VOLUSIA EXPOSED

VOLUSIA EXPOSED.COM

Some local pastors have voiced concerns of possible racial profiling by the Volusia County Sheriff department

Has the spectre of racial profiling returned to haunt the VCSO?

In the early to mid 1990s, Volusia County made national headlines due to allegations of racial profiling attached to the Volusia Sheriff Department

A federal investigation into allegations of both racial profiling and excessive use of force, led to criminal indictments against members of the VCSO. Several current senior members of the VCSO were attached to the 1990s scandal and media hype regarding racial profiling / excessive use of force, including recently promoted (December 1, 2011) Chief Deputy Mike Coffin

Are these recent allegations, by local pastors, and Chief Deputy Coffin's return to the VCSO merely coincidental?

Updated
February 20, 2012

"Past behavior is the best indicator of future behavior"- Dr. Phil McGraw

This article was updated on February 20, 2012 - see bottom of page for update

Recently, local pastors have voiced concerns that the Volusia County Sheriff department has / is engaging in racial profiling. We invite you to review the below video report compiled by WFTV - Channel 9.

VolusiaExposed.Com wonders if Mr. Mike Coffin's recent return (December 1, 2011) to the VCSO as it's second in command (Chief Deputy) is some how connected to these concerns of racial profiling, or is Coffins' return just coincidental. We invite you to review the October 2011 Daytona Beach News Journal article which details Coffin's return to the VCSO

Allegations of racial profiling are nothing new to the VCSO. In the early to mid 1990s the department was investigated by federal officials for racially profiling drivers for traffic stops on Inter-state 95. This investigation attracted several national media outlets. While current Sheriff Johnson was a member of the VCSO in the 1990s, he did not become sheriff until 2001

During the federal investigation, two VCSO deputies were indicted for excessive use of force and other charges, one of these deputies was current Chief Deputy, Mike Coffin.

The end result of the federal investigation was, that both indicted deputies were found NOT guilty and the federal government did not attempt to further support their allegations of racial profiling against then Sheriff Bob Vogel. We invite you to review the below media articles that further detail the 1990s events.

VolusiaExposed.Com encourages all that have interest in allegation of racial profiling to read former Volusia County Sheriff Vogel's book on the matter. The book, titled, "Fighting to Win" gives the readers some interesting insights that we believe will probably shed additional light on how the VCSO currently is structured and operates. We invite you to review Vogel's book at the below web link.

For anyone that cares to review the Vogel Book - we suggest that they make the following notes.

1. Sheriff Vogel had concerns that Deputy Bobby Jones would be criminally charged (Jones was never criminally charged)- Deputy Bobby Jones is currently Major Robert Jones within the VCSO - all road deputies and detectives are under his supervision. Major Jones now is supervised by Chief Deputy Coffin.

2. Attorney Nancye Jones (spouse of Robert Jones) was Sheriff Vogel legal advisor. Nancye is now an Assistant Volusia County Attorney. She handles many of the legal matters coming out of the Volusia County jail and sheriff department. VolusiaExposed.Com has expressed concerns that a conflict of interest exist regarding in-custody jail death investigations. In short, when an inmate dies in-custody, Major Robert Jones sends one of his detectives to investigate the death and his spouse Nancye, most probably will be directly or indirectly involved in representing the county in any legal issues that are attached to the death. We believe that this is a serious conflict of interest that has improperly influenced these death investigations, whereas criminal conduct has been concealed.

We invite our readers to review, in the particular, the September 2009 death investigation of Volusia County Inmate Tracy Veira. Ask yourself, why would a seasoned VCSO major case investigator (Deputy Campanella) initially document inconsistencies between the inmate's body state of rigor mortis and the jail officers alleged last face to face interactions with Inmate Veira, but refuse to follow up on those inconsistencies?

Could it possibly be that the Jones conflict of interest is negatively affecting these death investigations?

Does this mean that the Joneses are criminally interfering with these investigations? No, it does not, and most probably, they are not intentionally interfering with these investigations. But obviously, this blatant conflict of interest can not be ruled out, by default, to be negatively influencing these crucial investigations. We invite you to start your review of the in-custody death situation with our article on Tracy Veira's death, then move on to the other deaths we have listed.

VolusiaExposed.Com will continue to follow this developing story regarding possible racial profiling by the VCSO, we will update this web page as the situation dictates.

UPDATE / COMMENTARY - February 20, 2012

Recently, Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson and his command staff met with members of the community regarding their concerns of possible racial profiling by the VCSO.

We applaud Sheriff Johnson for attending this meeting and promising to address / investigate the concerns of the community.

We also believe that Sheriff Johnson has indicated his willingness to take appropriate disciplinary action against his deputies, should they cross the line. The letter of reprimand to Deputy Deane clearly indicates that willingness.

However, VolusiaExposed.Com has two concerns regarding whether Sheriff Johnson will be able to deliver on his promise to address and investigate legitimate concerns about deputy misconduct.

First, we are of the opinion that the VCSO has too many conflicts of interest within their investigative review process to effectively and properly investigative and resolve these community allegations / concerns. Some of these conflicts were discussed in the above article.

Second, we have concerns that past attempts of the VCSO to self investigate community allegations were not handled in a professional manner, as would be expected, and should be demanded of a law enforcement agency. Case in point, is the handling to the sexually based allegations against Deputy Willard.

Sheriff Johnson MUST address some integrity issues (conflicts of interest, lack of professionalism) within the VCSO. Absent him doing so, he can expect many more of these sort of allegations coming from the community. Especially, given the fact that this is an election year, and political opponents are always quick to point out such weaknesses.

VolusiaExposed.Com has found Sheriff Johnson to be very approachable, and with little doubt, a devoted and loyal public servant. However, we do believe that in some circumstances, Sheriff Johnson's loyalty is more devoted to the protection of his organization, political career or friends, then it is towards the protection of the Volusia County community.

We believe that Sheriff Johnson must make a course correction and realize that sometimes, a law enforcement officer can NOT defend a friend, and at the same time enforce the law. The Flagler County Sheriff is currently learning that lesson the hard way.