Deputy chief resigns, officer fired, former secretary
admits enrollment in organization
Author: Erik Sandoval,
FRUITLAND PARK, Fla. -
A report which investigated whether two Fruitland Park
police officers were involved with the Ku Klux Klan shows a third police worker
was also linked to the organization.
Deputy Chief David Borst and Officer George Hunnewell
were both named as members of the KKK by informants to the Federal Bureau of
Investigation. Borst resigned over the claims last Thursday and Hunnewell was
fired Friday.
Hunnewell's wife, Ann, worked as a Police Department
secretary and she admitted to Florida Department of Law Enforcement
investigators she and her husband joined the KKK.
She told the FDLE they wanted to infiltrate the klan
as part of a department investigation under then-Police Chief Mark Isom.
Hunnewell told investigators she and her husband never
paid dues and didn't believe in the klan's philosophy.
Her involvement was reported by the wife of another
former Fruitland Park police officer James Elkin, who resigned in 2010 after he
was also linked to the klan.
According to the report, Pamela Ellingsworth
"reported that George Hunnewell was a sworn member of the KKK."
"Ellingsworth reported that (Deputy Chief David)
Borst and others in the FPPD have knowledge of the Hunnewells' membership in
the KKK, but did nothing to address the issue," the report stated.
One man who was arrested two weeks ago by Hunnewell
wants the Office of the State Attorney to review his case. The man, who is
black, said he was pulled over driving 37 mph in a 25 mph zone.
"(Hunnewell) jumped in the middle of my car as I
was going and almost pulled out his gun, and said, 'I could have shot you if
you would have hit me with your car,'" the man said.
Hunnewell eventually arrested the man for marijuana
possession and driving with a suspended license, but the man argues he wouldn't
have been pulled over if he wasn't black.
The State Attorney is now reviewing hundreds of cases
handled by Borst and Hunnewell. Workers are looking for any signs of racially
motivated charges.
