An award-winning Florida sheriff’s deputy was suspended for treating nearly a dozen inmates inhumanely while transporting them in a van last year.
However, it was just over two years ago that St. Lucie County sheriff’s deputy Johnny Hubbard received a departmental award along with several other deputies, describing them as “extremely professional and extraordinary individuals” who deserve to be “recognized for their day-to-day dedication to their duties.”
But now Hubbard is being recognized for his unprofessionalism while transporting inmates after an internal affairs investigation resulted in him being suspended him for five days.
The suspension stems from an incident where the inmates were being loud and unruly, banging on the inside of the van, as he transported them from the St. Lucie County Courthouse to the St. Lucie County Jail.
So he turned up the heat on them to teach them a lesson.
The incident took place on September 28. His suspension was approved on December 10, the local daily TCPalm.com reported last week.
Some of the inmates took their shirts off to deal with the heat in the van. Hubbard said that when they finally arrived at the jail, he ordered them to put their shirts back on if they wanted to come out of the hot van.
A few of the inmates put their shirts back on and were allowed to step out of the van. Others, who did not comply, were kept in the van for ten minutes, according to the report from investigators.
This is not the first time a cop in Florida acts unprofessionally.
Last month PINAC reported on a sergeant from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office who is being investigated after deleting video footage and failing to arrest an off-duty officer who was caught soliciting a prostitute for sex during a major prostitute sting operation in Florida.
Sergeant Oscar Cardenas, who oversees the Lake Worth division, allowed the disgraced Boynton Beach cop to leave the scene of a prostitution sting operation without getting arrested after he was caught requesting oral sex from an undercover officer posing as a prostitute.
The incident took place mid-October and now the Florida cop Cardenas is in the middle of an intricate internal affairs investigation.
Then there’s Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy Stuart Sussman – the 2014 Deputy of the Year – who this week was stripped of his badge in a plea deal where he was facing a felony perjury charge that could have landed him in prison for five years.
Prior to his 2013 award, Hubbard was part of the crew who won the same award in 2012.
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