|By Robert Nolin, Sun Sentinel
A Miramar police officer, patrolling with a citizen
observer, has been charged with brazenly filching two bottles of scotch from
three suspects.
Antonio Hester, 34, who has been with the department
since 2006, was arrested Thursday and charged with petty theft, falsifying
records and official misconduct. He was placed on unpaid leave and is under
internal investigation, "which precludes the department from speaking
further on the matter," spokeswoman Natasha Richardson said.
According to a five-page report by Sgt. Kevin
Nosowicz, Hester was on duty May 14, 2013, with Casey Torres, a member of the
city's Citizen's Police Academy, accompanying him.
Hester answered a theft call at a Walgreens on
Southwest 101st Avenue, and tracked three female suspects to a nearby gas
station, investigators said. He and Linkong Sherman, Walgreens loss prevention
officer, took suspected stolen property from the women, including two bottles
of Johnnie Walker Black Label.
One of the women, Zakia Branton, told Hester the
liquor was hers and had been bought in Tampa. She and the other women were
subsequently allowed to go.
When the liquor was scanned under the store's
inventory system, it was shown not to have belonged to the store, Nosowicz
reported. Walgreens assistant manager Heldy Barry told investigators Hester
said that "he was going to take the alcohol because it did not belong to
Walgreens."
Hester was then seen on store surveillance cameras
leaving the manager's office with the two bottles of liquor. Sherman also
watched him place the booze in the trunk of his patrol car, the sergeant said.
Torres, the citizen observer, said Hester told him
"he had a lot of paperwork to complete" and would place the liquor
into evidence. But Torres told investigators the officer did not stop at the
police station, but went straight to a Citizen's Academy function.
Nosowicz said Hester filed a report stating he
returned the liquor to Branton, but department records didn't back up that
claim or show that the bottles were ever placed into evidence. Branton also
told investigators she never got her liquor back.
The case was turned over to the Broward County Special
Prosecutors Office, which after an investigation lasting more than a year,
determined Hester should be charged.
Police reports don't mention whether the Johnnie
Walker Black, which retails for around $28 for a 750-milliliter bottle, ever
turned up.
