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I've Got A Problem With This

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By ROD REDER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 3, 2008

On March 1, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Chief William Nesmith was arrested by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office for a domestic violence felony, aggravated assault with a firearm. His wife of four months was the reporting victim.

As I've had an extreme interest in domestic violence for more than 20 years and I train law enforcement officers, prosecutors and victim service providers all over the country on this topic, I decided to look a little further into Nesmith's arrest.

What I found is disturbing to me and should be to you. No, not the chief's alleged actions, but the fact he was arrested for a felony he did not commit.

The victim claimed the chief had threatened to shoot her and then himself. She saw the chief go into the bedroom and she feared he was going to carry out his threat, so she fled.

The Pinellas sheriff's deputies arrived and did all the right safety things, such as evacuating the floor of the Nesmiths' building. They asked him to exit - which he did - and lie on the floor; they then secured him. Good work. They then charged him with the felony.

Herein lies the problem. How can a citizen be charged with a felony involving a firearm when the firearm is not present?

I believe the sheriff's deputies thought they were doing the right thing by arresting Nesmith, but there is a little piece of paper called the U.S. Constitution which may disagree with them.

The sheriff's offense report states the victim had a well-founded fear Nesmith would carry out the act, and because he had guns in his car, he was arrested. That doesn't matter. You cannot, in law enforcement, have a "crystal ball" approach to taking away someone's freedom. How can you charge an individual with this particular crime when he did not point the weapon(s) at the victim?

The state attorney's office immediately dropped the charge, as I knew it would. I spoke with a local assistant state attorney who also questioned the appropriateness of the felony charge.

As a national trainer in domestic violence, I believe as much as anyone that law enforcement should be aggressive in making arrests in domestic violence cases. But I always have advocated that they make sure they have sufficient probable cause to do so.

I know in my last column, I defended the actions of a sheriff's deputy for making a human error. The question now is, is this policy for the Pinellas sheriff's office or was it human error?

I suspect Chief Nesmith will not sue the Pinellas sheriff. He probably wants this to go away. However, I will say to Chief Nesmith, who I know and have worked with professionally in the past, if you did make the threats, even with the guns in the car, you were wrong. If it did happen, please get some help.

Counseling, batterer's intervention program, something so you don't hurt anybody or yourself. It is rare for domestic violence victims to make false complaints to law enforcement.

Possibly yes, but I'll go with the percentages.

Rod Reder lives in Lutz and spent 29 years with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Department. He co-owns a training company that specializes in domestic and sexual crime prevention.

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