BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Judge Donna Keim has ruled in favor of Sergeant Aaron Wagle, who filed a lawsuit in February against former Gainesville Police Department (GPD) Chief Lonnie Scott, alleging violations of the Officers’ Bill of Rights. GPD must now hold a Compliance Review Hearing within 10 days.
The petition, filed by Attorney Bobi Frank, was similar to the petitions filed last year against former Sheriff Clovis Watson; Judge Keim ruled in favor of the deputies in all three of those cases, and this time she issued a ruling without requiring an evidentiary hearing.
City argued that the issue was “moot”
In the petition, Frank argued that GPD had violated Wagle’s rights by opening an investigation against him without providing the name of the complainant or a written complaint prior to his interview. Frank argued in a January email to GPD that because these were “intentional violations,” Florida statutes required that a Compliance Review Hearing be held within 10 working days. A response to Frank from an Assistant City Attorney argued that the issue was “moot” because the City believed GPD had “cured” the violations by removing the investigator from the investigation. In her petition, Frank argued that “GPD does not have the authority to ‘deny’ the invocation of a Compliance Review Board… GPD has a non-discretionary, ministerial duty to convene a Compliance Review Hearing when one is invoked.”