here - Satellite Beach

Internet Research
Armando Martinez
(Note: Articles Appear in Reverse Chronological Order)
Tab 8
Daytona Beach News-Journal (FL)
July 8, 2009
Fired cop gunning for his old job
Former Bunnell officer says he should have been disciplined, not dismissed
Author: HEATHER SCOFIELD - STAFF WRITER
BUNNELL - A former Bunnell police captain fired in April after an internal investigation says
he will continue to fight to get his job back.
Randy Burke also leveled some accusations of his own against his former supervisors, including
that they knowingly allowed two employees to violate written department policy without
consequences.
"I admit I should have been disciplined, but not fired," Burke said in a recent telephone
interview.
Burke was fired after an internal investigation conducted by the Flagler County Sheriff's Office
concluded that his subordinates had begun to question his integrity because he neglected to
deliver $100 collected by staff members to a former employee in time for Christmas 2007.
That employee, Ed Culver, was fired from his position as a road patrol officer shortly before the
2007 holidays by officials citing poor job performance.
Police Chief Arthur Jones also found Burke was "less than truthful" during the internal
investigation because he told a Sheriff's Office investigator that he thought Culver shouldn't have
been fired. Jones wrote in his synopsis of the investigation that a department memo indicates it
was Burke who initially recommended firing Culver.
Those findings led Jones and City Manager Armando Martinez to fire Burke. But Burke said
the city's action was too harsh. He said he thinks his firing might be in retaliation for complaints
he made about other employees' violating written department policy in the months preceding the
internal investigation.
Burke also claimed his rights were violated during the internal investigation because he didn't
receive proper notice of the city's intent to discipline him.
Martinez and Jones said Burke was given adequate notice of their intent to discipline him and
denied that his rights were violated.
"I would never want to violate anyone's rights," Jones said in a June interview.
In his defense, Burke said he simply forgot to deliver the cash gift to Culver, who lived next door
to him. He said he left the money in a briefcase that wound up stowed in a closet at his home.
Page 61 of 104