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File: Tarpon Springs Student Who Had Sex With Officer Was 18

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 18, 2009

A teenager said she had sex with a Tarpon Springs police officer she worked with while she was a student at Tarpon Springs High School, but she was 18 at the time and had already graduated, according to a criminal case file released this morning by the police department.

Within a few months after graduation, Cpl. Michael Kazouris sent the teen text messages, the file says. He once asked her whether she wanted a ride in his patrol car but may have kicked her out of it when he thought the move was drawing the attention of another officer, the file says.

Kazouris was also seen hugging a different female student at the school in a way that might have seemed inappropriate, the file says.

Investigators also found the telephone number of a third student now in college in a desk Kazouris was using as a fill-in school resource officer at the school, the case file says. That former Tarpon Springs High student refused to cooperate with the department's investigation.

In all of the incidents reviewed, investigators found no evidence of a crime. Police administrators are trying to determine what, if any, department policies he may have violated.

The 18-year-old former student who said she had sex with Kazouris also dated another officer after she graduated, the case file says. That officer, Taurean Mathis, told investigators the girl told him Kazouris asked her to go to his residence while she was still a student at the high school, the file says.

She told investigators Kazouris suggested she stop by his home while she was assigned to be his assistant while he was working at the high school, the case file says. She also said he told her about the problems he was having with his wife, a topic she first felt uncomfortable hearing about, the case file says.

"Shortly after this he told her that he really liked her but had to wait until she graduated to do anything," the report says.

On exam day on June 3 or June 4, 2008, the girl said he kissed her in his office at the school while the door was closed, the file says. She had turned 18 the month before.

After graduation, the girl said she went to his apartment, the report says. Kazouris' wife then began calling the girl's cell phone, and shortly later Kazouris told her, "I'm going to have to drop you," the report says.

At first, the girl said she and Kazouris only simulated sex in his apartment but later acknowledged they had sex three times, the report states.

Tarpon Springs police also interviewed the girl who Kazouris reportedly hugged inappropriately. The girl, who was the victim of a near-abduction in Palm Harbor a year or so ago, said the hug was her fault, the report says. This student was apparently a minor at the time as her name, unlike the 18-year-old's, is excised from the report.

Police also contacted two other 18-year-old Tarpon Springs High students, who said Kazouris did nothing inappropriate.

Kazouris' attorney, Robert Attridge, told police he did not believe there were any facts to support a criminal investigation. But, Attridge said, Kazouris would not be subjecting himself to an interview by police as there is a pending internal affairs investigation.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336.

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