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Ex-Officer Offered A Deal

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@tampatrib.com

Published: March 20, 2009

TAMPA - A former Tampa police officer has been offered an agreement on a criminal charge stemming from an incident in which investigators say he rammed the fence of a romantic rival.

The Polk County State Attorney's Office last week submitted a proposed agreement to Lawrence Alspaugh II, allowing him to enter a pretrial diversion program for first-time offenders.

Alspaugh, 32, resigned from the Tampa Police Department in January during a departmental investigation that found he violated several policies. One of those was using a law enforcement database to pull the driver's license photo of a Lakeland man he considered a romantic rival and posting the picture on MySpace, Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said.

Alspaugh, who lives in Lakeland, was off duty in November when the Polk County Sheriff's Office says he drove into the cast-iron fence of Lakeland resident Donald Hardwick with a Nissan sport-utility vehicle.

McElroy said the situation arose because Hardwick had a relationship with Alspaugh's former girlfriend.

In an interview Thursday, Alspaugh said he and his girlfriend, who have a young son together, were still involved in a relationship when he learned she was seeing Hardwick. About two days before the fence incident, he was so upset about the situation he was prescribed sedatives, he said.
Alspaugh said that although he did strike the fence, it wasn't deliberate. "I was driving on sedatives when I shouldn't have been," he said.

The sheriff's office charged Alspaugh on Nov. 20 with felony criminal mischief, saying he caused $1,600 in damage. Alspaugh entered a written plea of not guilty in December, online records show.

Death Under Investigation

LUTZ - Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies investigating a man's death detained a suspect Thursday but did not identify either person.

Deputies were called to a home at 3425 Laurel Dale Drive, which is east of North Dale Mabry Highway and south of Van Dyke Road, around noon Thursday.

The call was about two men fighting. When deputies arrived, they found the body of a man who appeared to have died of blunt force trauma.

Charge Upgraded To Murder

Authorities on Thursday upgraded the charge against a man accused of beating his girlfriend's 2-year-old daughter to death because she would not stop crying.

Kenneth Lopez now is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Gabrielle Randel. Lopez, 21, initially was charged with aggravated child abuse.

Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies said Lopez wrapped Gabrielle in a towel March 7 and began beating her when she wouldn't go to sleep or stop crying. He is being held without bail.

A staff report

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