City manager claims investigation; FDLE denies

HIGH SPRINGS - The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) denies it is conducting an investigation of former High Springs Police Chief Steve Holley. High Springs City Manager Ed Booth maintains otherwise, according to statements he made earlier this week and last week.

Booth issued a press release on March 24, 2014 stating that the State Attorney instructed the city to “contact the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to conduct an investigation” after evidence from an 8-month-old case involving a death was found in Holley's car and the “weapon involved in the case was not found in the Evidence Room.” The press release goes on to say, “The Jacksonville office of FDLE was contacted and is conducting an investigation as of Friday.”

“The definition that FDLE uses for investigation apparently pertains to criminal investigations only,” said Booth in an interview earlier this week. “We never saw any criminal action. We only saw neglect. Our purpose was not to pursue the incident as criminal misconduct. It was to determine why the evidence was not turned in properly by the chief, especially for that length of time, and to determine why the weapon was not in the Evidence Room where it should have been,” he said. “Had criminal activity been found, FDLE was the agency that would have pursued it.”

“The police department cannot investigate themselves in a case like this,” said Booth. “Another impartial agency must be brought in to investigate the circumstances. In my way of thinking,” he said, “this was an investigation and FDLE was doing it. It's a matter of semantics. We are still looking into this matter and don't yet have all the facts,” he said.

Meanwhile, FDLE Special Agent Jeff Vash paid a visit to the High Springs Police Department (HSPD) on Friday, March 21, along with Booth. Vash looked at the details of the situation and, according to Booth, urged the city to proceed with their plans to have the Alachua County Sheriff's Office perform an inventory of the HSPD Evidence Room, something Acting Chief Antoine Sheppard requested when he took over supervision of the department.

“Our personnel met with Chief Sheppard on Tuesday, March 18, and provided him with a time and personnel estimate to conduct the inventory,” said Art Forgey, Alachua County Sheriff's Office Public Information Officer. “We have not begun the inventory to date,” he said, “but estimate it will take between two weeks and one month to complete. We will send two deputies from the Office of Professional Standards, the same group that reviews our Evidence Room, and the city will provide one person to work with them to conduct the inventory,” he said.

When completed, the inventory is expected to provide the city with an accurate list of the items stored there, identify any items that might be missing or unaccounted for and, if there is a need to do so, give the acting chief a list of procedures to consider implementing as he goes forward.

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