http://florida.arrests.org/Arrests/Omar_Garcia%20barrera_7969788/
Posted on 07/13/2012 12:07:34 PM PDT by Elle Bee
CHIEF LEE ESCORTS AN INTOXICATED GUEST TO HIS CAR AND TELLS HIM TO DRIVE HOME. SO THE YOUNG MAN CLIMBS INTO HIS MUSTANG, STARTS THE CAR, SLAMS IT INTO REVERSE AND ACCELERATES— SMASHING INTO A NEIGHBOR’S FENCE
THEN THE KID AND THE CHIEF HAVE A FIGHT IN THE FRONT YARD. WITNESS: THEY WERE TUMBLING ON THE GROUND. WHEN THE COPS SHOW UP, THEY ARREST THE YOUNG MAN
It was almost 3am on Monday morning, last May 28. Police Chief Donie Lee had an overnight house guest— 22- year-old Omar Antonio Garcia Barrera. But things were not working out as they might have been planned.
Omar had obviously had too much of Donie’s liquor. Donie would later tell police officers who were called to the scene that Omar had become “disorderly.”
In his police report, Officer Frank Betz wrote, “Lee told me he asked Garcia to either go to sleep or to leave his residence. Lee said Garcia continued to act in a disorderly manner, so he was asked to leave the residence,” Betz wrote.
According to police reports, Donie escorted Omar to his car and, then, went back inside and locked the front door.
Let’s pause here, just for a moment, to summarize what has happened so far. Our chief of police escorted young Omar Garcia out of his house and to the young man’s car, knowing that Omar was so drunk that he could hardly stand up.
And then our chief went back into his house and locked the door.
What happened next was probably what had to happen under the circumstances.
According to police reports, Omar got into his 1998 silver Ford Mustang, which was parked on 20th Street, started the car, slammed it into reverse, and accelerated.
And he continued to accelerate until he crashed into a chainlink fence at the rear of the Quality Inn.
In the process of bashing the fence, Omar had also backed over a raised concrete curb and the rear tire on the driver’s side of the car was not touching the ground, according to Officer Jesse Young’s report.
Michael Randolph, a security guard at the Quality Inn heard the crash and rushed to the scene at the rear of the hotel.
In his witness report, Randolph said that he saw a very angry man pounding on the trunk of the car with his fists.
Randolph said that he asked the man if he was okay or if he needed some help. In his witness report, Randolph quoted the man saying that he was okay and that his friend lived right across the street.
Randolph watched as Omar walked across the street and knocked on the front door.
Now, keep in mind that Donie does not know that Omar has crashed his car into a neighbor’s fence.
Randolph reported that the man who opened the door told the man who had been driving the car to leave. But, according to Randolph, the man who had been driving the car tried, unsuccessfully, to force his way into the house.
At that point, the altercation between Donie and Omar moved out into the front yard.
It is unclear who made the initial call to the police. Officer Betz, the first officer on the scene, said he was responding to a call reporting that there had been a crash. But he said that while he was inroute, dispatch advised that the driver of the car that had crashed was in a “physical altercation with another person.”
Randolph reported that the two men were “tumbling on the ground.” He also said that the man who had come out of the house had called to him to call the police.
At that time, Randolph was not aware that the man who came out of the house was Police Chief Donie Lee.
Donie was still outside when Officer Betz arrived. And Betz reported that, while he was interviewing Omar to try to determine what had happened, Lee interrupted and told him to handcuff Omar.
Was Omar under arrest at that point? Apparently not.
But the way it works, if you are an officer in the Key West Police Department, is that you do what Chief Lee tells you to do without question.
After handcuffing Omar, Betz put him into the back seat of his patrol can and that is where he remained until Officer Young arrived to do the DUI investigation.
The first thing that Young did was to ask Officer Betz to take the handcuffs off Omar. Go figure.
After conducting a roadside sobriety exercise, Officer Young arrested Omar and hauled him off to jail.
Although the State Attorney Dennis Ward’s Office has yet to file formal charges against Omar, the case has been assigned to a prosecutor and potential witnesses (including Police Chief Donie Lee) are being interviewed.
Initially, it was presumed that Omar would need the services of the Public Defenders office. But local Attorney Don Yates showed up to represent Omar at his hearing.
We wonder who will be paying that bill.
Stay tuned.
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Did a roof job for a cop in Louisiana one summer when I was 19.
At the end of every work day, he would bring out a cooler of beer for us to drink.
Then we drove home after working 10-12 hours in the heat and humidity.
He didn’t have a problem with it. I don’t know what to think about it, but I didn’t care at the time because I was 19.
I actually live in a city in East Tennessee that is very queer friendly, but have to admit to being shocked in Provincetown. I thought my better half’s father was going to have a coronary. It was a real hoot. Little foo foo dogs being led around my skinny little guys (I think) wearing short shorts. Absolutely normal behavior......
I fear you may have taken my statistical sociological observation the wrong way. The concepts of a good Key West Police Chief and a good citizen often go hand-in-hand.
Furthermore there is no question here of alcoholic consumption. The young fellow was obviously side-affected by over-the-counter medication and Skittles, followed by brake failure. Move along. Nothing to see here.
For the life of me, I can't figure out how Key West went so wrong. It was founded by people from Maine, you know. Except for state employees, there are practically no gay people in Maine. Except in winter.
‘Ah Key West... Where the women are women, and half the men are too.’
Where the men are men and the sheep are scared.
http://florida.arrests.org/Arrests/Omar_Garcia%20barrera_7969788/
“Key West”..... Very queer things go on in Key West....
“It sounds like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.”
Mighty little good, it seems.
But, this time the sex was not on the County time clock. Just to amuse and edify, the following actually did occur in the Conch Republic, AKA Florida Keys.
“they just appointed a new police cheif who was fired from the County Sheriff’s dept because he was caught having sex with an underage boy in a patrol car” from another thread about Key West’s antics.
Sex in a county car is an old, honored (at least in the breech) Monroe County tradition. A county biologist decided to carry on tradition while in a county car (he doesn’t have to clean it up afterwards) and the intercourse was on the county clock, of course.
However, he parked at a stop sign, just off the road. Then and there, the sex began. Shortly thereafter, a school bus full of little Conchs (Keys folks are citizens of the Conch Republic) stopped at the same sign. And on the same side of the road.
The bus nearly turned over as all the little Conchs moved over to that side of the school bus for a better view. “Little eyes are curious eyes”.
Blissfully, the record does not contain the comments of the audience. However, I can assure you, Gentle Readers, the biologist was male and his partner in crime was female. Note that things have degenerated since then.
Oh, what crime, sez Da Liberal? Well, lots of counts of forbidden behavior before lots and LOTS of children, not to mention a dog’s breakfast of other misdemeanors (some very demeaning, indeed) and some felonies.
The County Biologist resigned.
ON the other hand, until the onslaught of lawyers and AgencyPersons, the Keys was once a relaxed source of endless amusement. Now, it is a tax money sink and a breeding ground for queers and lawyers and ‘Crats.
BAH! HUMBUGGERY! !
KW is a quaint place.
On that note, last time I was there (200 mi South of me) a hot girl, wearing a bikini, was standing at a pay phone. After I passed, I heard a man talk.
It is what it is. Don’t go in the summer, it’s hot as #311.
Sleepover?
Did they order pizza, and have tickle flights and giggle long into the night?
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Easy defense - he obeyed the police chief’s orders. Not guilty, false arrest. The arresting officer knew the chief had ordered him to drive while intoxicated, therefore the sobriety test was moot.
Ruling any other way creates a bit of a precedent problem...
cue up the Village People
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http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/program.pl?ID=485223
“NBC Evening News for
Tuesday, Sep 09, 1975
Summary:
(Studio) Report on drug traffic on Key West
REPORTER: John Chancellor
(Key West, Florida) Fire chief, Joseph Farto, investigated for selling cocaine. His car impounded, as were cars of other suspects. Wrecker that towed vehicles also impounded. City attorney, Manuel James, son of police chief, accused of delivering or conspiracy to deliver cocaine. $25,000 bail each for James and 14 others set. 1 of 2 bail bondsmen out of town; other arrested in bust.
REPORTER: Fred Francis “
Was stationed there in the early seventies.
Remember one of the two patrol cars would park at the empty lot where people would smoke dope and watch the sunset.
It was like a frontier town back then.
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Wouldn’t take much of a bloodhound to follow a bum fart-o.
What would cure Key West would be a series of hurricanes each one a week after the other. Donna, Andrew, 1935,1926, 1928, George, Katrina and last Camille!
That kind of cleansing would return the place to God’s Country.
Apologies to resident Freepers south of Homestead!
My last visit was to work there after Donna(1960).
I haven’t hung out there in 30 years and it was nothing but a big drunk-fest back then. Sounds like it’s still the same.
It remains a cultural void
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