Grand jury may weigh officer's history

A photo of Jeremy Lett wearing a three-piece pinstriped suit and a ministry collar greeted more than 400 mourners who filled New Birth Pentecostal Church in his home town of Monroeville, Ala., Wednesday.

Lett, 28, was a 2005 graduate of Monroe County High School where he played football. He was married to Latasha Lett of Tallahassee. He coached his stepson's T-ball team. Last October, he "accepted his call to the ministry," his obituary read.

That image is at odds with what the Tallahassee Police Department said happened on the night of Feb. 4 when Lett was shot and killed by Tallahassee Police Department officer David Stith, whose use of force has been scrutinized in the past.

A call to police

Police say Stith and Lett got into an altercation after the officer responded to a report of a burglary at Shadow Ridge Apartments on West Tharpe Street. Lett died of his injuries. Autopsy results are pending.

Records from a January traffic ticket and Lett's driver's license show he lived at Shadow Ridge, but neighbors say he hadn't lived in the apartment complex for almost a year.

Stith approached the man because he matched the description of a burglary suspect, police say. Lett had no prior criminal record in Florida.

His father, Richard Lett, declined to comment on his son's death but said his son was a respectful man.

"I knew that wasn't my son," he said. "As long as you've got a son that respects you, that says a lot."

Police have not released details of the initial encounter between Stith and Lett, but Josh Carter, who lives in the same complex, witnessed the altercation and the shooting that followed.

Carter said he heard Stith yelling at Lett to stop and looked out his front door, a short distance away.

Carter has provided statements to police about the incident and will likely be called to testify once the case goes before a Leon County grand jury.

Lett did not obey the commands, Carter said, and began circling the officer who used a Taser on him when he did not comply. Lett continued to circle the officer who then tackled him.

Seconds into the scuffle on the ground, Carter said he heard gunshots.

Denise Skipper, whose roommate made the initial call to police, said someone she believes to be Lett was knocking on her bedroom window about an hour before the shooting.

She said her roommate called police because Lett was "harassing" the two. She didn't feel he was being aggressive, she told the Tallahassee Democrat.

The incident is not indicative of the man she saw regularly in passing at the complex.

"He was very quiet, he dressed nice and he was mild mannered," Skipper said.

Stith was uninjured in the incident and put on administrative leave with pay, which is routine following officer-involved shootings.

Grand jury scrutiny

Despite high regard from his superiors and the public on several of his annual reviews, Stith has been suspended several times in his 16-year career. That disciplinary history could come before a grand jury later this month.

The grand jury may consider whether he was justified in the shooting at their next meeting Feb. 26, as has been a long standing protocol of State Attorney Willie Meggs' office.

While each case is different, Meggs said, details of the various times Stith has faced internal investigators will be included when all the facts are presented to the grand jury.

"Any information that we have we try to present the good, the bad, the ugly," Meggs said. "So if there's been prior disciplinary issues, or use of force issues, we'll present (the grand jury) that."

Meggs said often the state attorney's office will have someone testify about an officer's prior use of force.

Past disciplinary incidents

Stith was suspended for 10 hours in May 2012 after a complaint was filed about him using excessive force while investigating a domestic disturbance.

A man told TPD investigators Stith, while responding to his home to investigate the call, lifted the man out of his front door, carried him down several stairs and slammed his face onto the trunk of a nearby car, according to an internal investigation report.

During the interview of the man and his wife, Stith observed the woman inside the home, according to the report. She said she was fine and the couple had just been arguing.

When the man attempted to close the front door, Stith pulled him from his house, investigators found. Stith did not file a report that he had used force during a service call and investigators found he acted in a manner unbecoming of a law enforcement officer.

In February of 2012, Stith was suspended for 40 hours after he responded to another domestic call and failed to write a report, despite an uncooperative complainant and no evidence of a domestic dispute or evidence a crime had been committed, internal investigators found.

By state statute, an officer must file a report when there are allegations of domestic violence regardless of whether an arrest is made. A copy of the report must be sent to Refuge House, a Tallahassee-based agency caring for victims of rape and abuse.

Stith was again suspended for 40 hours in December 2013 for an off-duty altercation at the Girl Scouts of the Florida Panhandle when he allegedly "stormed" into the business and began yelling at his wife, who was an intern there, according to a internal affairs report.

Employees at the Pinewood Drive office told investigators Stith entered the building and went into a conference room, cursing at his wife for leaving their daughter at the dentist for several hours on a school day.

He left the building after dropping the girl off and yelling "I am the crazy one," and peeling out of the parking lot before employees called the police.

They told TPD internal investigators they locked the door after Stith left out of fear he would return and have worked to put in place policies dealing with on-site domestic incidents.

His actions were not in line with the way a police officer should act, Girl Scout employees told investigators. They also commented on the demeanor of his wife and daughter following the incident.

The daughter appeared embarrassed, Girl Scout employees said. Another employee said Stith's wife "wasn't shaken up. She wasn't crying. She wasn't crying, she didn't seem necessarily embarrassed. She was very calm."

Stith's wife told investigators she did not believe her husband had done anything wrong because he only directed his anger at her. She quoted him saying, "I didn't break the law. That's freedom of speech," but did not appear for further scheduled interviews.

Stith told investigators, "If being a father has to take a back seat to TPD, I'm sorry, it's not going to and I can't guarantee that I won't get emotional again."

Big Bend Police Benevolent Association President Steve Slade, who is also a TPD lieutenant, said a PBA representative and attorney responded to the scene of the shooting last week.

Members who pay dues are offered legal representation throughout any criminal investigation and during internal reviews of an officer's actions.

Slade, speaking in his capacity as the PBA president, said he could not comment on the ongoing investigation, but an officer's previous disciplinary actions should not play a role in how the case is handled.

"I would surmise that has nothing to do with the other one," Slade said. "We as the PBA do not look at a cumulative outlook of an officer's background; we look at each case separately."

Tallahassee criminal defense attorney Josh Zelman said that Lett was approached because he matched the description leaves a lot of questions.

Zelman, commenting on Stith's previous disciplinary action, said prior use of force and the resulting administrative actions should be brought before the grand jury.

"In order to be objective the grand jury should be given a history of this officer and an analysis of whether his actions on this night were justified," Zelman said.

Since 2000, Leon County grand juries have reviewed more than 25 officer-involved shooting cases, and in all of the cases, officers were cleared of wrongdoing.

Lett is the first suspect killed by a TPD officer this year. In 2014, four suspects were killed. In the four previous incidents, a grand jury found that officers were justified in their use of force.

On May 12, officers killed 39-year-old robbery suspect Tommy Jackson on Florida State University's campus following a car chase. Less than three weeks later, on May 29, Duane Strong, 18, was killed when he drove his car toward officers outside of a West Tennessee Street nightclub.

TPD officers were also involved in the November shootings of gunman Myron May at FSU's Strozier Library and Curtis Wade Holley, who ambushed and killed a Leon County Sheriff's Office deputy.

On Feb. 6, two days after the shooting, Skipper said she saw Stith and another man reenacting the incident at the apartment complex.

Tallahassee Police Department officer David Stith's previous disciplinary record

February 2012 suspended for 40 hours for failing to file a report of a domestic violence service call

May 2012 suspended for 10 hours without pay for his use of force while responding to a domestic battery incident

October 2013 issued a written reprimand for obscene comments about another officer.

December 2013 suspended for 40 hours without pay for entering the Girl Scouts of America office in Tallahassee and acting aggressively and shouting obscenities