Florida paramedic charged in theft of COVID vaccines. He blamed his captain, cops say
The 2020 Polk County Fire Rescue Paramedic of the Year helped steal three COVID-19 vaccine doses, then used a spread of forgeries to cover the thefts, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said.
Joshua Colon, a training officer who turned 31 on Sunday, said he was covering for the true thief, his supervisor, who Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd and Polk County Fire Rescue Fire Chief Robert Weech identified during a Tuesday news conference as Capt. Anthony Damiano.
A Polk sheriff’s release said Colon accused Damiano of blackmailing him by saying he would tell supervisors that Colon was selling the vaccine doses on the black market. Damiano, Judd said, was in California helping deal with that state’s COVID-19 crisis.
“As soon as the captain arrives back from the West Coast — supposedly, he’s stopped in Las Vegas he’s driving an RV back — we will talk with him late tonight or in the morning,” Judd said. The sheriff said he would be arrested when he returns.
Colon was arrested Monday, and released Tuesday after posting $13,000 bond. He’s charged with four counts of forgery; four counts of uttering a forged instrument; four counts of falsifying medical records; two counts of creating a fictional personal identification; one count of criminal use of personal identification; and one count of official misconduct.
Weech said, “This was something that didn’t meet his character. Certainly, I was trying to reconcile it myself. But faced with the facts, I had to go to the authorities.
Judd said, “Bottom line is Joshua tried to cover for the captain. Joshua set up the circumstance for the vaccine to have been stolen. Had he simply gone to his boss right then, he would’ve been the hero.
“Instead, he started falsifying paperwork, making up people who didn’t exist to cover it up. He went to jail.”
COVID vaccine paperwork and parents
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office said Colon had been given 30 vaccine doses to give first responders who came to Station 38 in Davenport. Colon would have to log when he gave each person a vaccine dose and if the person had any reaction. Each person receiving a vaccine dose would have to sign a Florida Health COVID-19 Vaccine Screening and Consent Form.
Judd said a battalion chief noticed after Jan. 6 that the information on forms from Colon for three different people clashed. After the battalion chief questioned Colon, he received more paperwork that Judd described as “totally messed up.”
The battalion chief saw a name he recognized, Judd said, and called the man. When the battalion chief told him why he was asking for his date of birth, Judd said the main told the battalion chief, “I didn’t get a vaccination. I’m no longer a firefighter.”
Soon after, Judd said, PCSO investigators were brought in to check things out and they wound up meeting Colon in the office of his attorney. He said he made up the paperwork, using one actual name and two fake names: Scott Keller and Alexander Dimmer.
“He even went so far as to dummy up some email addresses to create an email from Scott Keller back to the battalion chief, saying, ‘I’ve got my stuff,’ he confessed,” Judd said.
Colon said Damiano told him “I’d like some vaccine for my mother,” but Colon refused the request. Judd described the vaccine theft:
“What occurred was there were three syringes with three doses of the vaccine, that Joshua Colon put in a plastic bag, put in a special refrigerator and sealed it. At the direction of the captain, he took a break. He left, takes a break, he came back and voila! Seal’s broken and the vaccines are gone.”
Alleged conversations with a captain
He said Colon got Damiano on the phone in front of investigators and pleaded that he needed the vaccine vials back because he was in administrative trouble. Judd said Damiano told Colon the vaccines were in a car at a friend’s house in St. Cloud.
Judd said the friend told them she wasn’t at home when Damiano texted her, but she went home and took the vaccines out of the trunk of the car and put them on the front seat because “this Joshua Colon was supposed to come get them.”
“We’ve got text messages between the captain and [the friend] — she doesn’t know anything about anything, she’s a totally innocent victim — but she’s taken these three doses of COVID [vaccine] out of the trunk and put them on front seat,” Judd said.
He also said Damiano texted jokingly, “Maybe you want to wipe the fingerprints off of the bag.”
Weech confirmed that with the vaccines being out of refrigeration for so long, “they are not viable.”
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