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Daytona
police chief testifies on bathroom-sex sting
The Daytona leader takes the stand -- in a defense effort to get
the charges dismissed.
Ludmilla Lelis | Sentinel Staff
Writer
April 16, 2008
DAYTONA BEACH - Daytona Beach
police Chief Mike Chitwood has never visited the men's bathroom
at the Sears where his officers arrested nine men on
sexual-misconduct charges.
The chief wasn't involved in the undercover operation that
netted, among them, former City Commissioner Mike Shallow and
former Seabreeze High School teacher David Behringer.
But that didn't stop defense attorneys from making him a witness
in the case -- in their attempt to get the sex charges thrown
out of court.
Chitwood testified for about an hour Tuesday about the
information on the sex sting, which he then disseminated at a
news conference and other media interviews about the case.
Nine men were charged with exposing themselves and performing
sex acts in a bathroom, which a store official said had become a
haven for sexual activity.
On Tuesday, Chitwood testified that he wasn't directly involved
in the sting but that he spoke with the officers who made the
arrests. He then relayed that information at the news conference
and other interviews that followed.
Defense attorney Michael Lambert, who represents Shallow, tried
to hammer Chitwood on the discrepancies between the press
statements he made and the sworn testimony given by Volusia
County Beach Patrol Capt. Rich Gardner, one of the undercover
officers.
Gardner testified at a previous hearing that he and Shallow were
in adjacent bathroom stalls when Shallow got on the floor and
peered underneath the partition between the stalls.
In a videotaped television interview, played during Tuesday's
hearing, Chitwood described that encounter, saying that Shallow
was on all fours, "completing his act," meaning that he was
still performing a sex act.
"I don't believe I was embellishing anything," Chitwood said,
testifying as to what he said during the media interviews. "I
believe I took notes and talked about it at the press
conference."
The chief's testimony also touched on some of the other problems
that defense attorneys have cited in the case -- whether one of
Gardner's original reports on the Shallow arrest is missing or
misplaced; whether the officers had cleared the arrest
procedures with legal advisers; and why police didn't retrieve a
videotape from a Sears security camera.
However, Chitwood repeated several times that he wasn't at the
bathroom sting and relied on the undercover officers for their
information and their work.
He also defended the operation and the arrests.
"I have no doubt in my mind, what we did that night, it was
perfectly legal," Chitwood said. "I was very comfortable with
what we did that night."
Any discrepancies between what he said and what other officers
said would "be up to the judge," Chitwood said.
The judge in the case, Volusia County Judge Peter A.D. McGlashan,
is scheduled to hear more testimony next week before he'll rule
on the defense requests to throw out the police testimony or
dismiss the criminal charges.
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