Polk Sheriff ’s Office: Inmate forges letter to employer

BARTOW — A Polk County Jail inmate faces additional charges after he tried to explain his absence from work by saying he was working with law enforcement on an investigation. The memo his employer got was on Polk County Sheriff ’s Office letterhead.

Marco Sullivan, 32, was arrested July 24 in Lakeland on an Orange County Sheriff’s Office warrant, with charges of fleeing to elude arrest, resisting a law enforcement officer and driving on a suspended or revoked license, according to the Polk sheriff ’s office.

Concerned that he would lose his job at Reddy Ice in Plant City, Sullivan talked with his girlfriend, Martisha Wilson, 46, about calling his supervisor to explain that he had volunteered to work with the Polk sheriff’s office, according to his affidavit.

Sullivan’s supervisor at Reddy Ice told Wilson he would need written confirmation of Sullivan’s involvement, and when he received a written memo through email on sheriff ’s office letterhead, he said he became suspicious and contacted the sheriff ’s office.

The memo, laden with misspellings and grammatical errors, was signed by “Mike Singleton.” The Polk sheriff’s office said no one by that name works there.

It states, in part: “Do to the severity of the case, I’m not able to enclosed no farther information.”

When detectives confronted him, Sullivan said he’d discussed his plan with Wilson. He also confirmed the memo to his employer was fraudulent, but said he didn’t know who wrote it or who had used the name Mike Singleton.

In a news release, Polk Sheriff ’s Office spokeswoman Carrie Horstman said Sullivan told detectives he was just trying to keep his job.

The Polk sheriff’s office has charged Sullivan with criminal use of personal identification, and has issued a warrant for Wilson’s arrest on the same charge.

Both have lengthy criminal arrest records, including 23 felony arrests for Sullivan, primarily in Orange County; he’s served 10 years in state prison. Wilson’s criminal history dates to 1991 and includes 18 felonies, ranging from shoplifting to robbery.