Broward Deputy Fired More Than a Year After Stealing Woman’s Cell Phone

Carlos Miller of Photography is Not A Crime shared the following story.

It took more than a year, but a Broward County sheriff’s deputy was fired for stealing a woman’s cell phone because she wouldn’t stop video recording him in a case of road rage.

Paul Pletcher is not going to let that stop him from trying to get his job back.

However, Pletcher is also facing 11 years in prison for the incident, so he might want to place his energy in maintaining his freedom instead of his job.

This is a man who was not even in uniform or on-duty when he jumped out of his truck and confronted a pair of women in another car at a traffic light, so he is not exactly the brightest of the bunch.

According to the South Florida Sun Sentinel:

The seven-year veteran is still awaiting trial on charges of burglary, battery, criminal mischief and petty theft. He is pleading not guilty.

Pletcher, 38, was terminated July 26 for conduct unbecoming an employee and failing to obey the law, say documents released to the Sun Sentinel this week.

He is seeking arbitration to get his job back, said Alberto Milian, Pletcher’s attorney.

“The Sheriff’s Office is treating him unfairly,” Milian said. “They are depriving him of his job when he has not even been found guilty. Normally when you get accused of a crime, you get your day in court.”

At a hearing on Friday, Milian asked Broward Circuit Judge Michael Usan for more time to prepare for trial. Usan set the next hearing for Dec. 7.

So, his attorney is complaining that his client has not had his day in court while asking the judge to postpone that day in court.

That’s not surprising considering the overwhelming video evidence against him in which he continually demands the woman to hand over the phone.

“Give me the phone now or else you’re going to jail,” he tells her before the video goes black because Neyda Osorio stuffed it into her purse.

According to police reports, when Pletcher realized he was being recorded, he demanded Osorio’s phone. Osorio put the phone in her purse, but Pletcher put his arm across her neck, reached into her purse and grabbed the phone. He then told her to pull into a bank parking lot. As she pulled in, she noticed him driving off with her phone and driver’s license.

Plantation officers found the phone in two pieces near the spot where Pletcher pulled over Osorio.

Yet, despite all this evidence, it still took seven months for him to be officially charged, which was when he taken off paid administrative leave and suspended without pay, so it’s no wonder he believes he can get his job back.

After all, look at what he has gotten away with already, according to the Huffington Post.

Osorio’s lawyers told NBC Miami that Pletcher did the exact same thing to another woman three years ago. And in 2007, he was involved in an accident, in which a motorcyclist died. His initial application to join BSO was rejected thanks to his questionable driving record, which includes a 1995 citation for driving 105 mph in a 55-mph zone.

Watch the video at Photography is Not a Crime.

Broward Deputy Fired More Than a Year After Stealing Woman’s Cell Phone is a post from Cop Block – Badges Don’t Grant Extra Rights