Sheriff's office upset with Channel 10 reporter

This time, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office says, TV reporter Mike Deeson went too far.

The agency Wednesday announced it will no longer send media notifications about news conferences and other newsworthy events to Deeson's station, WTSP, Channel 10.

The decision came after an incident this afternoon in which the WTSP reporter "verbally berated a civilian employee of the Sheriff's Office in what we believe to be an unethical, abusive and threatening incident of unprofessional conduct," according to a news release from the sheriff's office.

Ken Tonning, WTSP president and general manager, stands by his reporter and denies any wrongdoing.

"He got passionate, but was he disrespectful? He denies it," Tonning said. "We're very concerned over this and will not back off."

At the end of a Deeson story on a Wednesday evening newscast, a station anchor said Deeson had reported several stories critical of the sheriff's office and that the station stood by their reporter but would talk to the sheriff's office about the agency's concerns.

Tension between the sheriff's office and Deeson came to a head Wednesday when the agency held a news conference Wednesday to respond to an attorney's allegations of police misconduct. Channel 10 was not invited to the news conference because of Deeson's "pattern of abusive conduct toward the Sheriff's Office and its employees, coupled with Channel 10's disregard for previous complaints about Mr. Deeson's conduct," according to the statement.

After learning about the press conference, Deeson called the sheriff's office public information office and verbally berated Vida Morgan, a civilian secretary who fielded the call, the report said. Deeson screamed at Morgan and demanded to speak with one of the agency's public information officers, none of whom were available at the time. After becoming increasingly hostile toward Morgan, Deeson told her that he intended to, "Burn the sheriff this time," the report said.

According to the statement, Morgan transferred Deeson to spokesman Larry McKinnon's cell phone at his request, and Deeson left a message saying not being notified about the news conference was "crap."

WTSP assignment editor Susan Wilson called Morgan a short time after Deeson and apologized for the reporter's behavior, the report said, but Morgan has not received an apology from Deeson, the report said.

"Our hope is to be able to sit down with the sheriff's office and move forward," Tonning said. "I've been in this business for 35 years and we've had our differences, but we've always been able to move on."