Five Department of Detention and Corrections employees fired after separate incidents
Detention employees fired for two separate incidents
FOX 13's Kailey Tracy has the details after five Pinellas County Detention and Corrections employees were fired after separate incidents.
LARGO, Fla. - Five Department of Detention and Corrections employees were fired after two unrelated incidents at the Pinellas County Jail.
First incident
The backstory:
Deputy Jovan Hardwick was working at the jail and was assigned to monitor inmates with mental health issues.
On August 11, an inmate was in a single cell and refused to remove his hands from the food trap door where food gets passed through.
Hardwick is accused of grabbing a bottle of Lysol that he had brought to work that day and sprayed the inmate in the face while the inmate was kneeling down with his hands extended through the food door.
After spraying him, the deputy slammed the inmate's hands with the bottom of the Lysol can.
Other jail employees witnessed the incident, and it was also captured on video.
After the incident, Hardwick lied to responding supervisors saying he poured water from a bottle on the inmate's face. He also lied in the official report and submitted false documents about the incident.
In the report, Hardwick included a picture of the bottom of the Lysol can, but labeled it as "water bottle."
What they're saying:
"He just made up and fabricated a cover-up for spraying this inmate in the face with Lysol," said Sheriff Bob Gualtieri.
No criminal charges are being pursued and Hardwick has had no disciplinary history with Pinellas County.
Deputy Jovan Hardwick. Courtesy: Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
Hardwick has been with PCSO since 2005.
PCSO holds press conference after 5 Department of Detention and Corrections employees terminated
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri is sharing more information about the termination of five Department of Detention and Corrections employees after two unrelated incidents.
Second incident
An internal affairs investigation began after a former Pinellas County Jail inmate made a complaint alleging that a supervisor and several deputies came into her cell and showed her a picture of her butt.
The backstory:
The eventual victim was arrested on May 15 for disorderly intoxication at a bar in Seminole and arrived at the jail at about 4:30 p.m.
The booking area at the jail was full, and the jail was backed up processing inmates, so the woman was forced to sit in a prisoner transport van for over three hours.
At about 7:40 p.m., the woman’s pants came off, and jail staff brought her into the booking area. During her processing, deputies claimed that the woman was uncooperative.
But Gualtieri says that he watched the surveillance video from the jail and says it shows the woman intoxicated and not defiant.
The woman was then handcuffed and shackled before being moved to a nearby holding cell because she was deemed uncooperative.
The cell she was placed in did not have a toilet and just before 8 p.m., she walked to the drain on the floor, pulled her pants down and began urinating. The woman did this several times over the next 40 minutes before she sat down on the bench and leaned forward, exposing her butt and genitals.
An investigation later revealed that the woman was attempting to pull her pants up while handcuffed.
While looking at the victim through a jail video camera, Deputy Katherine Cantrell saw her in that position and took a picture of the monitor. Corp. Emmanuel Nomikos then joined in and made derogatory comments about the woman and her anatomy.
Deputy Cantrell then showed the image to Sgt. Keri-Lyn Colosimo and they both laughed. Deputy Cantrell sent the image to Colosimo, another deputy and her spouse, who is not an agency employee.
Nomikos saved the image and displayed it on a larger monitor in an area that could be easily seen by deputies, inmates and anyone else passing by. It remained there for an extended period of time.
What they're saying:
"Corporal Nomikos used the woman’s compromised position for his own amusement," Gualtieri said. "Nomikos then wrote a report about the incident that was vague and contained inaccurate statements."
The highest ranking person on duty, Lt. Jason Franjesevic, then arrived and was shown the woman’s photo.
When he looked at the enlarged photo on the video monitor, he stated, "There’s something that’s been in there before," and then he laughed amongst the surrounding deputies.
"The woman had to urinate in a floor drain because she was placed in a cell without a toilet after having been left in a van for three hours, and she was simply trying to pull her pants up because she is handcuffed behind her back, and she couldn’t get them up," Gualtieri said.
Franjesevic then told Cantrell to print out the photo, and it was passed around.
Work history with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office
- Lt. Jason Franjesevic - 25 years
- Sgt. Keri-Lyn Colosimo - 20 years
- Corp. Emmanuel Nomikos - 23 years
- Deputy Katherine Cantrell - 7 years
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The Source: Information for this story was provided by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office in a news conference Wednesday afternoon.