EDITORIAL: I want to acknowledge the handling of a serious matter, a little less than 2 weeks ago. My son, who lives in Pensacola, was missing and possibly endangered. I was apprehensive about involving ECSO due to my history with the leadership. However, Chip Simmons, Investigator Lee and Sgt Calogero were fantastic. My son is fine, but I was a wreck. I will never forget what they did.
Having said that, I am still compelled to post on issues I believe are public worthy regarding the agency. Chip’s personnel decisions and actions or inactions, still will ripple through history. I will not pull punches on this matter, because someone should.
Now that the ball is in Chip Simmons’s court, we will all be able to see if he is more of the same (ie Morgan) or whether he will turn the agency around as is hoped. It appears he is riding the fence on the most recent morally bankrupt employee, David Craig. Craig has recently been on administrative leave. It is alleged he exposed himself to a little girl. Can’t confirm for sure but knowing Craig’s history, this certainly fits the pattern of inappropriate actions he has had in the past.
Right after Craig was hired in January of 2009, he immediately began abusing the trust that should be associated with working for a law enforcement agency.
To a layperson, this seems like a string of misdeeds that should not be punished by anything less than termination. Destroying evidence? Fake badge? Interfering with Investigation? Dissemination of official personnel records by someone without the authority to access those records legitimately?
In early 2015, I received an email from a source about Craig:
Hey Jimmie, just thought of something when I saw your comment about chatting with David Craig on Facebook. Are you aware that David was a Reserve Deputy but lost his certificate for policy violations? And, that he contributed a ton of his BLAB tv show time to Morgan during his first campaign and some during the second campaign? Morgan created a job for Craig with a starting salary roughly $10,000 over what a starting deputy makes. I started getting complaints on Craig from Investigations in regards to his interfering with several investigations. The Captain of Investigations at the time, sent me a letter asking me to stop Craig’s getting involved before he blew a case. After several other complaints, one from his immediate supervisor, another Investigator and a complaint about Craig impersonating a law enforcement officer, I went to Morgan. Morgan refused to involve himself in Craig’s situation, other than to tell me to just warn him to be careful. I eventually wrote Craig up and warned him that if he continued to talk to witnesses, take pictures of suspects homes, and other such activities he could be arrested. Craig also has a Domestic Violence past and I’m correct he is not allowed to carry a firearm but does and Morgan knows this. Craig acted as a Bodyguard for Morgan during his election campaigns and carried a gun on him then.
Since then, I have been approached by witnesses who claimed that Craig was banned from the Creighton Road Walmart for urinating in public, and thus exposing himself to shoppers. Somehow or another, even after PPD was on the scene, Morgan was notified and got the PPD to not issue a report. The witnesses heard the call on the scanner and showed up to witness firsthand the covering up of this offense. There is no report or any paper trail on this other than the witnesses, which doesn’t surprise anyone.
I am also hoping to see Chip step up to deal with Steve Cappas. The man confessed to tampering with evidence in the Joe Zarzaur case for the Rodgers twins. Lest we forget.
And Mike Gilmore. He failed to act on information regarding a missing child. Let a lead sit in a file for 2 years, knowing the witness saw the girl in a sex trafficking setting. Not even a footnote in his file.
There are so many issues with personnel. If Chip doesn’t step up and eradicate the vermin, he is just as bad as that vermin. One bad apple ruins the whole bunch, right? What about 3-4 bad apples?
Conjuring Justice 