Both the St. Petersburg Times and the Tampa Tribune printed articles about a St. Petersburg police officer who resigned rather than being fired. Although the resignation, nor the almost firing are really important to me, he was about to be fired for lying and cheating. The reason for being untruthful is what bothers me.
Apparently, according to the papers, Reynaldo Smith and his girlfriend were in some kind of argument which worried his roomates enough to call the police. Note his girlfriend didn't call the police, someone else did. This always says something to me, because for someone else to get involved in anyone's domestic problems, it had to be bad.
Plus, whoever called the police had to know he was a cop, and how much trouble he could potentially be in if he was arrested for beating his girlfriend - or what he might do to them when he realized they were the ones who called.
When Hillsborough deputies arrived they find Mr. Smith to be entirely uncooperative, and refusing to leave his girlfriend's side while telling her not to talk to the police. Hmmm . . . this SCREAMS domestic batter to me. I see this behavior all the time because I handle so many domestic violence cases, but I would think a police officer, knowing how someone usually goes to jail in a domestic dispute, would know better than to act like this. Additionally, he refused to give up his weapon. (note in the Hillsborough County Clerk website there's a motion for return of property which was granted by the Court. Although I do not know exactly what property he was requesting be returned, I can guess.) If anyone knows the girlfriend, please talk some sense into her, this guy is an accident waiting to happen.
