The beleaguered Kissimmee Police Department announced Friday it’s turned over 15 cases of excessive force and unauthorized entry into residences to local and state authorities in response to a grand jury blasting its “culture of cover-up.”
The cases involve officers violating department policies but had not previously been provided to prosecutors or the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, running afoul of state law. A previously unreleased letter to Orange-Osceola State Attorney Andrew Bain dated Oct. 7 identified the cases, the earliest of which — dating to 2015 — involves Officer Matthew Baxter, one of two KPD cops killed on-duty in 2017.
The letter, first reported by WFTV but formally released by KPD on Friday, was sent a week before a grand jury issued a bombshell report of its investigation into Officer Andrew Baseggio, who faces criminal charges for brutally beating a man last year.
At least one officer mentioned in the letter was no longer at the agency before its release: Andrew Johnson, fired in 2021 after a series of Facebook posts degrading victims of police violence and supporting the 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol which he called “Day one of the Revolutionary War.” He filed a since-settled federal lawsuit challenging his firing in 2022, though the terms of the settlement were not made public.