The State Attorney’s Office
Officer involved had ‘pattern’ of unlawful stops, they say
dismisses 10 cases after a Clermont police officer was arrested Wednesday on charges that he falsified arrest reports.
CLERMONT — The State Attorney’s Office dismissed 10 cases after a Clermont police officer was arrested Wednesday on charges that he falsified arrest reports, a prosecutor said Thursday.
“A false statement in an official proceeding … they go directly to the integrity of the criminal justice system,” said Walter Forgie, supervising assistant state attorney in Lake County.
Officer Cecil Clifford Garrett, 48, showed a “pattern” of pulling drivers over without cause after an investigation showed he didn’t run their tags before stopping them, Forgie said, adding that Garrett “lied” in arrest reports about when he ran the tags. “The result of that is he may not have had a lawful reason to conduct the stops,” he said. Garrett, a 12-year department veteran, turned himself in Wednesday after a warrant was issued for his arrest on five counts of perjury by false written declaration. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement launched a criminal investigation of Garrett in March after Clermont police Chief Chuck Broadway notified them about numerous complaints received from citizens dating back to June 2016.
In arrest reports, Garrett would write that he had confirmed a drivers license as suspended after he ran the person’s tag, prompting him to conduct a traffic stop. But computer logs show that he sometimes ran a license query after the stop was conducted, according to the state’s investigation.
“A law-enforcement officer has to have a lawful basis to initiate a stop,” Forgie said.
Garrett was fired from the Clermont Police Department in 2011 after an internal investigation accused him of falsely arresting a teenager on a drug charge. After an arbitrator determined the department did not conduct a fair investigation, the depart-