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Hernando Today

Grounds For Arrest Under Investigation

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By KYLE MARTIN, Hernando Today

Published: January 26, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - The Hernando County Sheriff's Office opened an investigation Friday after witnesses disputed a deputy's version of a traffic stop in south Brooksville.

No one doubts that Jordan Boyd sprinted through back yards to escape the cops, nor that he hid under a house in hopes they wouldn't find him.

That part of the affidavit witnesses agree with.

It's the bit that says Boyd was in the car when it was pulled over that's got them confused.

On Friday morning, activist Richard Howell walked a Hernando Today reporter through what he saw late Tuesday afternoon.

He said the deputies involved have increasingly adopted a "vigilante" attitude when policing this part of town.

"Everybody wants law and order," he said, "but we want (the deputies) following the rules."

Per policy, the sheriff's office could not comment on the claims or provide records related to the traffic stop because there is now an open bureau level investigation into the actions of deputies Jason Deso and Dane Jenkins.

Boyd, 20, of Webster, has been denied bond because of a warrant against him. He declined to be interviewed for this article through county jail staff.

The affidavit written by Deso begins with a white Oldsmobile being pulled over for a loud muffler outside 806 Twigg St.

According to Deso, the person in the back seat of the car was acting shifty and reaching under the seat. When Deso and the deputy with him, Jenkins, walked up to the car, the back seat passenger got out with his hands in his waistband, "as if tucking something," the affidavit states.

That's followed by a question-and-answer session with the suspect in which he reportedly gives the name "Davis Davis," then "James Everett."

When Deso turns to tell Deputy Jenkins to run the name "James Everett" through the cruiser's computer, the suspect takes off on foot, according to the affidavit.

But that's not how Howell saw it.

He was gathered with several others on the opposite side of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard when the white Oldsmobile passed by.

It was about that time that the cruiser driven by Deso pulled to a stop at the Leonard Street intersection and the deputy caught sight of the eastbound Oldsmobile.

Before the cruiser's lights came on, Howell said, the Oldsmobile briefly stopped and let Boyd out. The suspect took off at a brisk walk, then broke into a run when Deso pulled the car over, according to Howell.
Deputies never talked to him because he was already running, Howell said.

If that's true, there is no probable cause to charge Boyd with the "arrestee giving false info," a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison.

Reporter Kyle Martin can be reached at 352-544-5271 or kmartin@hernandotoday.com.

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