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Hernando Today

Ex-Cop Plans To Sue Sheriff

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By TONY MARRERO

Hernando Today

Published: August 2, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - A former Tampa police officer has notified the Hernando County Sheriff's Office that he will sue the agency for a host of grievances, including false arrest.

Gary Gilkey, 33, of Hudson, sent a letter June 6 to Sheriff Richard Nugent to notify Nugent of his intent to sue. The letter lists Nugent and nine sheriff's office staffers as likely defendants.

Gilkey, a former Brooksville resident, alleges sheriff's office employees committed acts of "false arrest, false imprisonment, aggravated battery, armed kidnapping and aggravated stalking." Gilkey accused Nugent of covering up the acts "to protect your friends."

Gilkey says he was permanently injured by tight handcuffs during a 2005 arrest.

He also maintains that a sheriff's detective did not investigate the sexual molestation of Gilkey's daughter because the detective is a friend of the man who Gilkey says committed the act.

Gilkey is seeking $30 million in damages, according to the letter.

Janet Anderson, the sheriff's office legal counsel, confirmed through sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Jim Powers on Friday that she had received the letter but declined to comment on it.

In an interview Thursday, Gilkey said he has proof to corroborate a complicated tale full of characters he says conspired to ruin him because he knew too much about sheriff's office employees and their friends. He maintains they were "jealous" of his success as a Tampa police officer.

"It's the good-old-boy network at its best," he said. "I lost everything because of the sheriff's office."

Gilkey said has been arrested four times in Hernando County, "and every time it's been dismissed."

He said he bought a ranch in Brooksville in 2005 and caught his wife having an affair with a Spring Hill Fire Rescue firefighter. Gilkey's wife moved from the ranch and successfully filed for a domestic violence injunction. Gilkey said when he moved back into his house, he was arrested in June for violating the injunction. The charge was dismissed for insufficient evidence, according to court records.

"The deputies knew she didn't live there anymore," Gilkey said.

He says tight handcuffs placed on him during that arrest left scars and caused permanent nerve damage.

Gilkey said he had to resign from the Tampa Police Department after the injunction stipulated he could not carry a gun. He's still fighting that order.

Then, in October 2005, he was arrested for filing a false report to a law enforcement officer. He reported to the sheriff's office that someone shot out the window of his car in Spring Hill. He said he provided a tag number of a car from which he thought the shot was fired and identified a suspect from a photograph, and then was arrested by the Florida Highway Patrol. He said he mistakenly blamed the wrong man and he only pleaded guilty because his lawyer advised him to.

Gilkey contends his daughter, who was 2 at the time, was molested in 2005 and he reported the allegations to the Department of Children and Families. He contends that a detective in the sheriff's department who is friends with the man who allegedly sexually battered his daughter refused to follow up on the suspicions.

He was arrested for aggravated stalking and filing a false child abuse report. The charges were dismissed. Gilkey said DCF later acknowledged "something happened," but never did an investigation.

Gilkey was arrested again in June 2007, when he was charged with dealing in stolen property. The charges were dropped, but Gilkey had to plea to violating probation and spent five months in jail.

Most recently, Gilkey said his now ex-girlfriend pulled a gun on him last month when he told her the relationship was over. He said the Hernando County Sheriff's Office won't investigate it because she is a deputy for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

Gilkey, who said he is attending school to become a paralegal, says he has been gathering evidence for two years and is now looking for an attorney with hopes up filing suit in the next few months.

"I wouldn't have filed that letter if I couldn't back it," he said. "I'm ready to go with it."

Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.

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