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Deputies Cleared In Suspect's Shooting

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By DAVID SOMMER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 19, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - State investigators have found that two deputies were acting within the law when one of them wounded a man now facing charges of aggravated assault.
Deputy John Ardolino, who shot Stephen Mark Miholics on Oct. 16 in Holiday, and Deputy Rodney Linville believed Miholics "posed an imminent threat of death or great bodily harm," the Florida Department of Law Enforcement concluded in a letter released Friday.

"It appears Deputies Ardolino and Linville were in the legal performance of their law enforcement duties and acted within the scope of their assigned jobs at the time of the above noted incident," the letter from Tampa Special Agent in Charge James R. Madden states.

The FDLE report clears Ardolino of criminal charges in the encounter, Pasco County sheriff's office spokesman Doug Tobin said Friday.

The sheriff's office now will conduct its own investigation into whether Ardolino followed departmental policy.

Ardolino, who was placed on routine paid suspension pending the outcome of the shooting investigations, has since resigned to take a job with a private security firm in Iraq, Tobin said.

Miholics' 18-year-old sister, Elizabeth, called deputies to the family home at 3450 Devonshire Drive in Beacon Square about 11 p.m. on Oct. 16 after her brother smashed a couple of windows in a drunken rage.

Dorothy Miholics later said her 23-year-old son was distraught over $313 in unpaid traffic tickets, his inability to get a job and the news that a good friend was in jail.

Her son was trying to get her to call the sheriff's office when his sister took matters into her own hands, Dorothy Miholics said.

"He just wanted to go to jail, because he knew he had to," she said. "I just wanted him to go to sleep."

In a second call to the sheriff's dispatch center that was placed just as deputies were arriving at the house, Dorothy Miholics said her son was "going crazy in the house" and "threatening to do harm to the police when they arrive," according to the FDLE report.

When deputies arrived, Dorothy Miholics met them in her front yard and said her son "had come home drunk" and "had some weapons on him," though she did not know what kind, the report states.

Stephen Miholics then came outside and confronted the deputies in the darkness, carrying what turned out to be a butter knife in one hand and a spatula in the other, the report said.

Miholics told the deputies, "You guys are gonna have to ... kill me," refused orders to drop what he was holding and also threatened to kill the deputies, according to the FDLE report.

"As Miholics stepped toward the deputies, Deputy Ardolino fired one shot, striking Miholics in the upper right torso," the report states.

"One .40-caliber S&W Winchester cartridge case was recovered from the scene. One butter knife and one metal spatula with a wooden handle were recovered from the scene," the report states.

Miholics has been held at the Land O' Lakes Jail with bail set at $50,000 on two charges of aggravated assault on law enforcement officers since his release from the hospital on Oct. 22.

It was not clear Friday how Miholics survived the shooting or recovered so quickly.

Reporter David Sommer can be reached at (727) 815-1087 or dsommer@tampatrib.com.

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