I can tel-l- you upfront we are going
And

know you

to have this transcribed.

A Okay.
O This young lady will- transcribe it. At the
end of t,his depo I witl- ask you to read or waive, which
most people waive. But I'm sure the State Attorney
wil-l- order a copy, as well-.
A
Sure.
O
A

So you can go back and reference.

Okay.

O That's what f am saying.

A What Irm saying is things that. you may be
looking for that I need to try to find for you.
O I wil-l also give you my cel-l phone number.
And you always need to go through the State At.torney.
She is sitting here. I can see her ears perking up.
first of
But if there s something frm looking for
all, you can cal-l- me and ask me about it, but it always
needs to go through t.heir of f ice to me.
A
I understand.
That's the appropriate way to do it.
a

83

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Sure.

did the II9, I tol-d

Mr. Patterson ahead of t.ime, participating in
discovery, Ifm just going to choose to go II9 on this
because I think that.'s the best way to acquire
And t.hat's why when I

metadata.

All rightr so back onto the position that

night.. We eliminat.ed no other law enf orcement, but you
are going to check and see if t.here were any other
agencies. T just want to know everyone that was t.here
law enforcement or non-law enforcement.
assisting
There are sometimes citizens, I know t.he big thing is
the citizens reserve deputies or
A Right.

zz

other people could be there.

O
A Right.
O And t.hey may not be incl-uded on this l-ist.
Is there any reason to bel-ieve anyone is in addit.ion to
the l-ist that's marked Defense Exhibit I?
A !hat. I have to do, like you see I noted down
here on the ops plan where it says day shift officers,
I need to go back and see who was 10-B or on duty that

23

day

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A

Yes, sir.

to see who *" there that

may have been

B4

15

invol-ved. And also you heard me reference earl-ier to,

he's Detective Johnson now or Lieutenant Johnson, Brad
Johnson. He was on duty that day. He actually
assisted us. I think he may have even been invol-ved in
searching Mr. Byrdfs vehicle.
O Okay.
A But so do you want me to write that. on here
or how would you l-ike it?
O Your testimony is sufficient.
A Okay.
O lile wil-l- keep that marked on here and it is in
the records so we wil-l reference back to it.. If you
are taking it upon yourself to check that, I know the
State Attorney will appreciate that.
A No, as far as Johnson, Brad Johnson,

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Detective Johnson, he was t.here.

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A

So is

not on the l-ist

He is not. on the list.
but. was there?

Yes, sir.
MR. PUMPHREY: Madam Court. Reporter, can you

mark t.hat.

in the record,

somehow.

23

BY MR. PUMPHREY:

24

O So l-et's go through the f ake ops plan or

ruse narcotics checkpoint. Does that sound right?

25

t.he

B5
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A
O

Yes, sir.

22

didn't, need an operational- plan. This

was more just to tel-1 everybody where you are at so it
l-ooks like a checkpoint..
A Yes.
O Okay. And the, so t,hatf s why there was never
any publ-ication of t,his document?
A Yes.
O It wasnrt a checkpoint?
A Because it wasnft a checkpoint.
O Okay. And that's why there weren't multiple
briefings leading up to it to make sure each person had
training on their assignment, and knew that they \^Iere
restricted to a certain area and a certain assignment.
A Yes.
O So basically, this is just a l-ist of the guys
that \^rere goingr to be there?
A That were going to be avail-able t.o help out
that day, ys, sir.
O And they had complete discretion to go from
one end of it to the other, from one vehicl-e to
another, depending on need or whatever desire under

23

your supervision

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So you

Yes.

at this area of Highway 98, Putnal- and

B6
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Hinton?

Yes, sr.

Okay. Did you restrict their discretion in

any way?

79

I don't recal-l restrct.ing anybodyr o, sir.

O Okay. So what we have as an ops plan is
really not an official- ops plan?
A Wel-l, iL is very qeneric, ys, sj-r.
O Okay. In other words, if you were doing a
true operational- checkpoint., or a DUI checkpoint, a
narcotics checkpoint like t.hat \^ias on the sign, this
would be much more detailed and there woul-d be a l-ot
more briefings
A Yes, sir.
and coverage; is that right?
O
A Yes, sir.
O And a l-ot. of t.imes when you guys do, do
I don't know if you do you have other
that
lnter-agencies wil-l- cooperat.e with you l-ike Highway

20

Patrol

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Really the only time we get invol-ved with a

DUI checkpoint or a driver's license or whatever, you
know, safety checkpoint, is involved with the Highway
Patrol-, and they generally do the ops plan for that.

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donrt do it

B1

have you guys

ever done an ops plan before?

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4

Okay. Is this the first

cal-l it an ops plan, l-ike we've got right.

We

O
A

Right.

here.

10

It is never something along the l-ines of what

you see with FDLE or what you woul-d see with some of
the guys with al-cohol- and tobacco, that If ve seen some
of their ops plans.
O And when you say their ops plans, very

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detailed

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documentation

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Yes, sir.

with timed briefings, with

Yes, sir.

of who's in attendance/ who is not in

an

attendance?

A
O
multiple
specifc
A

Yes, sir.
Very detailed instructions on scene with

supervision, with specific instructions

and

l-ocations?

Yes, sir.

Okay. A specific number of egresses and

ingresses so that t.he travel-ing public can go another
way if they want without being affected, al-l- t.hose
O

88

real-l-y particul-ar things that go into an ops plan.

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Yes, sir.

No.

Okay. This ops plan has none of that,

does

ir?

O Okay. And that's because it is not an ops

plan, right?
A Vell-, it is for all, for our case and

purposes.

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A

Okay.

Frankln

Count.y

Sheriff 's Office, it is

an

ops plan.

But for const.it.utional- purposes/ al-l- the

checkl-ist and requirements you have to go t.hrough/

of that was foll-owed with this particular ruse ops

none

plan; right?
A You know, I personally have never seen the
constituti-onal rul-es and regul-ations on an ops plan;
but again, for all- intents and purposes, Franklin
County Sheriff's Office, this was an ops p1an.
Okay. Does this have any safeguards in here
a
that are built in to protect the citizensr s far as
the Franklin County ops plan?
A
I woul-d say safeguards to protect citzens.
If you are t,alking about the motoring pubJ-ic, it is

B9
1

simply the training and experience of the officers

involved.

15

O Okay. If you were going t.o run an of f icial

ops plan like ABT and these other agencies have run'
typically they wil-1 coordinate wit,h the St.ate
Attorney's Office or an Assistant. State Attorney t.o
look over it; is that your understanding?
A
I've never been invol-ved in that. process with
those guysr so I can't answer that.
O That.'s okay. Ifm not, I'm not, I'm not
t.rying to point it out.. It doesnrt sound like you've
done an official checkpoint ever
A We have not, flor si-r.
O Okay. And have you ever, has this particular
ruse narcotics checkpoint been challenged since

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February 2BLh,

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201,4?

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No, sir.

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Haven't had any court or anything?

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No. As far as I know, there's only been a

couple individuas that's entered a plea, plea
agreements or what have you.
O In other wordsr flo attorneys have come down
and put you on the record and had you testify?
A You are the f irst one that T rve tal-ked to.
O And the prosecutor is looking at filr too, so.

90

MS. FRAZER: We haven't had anything

2
3

know

that I

of about it..

BY MR. PUMPHREY:

I figured after a year somebody would be

looking at it. Okay. So are there, it has on the l-ast
page of what. you have that we are going to enter here,
it has a date and it act.uall-y has a f ile directory. It
says C:/Users/franklin/Documents. Is that on your

computer?

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It. is. Yes, sir. That's where I printed

t.his from this morning.
O I want you t.o l-ook at this and make sure. f
didn't see any l-aw enf orcement material- . I 'm very
sensitive to protecting l-aw enforcement information.
For example, cel-l- phones, I don't want anybodyrs cell-

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phone number.

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All I want is this person's name or sergeant

or l-ieutenant. and badge number is associated with this
history. And so what i,tie usually do, if \^ie get t.o that
point, is we wil-l ask the court to do an in-camera
proceeding or ask t,he State At.t.orney to acquire the
records and redact it.
And we want to be very cautious with that. I
don't. want anybody getting your cell- phone numbers. I
don't see anything in this, but take a look at it

91
1,

ore ^re enter it. in and make sure there i-snrt

anything in here.
It shows a total edit time of three minutes.

bef

11

Is that how long it took to creaLe the document once

you opened it?
A No. I mean, I see what you are talking about
there. And you know, thatfs something that me and John
Rex have discussed. He is, whil-e he's tried to explain
the metadata to me. I don't know what that. coul-d be.
f mean, honestly, I don't. f canrt explain it.
O Let me see if this helps you, if you

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remember

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Okay.

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creating this document. You obviously had

this template on a computer. And so if you go in and
enter informat.ion, it might already have been names on
the template. Did it, did you take longer than three
minutes to create it. or does three minutes sound about

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right.?

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To create the entire template?

2I

No, not the templat.e. The inf ormation used

22
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25

for February 2Bth.

A Even to change the individual names on here,
it woul-d have taken me a l-ot J-onger than t.hree minutes
to enter that information.

92
1

O
A

How

long do you,think?

10

typing abitity, probably

O That's okay, donrt be shy.
A No, a good period of time. I mean' I can't,
10 or 1-2 minutes, 15 minut,es. You know, I don't, had r
been siting there t.yping away, typing, and my office
has an open door and generally I've got two or three,
five guys in there at a time.
O So the record is clear
A
So had t.hey come in. Yeah, he's pecking away

11

wit.h hj-s index f ingers.

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but not
O
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A

Wit,h my

fingers, hunt and peck.

Yes, sir. I do a little better than that,
much better.
Two index

Thatfs okay.
But again, with guys coming in and out.
are not judging.
So the three minutes, again, I don't.

VrIe

know

what, where this come from. Because f would suspect it

woul-d take a period of time.

O You don't think that someone went in and made

some edits, it coul-d have been your that took three
minutes or anything el-se?
A
I don't, I don't know where it woul-d have
come from, what the three minut.es is.

93
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So we

are al-l learning about metadata.

Sure, ys, sir.

The creation

of

documents.

Right.

is coming in. I want. to tal-k

to him and go over the other documents and the metadata
for those, because the request was for the metadata for
the ops p1an, which encompasses a broader range.
We wil-l see if we can't f igure it. out . Maybe
that will- help us al-l out. We are just trying to
establ-ish time l-ines. To me, in everyt,hing we do tj-me
l-ines is very critical.
Without them, it is just
And so Mr. Rex

unfettered. You don't know what happened.

Ilith time linesr w have hard data and we
know this happened at this time. But much like your
report here you ident.ified -- whose report is t.his?
Because Irm l-ooking at it upside down.
A
Sergeant Dwayne Coul-ter.
The time date and stamp on this report, when
a
he started t,he depo you indicated that doesn't ref l-ect
the true time and date of t.he events.
A
The date is correct. The t,ime would not be
the same as the actual- 10-50 time or traffic st.op time.
O Okay. And how do you know that?
A
Simply because when the officer goes 10-50,

94

24

that.'s recorded in our CAD system. When he comes in to

do the report, it pulls the t.ime of when he sits down
in front of the computer to actuall-y do the report.
O So you see why r ask about moble data
terminal-s.
A Yes, sir.
O Some officers can enter their report and it
wil-l- time stamp
A Right.
the 10-50 and everything right there.
O
A Right.
O And you can run 10-50s.
A Yes, sir.
O You can run/ 28, 29s all that.
A Yes, sir.
O All right. So Captain, I' m going t.o reserve
re-deposing you. Pease, I hope I don't. have to, just
because there is informat.ion you don't have. And we
may get an additional- inf ormation. I think it woul-d be
fair, if the State has no objection, if we get CAD
reports and everything else, you may be able to cl-ear
some things up
A
Sure.
that. you were kind of speculating about
O

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here.

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95
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Sure.

You

oh, yeah.

think that's fair?

Yeah.

MS.

FR,ZER:

MR.

PUMPHREY:

concl-ude your

No

ob

ject.ion from the State.

So at t.his time I wil-l-

I want to cJ-arify something.

MS. FRAZER:

MR. PUMPHREY: Absol-utely.

13

talking about the

ffip, u/e kept saying eastbound; but I bel-ieve
everyone I^Ias travel-ing west towards St. George
Island. I just want to clarify that.
THE WITNESS: Right, I did. I put eastbound

T4

on there. That shoul-d

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MS. FRAZER: When we \^/ere

be

That's why I was doing it.

15

MR. PUMPHREY:

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THE WITNESS: Yeah.

77

MR. PUMPHREY: Thank You so much.

1B

MS. FRAZER:

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I just didn't want there to

be

any confus j-on l-ater.

This is Defense 3, I bel-ieve.

I wl-l have the captain, I'm giving him my pen.
He is not doing t.his " his o\^/n. He drew it up
and he wrote eastbound, which is what I've been
referencing to throughout this entire t.ranscrpt
and testimony. And I was reading off of his map.
MR. PUMPHREY:

96
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THE VTTNESS: YES.

is going to draw a line

t.hrough east and correct. that and make it west
because truly it is westbound traffic.
THE WITNESS: Yes, sir, westbound t.raffic on
MR. PUMPHREY: So he

Highway 98.

the east.
MR. PUMPHREY: Coming from the east and so
Fo, thank you very mch. I appreciate that.
MS. FRAZER: Coming from

Yeah.

10

THE I/ITNESS

11

MR. PUMPHREY: AnYthing else.

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MS. FRAZER: That was

13

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wanted

the only thing I just

to clarify.

MR. PUMPHREY:

No, I appreciat.e that.

We are

20

all just trying to get the facts out.

You have an opport.unity to read or waive the
depo. I can tell you we are going to transcribe
it. I remember one depo to years ago I actually
asked to read. And I went and spent a l-ot of time
in a lady's of f ice and read t.he whol-e thing and

21,

didn't do anything.

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76

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Yeah, I generally waive.

22

THE WITNESS:

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MR. PUMPHREY: OkaY, so You waive.

24
25

Yes, sir. As long as some of

the nformation you've asked, if I call you or
THE WITNESS:

97
1

her.

MR. PUMPHREY: Do you want

MS. FRAZER: Yes, Please.

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to order a copy?

will order and have it

transcribed. I'm doing j-t more so we can all look
at it and go, okay, put the pieces together' So
we can go of f t.he record.
(Whereupon,t.hetakingofthedepositionwas
concluded at 2254 p.m. Reading and signing hlere
MR. PUMPHREY: I

waived.

9B

CERTIFICATE

1,

STATE OF FLORIDA

COUNTY OF LEON

^
7

PEGGY

L.

OWENS,

Registered Professional

Reporter, at Tall-ahassee/ Florida,

do hereby certify

as

follors:

That f correctl-y reported in shorthand the

foregoing proceedings at the time and place stated in

1,1

the captlon hereof:

That f l-ater reduced my shorthand not.es by
computer-aided transcript.ion t o under my supervision,
and t,hat the foregoinn Oun." 1 through 97 both
inclusive, cont.ain a ful-l-, t.rue, and correct transcript
of t.he proceedings on said occasion:
That I am neither of kin, nor of counsel-, to any
parties involved, nor am I financially interested in

1B

this action.

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THIS the 26th day of March, 20L5.

20
21,

22
23

24
25

PEGGY L. OWENS
Registered Professional- Reporter
Registered Merit Reporter

99

CERTIFICATE OF OATH

STATE OF FLORIDA

COUNTY OF LEON

It Peggy L.

Owens, Registered Professional-

Reporter, Notary Publ-ic, state of Florida, cert-fy that,

ERIC BRADLEY SEGREE personally appeared before me on

the

10

of March, 2015, and was duly

Signed this 26th daY of March, 2015.

24Lh day

sworn.

1,1.

1,2

13

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15
1"6

PEGGY L

I9
20
27
22
23

24
25

OWENS, RMR, RPR

State of Fl-orida
EE 88005
No.
My Commission
Expires z 8-23-1'5

1,7

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Notary Public

!
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