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Ex-Lakeland Officer Takes Prison Deal On Teen Sex Charges

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By JENNIFER LEIGH

News Channel 8

Published: December 15, 2008

TAMPA - David Bishop, 43, entered a guilty plea today on three counts of lewd and lascivious behavior involving teenage girls.

The charges stemmed from incidents in 2006 in which Bishop, a Lakeland police officer who left the department in 2003, enticed teenage girls to have sex with him and each other.

As part of the plea deal, Bishop agreed to serve 30 months in a Florida prison for each count, but the sentences will run concurrently.

Bishop also will serve 12 years of sex offender probation. That means he must not live within 1,000 feet of a school or day care center or have contact with children younger than 18 and must observe a curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Judge J. Rogers Padgett ruled that Bishop will be eligible for early termination of probation after six years if he stays out of trouble.

Bishop did not speak in court other than to answer the judge's questions.

Victims in the current and previous cases attended the hearing, and one of them spoke to the judge.

Daniela Filippone said she was abused by Bishop in a case separate from this plea deal. She would have come forward as a witness for the prosecution had there been a trial.

"He may just serve this sentence, but we'll carry what he did to us forever," Filippone said during the hearing.

Outside the courtroom, Filippone said she appeared in court to support the victims involved in the current case.

"I just felt they needed their voices heard, and he needs to know what he's done to these women," she said.

Mike Butash, Bishop's defense attorney, said Bishop could have faced a minimum of 348 months in prison for all 14 of the counts, but the state faced two challenges in the case.

It took a year for the victims to report the crime, and there was no physical evidence, Butash said. When prosecutors offered a deal that allowed Bishop to serve less than 10 percent of the time he could have faced, Butash thought that was best for his client.

Reporter Jennifer Leigh can be reached at (813) 314-5317 or jleigh@wfla.com.

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