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STEPPING DOWN

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By TODD LESKANIC, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 1, 2007

NEW PORT RICHEY - Two decades of chasing crackheads, speed freaks, dealers and pushers hasn't made Robert Sullivan into the cynic you might expect.

He still has hope for a society that has the world's largest appetite for illicit narcotics; but time has changed his opinion of how best to deal with the seemingly endless line of Americans willing to smoke, snort and inject themselves into a stupor.

"My old philosophy was attack the supply," Sullivan said Wednesday. "That doesn't work. You have to attack the supply, but you have to give just as much attention to the demand of it. As long as we keep demanding the drugs, the supply is going to be there."

Sullivan's role attacking the supply ended Friday when he retired after 25 years with the Pasco County Sheriff's Office. He spent more than 20 of those years working vice and narcotics investigations and developed a reputation as the county's foremost expert on the local drug culture and how to infiltrate it.

His career saw the introduction of crack cocaine to the county in 1985; four years later, the county saw the coming of methamphetamine. Meth labs came to Pasco in 2001 and remained prevalent until this year, when marijuana grow houses began popping up seemingly everywhere.

Sullivan, 46, can recite the depressing history almost as if he wrote it himself, yet he refuses to believe the fight against drugs is a lost cause.

"I choose to be optimistic as far as society is concerned," he said. "If parents will parent and people will take responsibility for their actions, and we train up the new generation of kids to have more respect for themselves and more legitimate ambition, I think the demand side will decrease.

"When that demand side decreases, the supply will equally decrease. So, I still think we need to modify our attack a little bit and put in a lot more education for our young people."

Hardly 'Miami Vice'

In early 1982, a 20-year-old Robert Sullivan found himself face to face with Pasco County Sheriff John Short. Short wrote a number on a piece of paper and slid it across the table to Sullivan.

"Could you live off that?" Short asked.

Sullivan glanced down at the paper. It said $12,200.

"Oh, yeah," Sullivan replied.

That began a career that spanned five sheriffs and took Sullivan from patrolman to forensics to property crimes to narcotics, not necessarily in that order. He first went undercover as a narcotics investigator in 1985, but the job was hardly the one depicted on the popular TV show "Miami Vice."

"Instead, I was given a 1973 Firebird with no muffler, no radio, no air conditioning and the passenger side window didn't work," he said. "I got my ear pierced and grew my hair long and went out and bought dope. I hung out in bars and bought a lot of bags of weed."

That same year, he and his future brother-in-law, Kipper Connell, made the county's first undercover purchase of crack cocaine. Sullivan remembers it vividly. It happened at a boarding house on Pond Avenue in Dade City.

Connell and Sullivan had never heard of the drug. Before they went to make the buy, they had to look at a photo to see what crack looked like.

A man named Maurice Lucien sold Sullivan and Connell two rocks for $40. They drove away, hardly suspecting they'd be fighting the proliferation of the drug for the rest of their careers.

It was during that first stint undercover that Sullivan purchased powder cocaine from a man sitting in a white Impala and eating a mullet sandwich.

The man turned out to be John Ruthell Henry, who is now on Florida's death row for a pair of 1985 murders.

Time To Teach

After moving out of narcotics to accommodate a budding romance with his future wife, Sullivan returned for good in 1992. He had earned the rank of sergeant and in 1998 was promoted to lieutenant.

"His knowledge and experience are beyond reproach," said Sgt. Robert Formoso, Sullivan's co-worker of 14 years. "He's been in the business a very long time and he's a natural leader. You're just drawn to him because of his passion, his humanity and his honesty."

Sullivan began to mull retirement from police work this year as he passed 25 years with the office. He had met the time requirement to retire and opportunities had arisen to further his second career teaching law enforcement courses at the University of North Florida and Pasco-Hernando Community College.

The switch to teaching will allow Sullivan to spend more time with his wife, Bonnie, and their children, Courtney, 13, and Delaney, 5. He'll also be able to spend more time coaching Courtney's softball teams, something he's grown to enjoy.

Bonnie Sullivan said she was surprised when her husband decided to leave the sheriff's office, but isn't sure how he'll handle the sudden change.

"He's been there for a long time and has a lot of really close relationships," she said. "It's going be difficult for him to leave those people, but I think he'll really stay in touch with them. It's a big adjustment, but he's still young.

"You know, it's not like he's ready to just go fishing."

Reporter Todd Leskanic can be reached at (727) 815-1084 or tleskanic@tamaptrib.com.

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