Full article
FRUITLAND PARK, Fla. - A local sheriff's office said Ku Klux Klan recruitment fliers and photos ended up in his mailbox.
The sheriff said one of the men seen in it was a police officer.
The photo sparked an internal investigation by the Fruitland Park Police Department, and now one of its officers has resigned in the wake of the allegations.
The first complaint surfaced three weeks ago, when the Sumter County Sheriff's Office said someone was putting up KKK recruitment fliers around town.
Investigators said a post office box connected to the fliers came back to Fruitland Park police Officer James Elkins.
The chief then launched an internal investigation.
Two days ago, the Lake County sheriff received photos in the mail alleging that Elkins has been involved with the KKK.
Included in the envelope were photographs of a man alleged to be Elkins in a green KKK uniform.
Fruitland Park police Chief Mark Isom said that man is Elkins. There's even one picture showing the man wearing a police uniform under his white KKK robe.
Isom said it is one of the department's old blue uniforms. The chief said he guarantees none of the other men in the photos are his officers.
Elkins resigned Jan. 20. He was suspended three days earlier for conduct unbecoming of an officer.
Elkins hasn't worked on the force in 14 months. He has been on workman's comp because of an injury he sustained when he crashed his cruiser chasing a drug suspect.
Of the more than 1,000 citations Elkins wrote in 2005, more than 200 went to blacks or
Hispanics. There was a similar proportion in 2006.
The chief said he does not believe there was any racial profiling.
Attorney Cheney Mason said there's no clear-cut appeals process, but someone like the governor could issue a blanket pardon.
"It is maybe just a traffic ticket, but that traffic ticket may have cost some people their jobs," Mason said. "It may have cost some people a great deal of money because their insurance being dropped, or going up. It's some pretty serious consequences."
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Vandal has Nazi ties: police find dope on him
Full article
A man suspected of spray painting swastikas and racist slogans on a Messianic Jewish house of worship was doing more than making idle threats, Mobile police said Tuesday.
Thomas Hayward Lewis, 22, who was first arrested Thursday, has affiliations with neo-Nazi groups, police said, and a search of his house turned up a cache of "explosive materials," which investigators believe he was ready to use.
Police charged Lewis with third-degree criminal mischief, criminal possession of explosives and possession of a controlled substance.
He lives with his parents on South Jefferson Street near downtown, police said.
Police Chief Phillip Garrett said investigators believe that Lewis also painted hate graffiti at Cooper Riverside Park, and they are looking for possible associates of Lewis.
There's no indication that his parents had any idea what their son was up to, Garrett said.
On the morning of Jan. 5, members of the Congregation Tree of Life found their west Mobile building defaced with spray-painted swastikas and racist slogans, such as "Hitler was right" and "Juden raus," which is German for "Jews get out."
The names Waffen SS and Combat 18, a neo-Nazi group, were also painted on the building, according to police photos.
The members were upset, said Barbara Morgan, the congregation's administrator, but many brushed it off as a cruel prank because of the sloppiness of the work and some mistakes in the writing.
Tree of Life members consider themselves to be Jewish, but believe Jesus Christ is the Messiah.
Laborers with the Mobile Public Works Department found racist graffiti in Cooper Riverside Park the same day as the Tree of Life vandalism, Garrett said, and investigators comparing photos from the two sites felt they were made by same person.
The park graffiti targeted other minorities, said the chief, who declined to say exactly what was written, because of its offensive nature.
Detectives, using leads from an informant, linked Lewis to the vandalism and searched his home, where they found what police believe to be explosive materials, Garrett said.
Pending analysis of the materials, Garrett declined to identify them.
A man suspected of spray painting swastikas and racist slogans on a Messianic Jewish house of worship was doing more than making idle threats, Mobile police said Tuesday.
Thomas Hayward Lewis, 22, who was first arrested Thursday, has affiliations with neo-Nazi groups, police said, and a search of his house turned up a cache of "explosive materials," which investigators believe he was ready to use.
Police charged Lewis with third-degree criminal mischief, criminal possession of explosives and possession of a controlled substance.
He lives with his parents on South Jefferson Street near downtown, police said.
Police Chief Phillip Garrett said investigators believe that Lewis also painted hate graffiti at Cooper Riverside Park, and they are looking for possible associates of Lewis.
There's no indication that his parents had any idea what their son was up to, Garrett said.
On the morning of Jan. 5, members of the Congregation Tree of Life found their west Mobile building defaced with spray-painted swastikas and racist slogans, such as "Hitler was right" and "Juden raus," which is German for "Jews get out."
The names Waffen SS and Combat 18, a neo-Nazi group, were also painted on the building, according to police photos.
The members were upset, said Barbara Morgan, the congregation's administrator, but many brushed it off as a cruel prank because of the sloppiness of the work and some mistakes in the writing.
Tree of Life members consider themselves to be Jewish, but believe Jesus Christ is the Messiah.
Laborers with the Mobile Public Works Department found racist graffiti in Cooper Riverside Park the same day as the Tree of Life vandalism, Garrett said, and investigators comparing photos from the two sites felt they were made by same person.
The park graffiti targeted other minorities, said the chief, who declined to say exactly what was written, because of its offensive nature.
Detectives, using leads from an informant, linked Lewis to the vandalism and searched his home, where they found what police believe to be explosive materials, Garrett said.
Pending analysis of the materials, Garrett declined to identify them.
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