Deputy under investigation after woman says he stole her cellphone, made racial slurs
By Susannah Bryan, Sun Sentinel
5:03 p.m. EDT, June 4, 2011
PLANTATION—
A Broward Sheriff's deputy is under investigation and on paid administrative leave after a woman accused him of pulling her over, stealing her cellphone and driver's license, giving her the finger and making racial slurs.
Deputy Paul Pletcher, 37, was not arrested but is under investigation for possible charges of armed burglary and robbery by sudden snatching.
The Pompano Beach deputy was not on duty during the May 23 incident, but was wearing a gun and gun belt and driving his patrol car. On May 24 he was suspended with pay by the Sheriff's Office, where he has worked since October 2004.
"There is more to this story," said his attorney, Eric Schwartzreich, who declined to discuss details. "There are two sides to every story. We believe that my client did not commit any crime or do anything wrong."
Fort Lauderdale resident Neyda Osorio, 37, told Plantation police she was in her F-150 truck sitting at a light on Broward Boulevard near State Road 7 around noon on May 23 when her friend noticed a deputy yelling at them.
"She sees this cop waving crazily," said one of her attorneys, Edward McGee. "He's yelling ethnic slurs and telling her to go back where she came from. That's when he shoots her the bird. She shoots one back."
Right away, the deputy activated his flashing lights and told her to pull into the turn lane, Osorio told police.
Worried, Osorio told her friend, Selvin Guerra, 25, to start recording the incident on Osorio's BlackBerry cellphone.
The deputy walked up to her door and asked Osorio for her green card, McGee said. She handed it over.
"He looks at it and flicks it back and it hits her in the face," McGee said.
She then handed over her driver's license, McGee said, and that's when the deputy noticed he was being recorded.
Pletcher "demanded they turn over the phone and said they would be under arrest if they did not turn it over," according to a Plantation Police search warrant.
Osorio quickly placed her phone in her purse, she told police.
Pletcher put his arm across Osorio's neck and restrained her hands to grab the phone from her purse on the center console, she told police. She says her wrist was injured in the struggle.
After grabbing the phone, Pletcher told her to pull into a bank parking lot, police records show. As Osorio pulled in, she saw him driving off with her phone and ID.
"She is shaking," McGee said. "She is now petrified."
Osorio asked a security guard to call 911.
Plantation officers arrived and searched for her phone in the 3800 block of West Broward Boulevard. They found it in two pieces.
After the phone's data was downloaded onto a DVD, two supervisors at the Sheriff's Office identified Pletcher as the man in the video.
"This is George Orwell 1984 frightening," McGee said. "It's an outrage. It's an abuse of power. Now she has a 500-pound butterfly anytime she sees a cop car anywhere because she does not know what kind of police officer is behind the wheel."
Plantation Police will not release the video until the investigation is complete, said Detective Robert Rettig, spokesman for the department.
The department's findings will be forwarded to the Broward State Attorney's Office, Rettig said. Prosecutors then will decide whether to file charges.
"If the officer violated the law, he will be treated like anyone else in our city," Rettig said. "If you're a police officer and you broke the law, you're going to have to pay the consequences for that."
Pletcher never made contact with dispatch during the traffic stop, the search warrant says.
Osorio's driver's license is still missing.
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