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Deputy Used Excessive Force In Arrest, Tampa Man Claims

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By MIKE WELLS, The Tampa Tribune and MARK DOUGLAS News Channel 8

Published: January 9, 2008

TAMPA - A Hillsborough County deputy who was suspended last year for excessive force is facing another complaint.

A Tampa man says Deputy Kevin Stabins unnecessarily and roughly arrested him outside his apartment Dec. 30 after he reported his girlfriend had been raped.

The deputy says the man was "belligerent and drunk" and his antics delayed the start of the investigation.

On Sunday, Robert Kehr-Orzechowski, 31, and his girlfriend met with Stabins' supervisor, Cpl. Steve Decatur, to submit a written complaint. Kehr-Orzechowski said his girlfriend has yet to meet with Tampa Police about the rape charge, but is scheduled to do so today.

Decatur would not disclose the contents of the complaint and said the sheriff's office has not launched a formal investigation. Instead, Stabins' supervisors will talk to witnesses and decide whether circumstances warrant an investigation by the internal affairs unit.

Kehr-Orzechowski told the Tribune his girlfriend was pleading for him to be at her side when Stabins arrested him for trying to re-enter their apartment.

The Tribune is not publishing the woman's name because she is the subject of an ongoing investigation by Tampa police into a report of sexual battery.

Stabins, 30, was suspended last year for five days on charges he used excessive force in detaining a sobbing woman cited for speeding at University Community Hospital.

The deputy's dashboard camera recorded him shoving her onto her trunk to handcuff her. Charges against the driver later were dropped.

Supervisor To Investigate

Kehr-Orzechowski was charged with obstructing an officer without violence, court records show.

Decatur said either he or another supervisor will interview Stabins and other emergency personnel who went to the apartment.

The district administration would then decide if the circumstances require further questioning and turn it over to the internal affairs unit for a "cursory inquiry," Decatur said.

On Tuesday, Stabins said the inquiry will show he acted accordingly.

"Just because somebody makes a complaint doesn't mean it's substantiated," Stabins said.

Couple Were Out Celebrating

Kehr-Orzechowski said he and his girlfriend went out the evening of Dec. 30 to celebrate his 31st birthday. About 1:30 a.m., they left MacDinton's pub in Tampa together and he decided to walk to Whiskey SoHo to use the restroom.

His girlfriend continued walking to their car alone and that's the last he saw of her for several hours, he said.

She reached him by phone at a former roommate's home to tell him she'd been raped. He then drove to their apartment in northwest Tampa and called 911, Kehr-Orzechowski said.

Kehr-Orzechowski said he flagged down Stabins' patrol car in the parking lot and pointed out the apartment.

In the arrest report, Stabins said he told Kehr-Orzechowski to stay outside so he could talk to the woman alone. Kehr-Orzechowski refused his order more than once and finally tried to push past the deputy to enter the apartment, Stabins wrote.

Kehr-Orzechowski was arrested because his actions delayed the investigation from starting, Stabins wrote in the report.

Kehr-Orzechowski has denied pushing past the deputy and said he was a couple of steps behind Stabins on the stairwell when the deputy turned around, grabbed him and slammed him into the rail and wall before handcuffing him.

Stabins put him in the back of the patrol car, where Kehr-Orzechowski sat for 2 1/2 hours, Kehr-Orzechowski said. He posted $500 bail and was released from Orient Road Jail that afternoon.

The deputy said Kehr-Orzechowski's behavior was unruly.

"He wouldn't calm down," the deputy said. "He was very belligerent. He was drunk. He wouldn't calm down, and I couldn't just leave somebody alone like that."

The man's behavior concerned him, Stabins said.

"His actions ... things just didn't seem quite right," Stabins said. "He wasn't a help."

The girlfriend said she could not see outside the apartment, but she did hear what was going on as she yelled for her boyfriend to return to her side.

Stabins was reprimanded last year for showing what a sheriff's disciplinary board considered a lack of compassion toward a distraught driver.

On Nov. 1, 2006, Melissa Langston was trying frantically to find the entrance to University Community Hospital's emergency room, where her father was being treated for a heart attack, when Stabins stopped her for speeding.

Stabins had tracked Langston traveling 63 mph in a 35 mph zone. He turned on his cruiser's flashing lights and sirens as she neared the hospital, and the distraction caused her to miss two entrances, officials later said.

When he walked back to his patrol car after asking for her ID, Langston put her car in gear and began driving through the parking lot. She later said she was searching for her father's car to verify he was in that hospital.

Video Made Arrest Infamous

The incident was captured by a video camera mounted on the dashboard of Stabins' patrol car. The video shows him shoving the sobbing woman onto the trunk of her car to handcuff her.

Detectives later asked Stabins if he considered other options, including escorting the woman to the emergency room counter to assist her in looking for her father and then issuing her a ticket.

Stabins said his only other option was to pull out his firearm.

Looking back on the experience, Stabins said it created a lot of grief for his family when reporters started knocking on their door.

It also made him an easier target, he said.

"Police officers get complained on all the time," he said. "It's certainly not going to help me out" for this to be published.

Reporter Josh Poltilove contributed to this report. Reporter Mike Wells can be reached at (813)

259-7839 or mwells@tampatrib

.com.

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