Internal Affairs Investigation Finds Deputy Forged Signatures on DUI Documents
In Hillsborough County, Florida, a recent Internal Affairs summary report revealed that Deputy Justin Speaks forged the signatures of two to three sergeants in several of his DUI reports. The Internal Affairs report, dated August 15, 2008, indicated that Speaks committed three counts of forgery, three counts of uttering a forged instrument, and one count of conduct unbecoming of a member of the Sheriff's Office.
The report also stated that, "Deputy Speaks was advised that the State Attorney's Office (SAO) is not going to pursue prosecution on some of his DUI cases as a result of the criminal charges presented to the SAO against him. He agreed his actions have had an adverse affect upon the cases and would destroy public respect in the Sheriff's Office."
As stated in the report, in one instance, the Florida District Attorney's Office chose not to prosecute Lee Anne Bodzenski, who was arrested by Speaks for suspicion of property damage, personal injury, and driving under the influence. Chemical tests taken after the accident revealed Bodenski's blood alcohol concentration to be 0.165 and 0.162, however, prosecutors were forced to abandon the case because of the numerous challenges to Speaks' integrity and honesty.
The forgery was discovered by Speaks' superior after the DUI report on Bodzenski was returned to the office because Speaks had failed to sign his own name to the document. Upon inspection, Speaks' supervisor, Sergeant Porter, discovered that Speaks had forged his signature on the document. When confronted by Sergeant Porter about the forgery, Speaks denied any wrong-doing. However, he changed his story an hour later, saying instead that his wife was responsible for the forgery.
After collecting and comparing handwriting samples of both Speaks and his wife, Internal Affairs concluded that Speaks was responsible for the forgeries. During a subsequent interview, Speaks admitted to the forgeries and even exposed that he had forged the signatures and information of other officers in the past.
This is not the first time Hillsborough County has made national headlines following an Internal Affairs investigation. In the summer of 2007, Deputy Daniel Brock was fired from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office after reports surfaced that Brock filed arrest reports weeks after DUI incidents occurred, failed to turn on his vehicle audio and video equipment forty percent of the time, reported failures in field sobriety tests when his patrol car video camera documented the opposite, and acted against police arrest procedure on numerous occasions. As soon as the Internal Affairs report was published, Brock was let go.
In light of the highly publicized investigations of Deputies Brock and Speaks, concerns have been raised that individuals may be able to come forward to challenge the evidence and circumstances surrounding their own arrests and convictions in Hillsborough County, regardless of whether Brock and Speaks were involved.
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