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Polk sheriff orders retraining for Wii-playing investigators

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By STEVE ANDREWS | News Channel 8

Published: November 10, 2009

The Polk County Sheriff's Office determined several of its undercover investigators acted improperly when they were caught on a hidden home security camera playing a Wii video bowling game during a March 6 drug bust on Perkle Road near Lakeland.

The sheriff's office opened an administrative investigation Sept. 15 when News Channel 8 called to ask about the video showing detectives and their supervisors bowling frame after frame while collecting evidence against suspect Michael Difalco.

Investigators sustained findings of improper conduct involving supervisors, sergeants and detectives. The sheriff's office ordered four hours of retraining for three sergeants, and two hours of retraining for three detectives and one deputy.

The training will include officers defining ethical behavior, incorporating time management into search warrant executions and a review of the general orders governing discipline and professionalism.

The video showing sheriff's detectives playing a Wii video game while searching the home of Difalco, 43, made headlines across the country.

In the letters of guidance, those involved were told their behavior overshadowed the hard work and long hours put into the drug operation.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd had said the images overshadowed "brilliant police work." He has also called the situation an embarrassment.

According to sheriff's office records, the investigators spent nine hours searching Difalco's property for drugs, stolen property and signs of any illegal drug activity.

Within 20 minutes of entering Difalco's house last March, some of the investigators found a Wii video bowling game and began bowling frame after frame. While some detectives hauled out evidence such as flat-screen televisions and shotguns, others threw strikes, gutter balls and worked on picking up spares.

A Polk County sheriff's detective cataloging evidence repeatedly put down her work and picked up a Wii remote to bowl. When she hit two strikes in a row, she raised her arms above her head, jumping and kicking.

Detectives with the Polk County Sheriff's Office and the Auburndale, Lakeland and Winter Haven police departments did not know that a wireless security camera connected to a computer inside Difalco's home was recording their activity.

The recording obtained by News Channel 8 shows several members of the county's High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force entering the house shortly after 8 a.m. According to the search warrant, their mission was to search for drugs, stolen property and the fruits of any illegal drug activity.

Task force members played the video game at various times during the day, for a total of a little over an hour of playing time.

Court records show detectives placed Difalco's home under surveillance as far back as December 2008.

His history includes an extensive arrest record dating to 1995. Difalco served three years in state prison from 2002 to 2005 for trafficking drugs, owning and operating a chop shop, and grand theft.

The task force placed Difalco under surveillance and took him into custody, away from his home, during the early morning hours of March 6, in the parking lot of a Circle K convenience store on U.S. 98.

In the March raid, documents filed with the court say, detectives removed methamphetamine, marijuana, drug paraphernalia, weapons and more than $30,000 in stolen property.

The 11 charges against Difalco include trafficking methamphetamine, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and operating a chop shop.

Investigators found enough methamphetamine to charge Difalco with trafficking. A detective also discovered other narcotics, oxycodone, alprazolam and marijuana in the master bedroom, according to the sheriff.

Difalco has a pre-trial hearing set for Nov. 20.

News Channel 8 reporter Steve Andrews can be reached at (813) 221-5779.

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