'Dark chapter' at Fort Myers Police Department ends with release of new details in Freeh report

Additional details concerning a report that outlined Fort Myers police's failure to combat a growing gang and drug-related violence problem in the city have come to light.

Still, some layers of information remain heavily redacted.

Last year, the department stated the U.S. Department of Justice was allowing it to release everything that was not related to an ongoing federal prosecution in releasing appendices A and B.

Both appendices were withheld until their release last year, four years after the Freeh report published.

At the time, Appendix B was heavily redacted.

The original report led to disciplinary actions against four members of the police department.

Original report: Police corruption, toxic culture detailed in FMPD audit

Four years after: Four years after Freeh report, ex-FMPD officers will not be federally charged

Found guilty: Federal jury finds Fort Myers man who led drug organization guilty of killing FBI informant

Appendix A states that the Freeh Group was informed that multiple individuals reported that a Fort Myers Police Department supervisor and two officers leaked information to the city's primary heroin and cocaine suppliers.

Kristin Capuzzi, spokesperson for the Fort Myers Police Department, told The News-Press on Saturday that the confidential informant remains the only puzzle piece they will never unseal.

Those suppliers had been unsuccessfully targeted by the department and other agencies for more than a decade, according to information previously released.

Since 2001, investigators were repeatedly informed that officers warned the drug dealers before they executed search warrants, the report shows.

The Freeh Group International Solutions Report also indicated a supervisor was related through marriage to one of the "most significant" narcotics suppliers in the city.

In response, the department isolated units and information to prevent information from "flowing up the chain of command," the report indicates.

"(The Freeh Group) observed that the department's decision to leave the supervisor in command, and its formal and informal efforts to conceal information from him regarding investigations that his detectives were responsible for solving, was a significant impediment to addressing the crime problem within the Dunbar community," it states in Appendix A.

In the newly released, lesser redacted version of Appendix B, now names some of the individuals involved in the probe.

The report shows that Robert Lee Ward, 53, was the biggest trafficker in the city, previously omitted.

Ward was related by marriage to a Fort Myers police supervisor, the report shows.

A federal jury found Ward guilty of conspiracy to distribute more than 5 kilograms of cocaine and of tampering with an informant by killing after a U.S. District Court trial in Tampa.

Ward, who was indicted on Nov. 27, 2018, will face mandatory penalty of life in federal prison. A sentencing hearing has not yet been set.

During the summer of 2012, a deputy with the Lee County Sheriff's Office developed a confidential informant, whose identity continues to be protected in the document.

The report shows the sheriff's office introduced the informant to the FBI, who later brokered a two-kilogram sale of cocaine to Sarasota-based traffickers on behalf of Chris Smith, Ward's second-in-command.

The FBI seized the cocaine from the purchasers, and later in 2012 approached Smith with regard to cooperating against Ward, the report says.

Smith agreed to cooperate and arranged a transaction for Ward to deliver 5 kilograms of cocaine to the FBI and the sheriff's office.

During that time, Smith told Ward the FBI had approached him, and Ward had Smith murdered, the report indicates.

Five individuals, including James Broomfield, leader of a drug trafficking organization in Fort Myers, were present when Ward ordered his subordinates to murder Smith.

Broomfield was prosecuted federally for violations for violations of the federal firearms statutes and sentenced to 15 years in prison, the report indicates.

During interviews with Fort Myers police investigators, Broomfield admitted arranging for Smith's murder under Ward's instruction, officials said.

That prompted the U.S. Attorney's Office to reconsider starting a federal investigation, according to the report.

After the informant brokered the 2-kilo transaction used to flip Smith, the informant continued to work for the sheriff's office.

The informant continued to sell narcotics while a sheriff's deputy protected him.

According to the document, it was reported that the informant wasn't a documented informant with the sheriff's office, but reported directly to the deputy, even after the deputy was promoted.

The deputy, whose name isn't disclosed in the appendices, retaliated against subordinates who shared concern over the relationship, the report said.

The deputy was caught protecting the informant while he delivered cocaine from Miami to Fort Myers, as well as the fact that the deputy allowed the informant to use one of the sheriff's office's cruisers to deliver the drugs.

The deputy was later allowed to retire without any consequences, the report says.

The report further indicated the deputy and a Fort Myers police supervisor were reported to be good friends, and that investigators were concerned the Fort Myers police supervisor fed information to the former deputy regarding efforts to target the informant.

A detective with the sheriff's office assigned to the FBI Task Force is attempting to target the informant, according to the report.

Investigators were also concerned that a supervisor in the police department was protecting Ward, and that the supervisor used a second supervisor to keep him informed about Ward's investigation.

Additional details regarding the chain of events continue to be heavily redacted.

Citing security concerns, the police department's joint investigation with the Drug Enforcement Administration became separate, and only the former police chief was briefed.

A Fort Myers police supervisor continued to request information from investigators until a DEA supervisor told him to cease, the report says.

The FBI was unable to investigate the police supervisor, as the FBI's Special Agent in Charge at the time refused to approve the investigation unless the former chief Doug Baker was notified, according to the report.

"Investigators believed that his role as Ward's controlling officer and his failure to take action against the FMPD supervisor presented security concerns," Appendix B reads in part. "As a result the information collected by these investigators was kept in a file cabinet in note form but never reported formally."

Original Freeh report: Police Department prioritized 'illusion' city as safe place

A scathing 72-page report released in 2017 outlined a toxic culture within the Fort Myers Police Department that prioritized maintaining "the illusion that the city was a safe place and that FMPD was effectively policing the city," while doing little to combat a growing problem of gang and drug-related violence.

The Fort Myers City Council paid Freeh Group International Solutions, a Delaware-based consulting firm, $150,000 to perform the audit in May 2016.

It began weeks after a News-Press investigation revealed ongoing accusations of racial discrimination and retaliation against officers who complained.

The consultants were given unfettered access to the department and all its members for several months. Officers were promised anonymity to ensure a candid discussion.

They emerged with 32 recommendations. The first one was to investigate allegations of officer misconduct that surfaced during the audit.

The report pointed to a buyout program offered in 2008 as the start of the department’s troubles. Fort Myers was just starting to feel the effects of the Great Recession, and budget cuts were coming across the board.

The buyout led to a sudden departure of FMPD’s most experienced officers, investigators and leadership, and, in many ways, the department never recovered, the report said.

Ex-officers won't be federally charged

Four Fort Myers Police Department officers who were accused of crimes after an audit of the department in 2016 will not have federal charges filed against them by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Last year, each of the officer's attorneys were contacted by the U.S. Attorney's Office Middle District of Florida informing them prosecutors will not be filing charges after a federal grand jury found no significant evidence of a crime.

They were all placed on paid administrative leave and one of them was demoted to lieutenant.

Within the past four years, all of them have retired, Capuzzi said.

Fort Myers police response

"The 2017 Freeh report outlined a dark chapter in the Fort Myers Police Department’s history, but it has also been the impetus for great change at our agency," Acting Police Chief Randall Pepitone wrote in a statement released Friday. "We are glad to have permission from the U.S Attorney’s Office to release the final two documents and close the door on this chapter."

Pepitone said that the officers involved are no longer employed with the police department. He added that the previous narcotics unit was disbanded, and that they created a new Vice Narcotics Unit that now operates with the "highest level of accountability and oversight."

Capt. Melvin Perry, Sgt. Rick Notaro, Sgt. Michael Forbes and officer Jason Jackson were placed on leave after allegations of corruption and a lack of resources at the Fort Myers Police Department.

"Once the FBI decided they would not move forward criminally, that is when Jason Jackson was reinstated," Capuzzi wrote in a text message to The News-Press on Saturday morning.

Capuzzi added that at that time they were able to finally review the documents, and Jackson was then placed on administrative leave, pending an internal investigation.

In numbers, they've seen a reduction in murders and violent crime over the last six years, and that officers' training has increased by 400%.

"We achieved this by working side by side with our community members which shows we have rebuilt public trust in our organization," Pepitone wrote.

Tomas Rodriguez is a Breaking/Live News Reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. You can reach Tomas at TRodriguez@gannett.com or 772-333-5501. Follow him on Twitter @TomasFRoBeltran.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Freeh report 'dark chapter' in Fort Myers Police Department