Jury finds Orlando police officer not guilty of perjury

A jury this week acquitted an Orlando police officer for his alleged role in the break-ins of storage units he was surveilling, according to court records.

Prosecutors accused Sgt. Jerry Jenarine of lying to Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents.

Jenarine, who was working a Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation drug trafficking case with three other officers in 2016, believed drugs were being stashed in storage units at U.S. Storage Centers at 6706 Narcoossee Road and Extra Space Storage at 5753 Hoffner Ave.

University of Central Florida Police Officer Timothy Isaacs used a lock pick to get inside both units in January 2016, investigators said. He took photos of drugs and cash with his phone, investigators said. Another investigator told his bosses about the photos and the FDLE investigation began.

Isaacs told investigators his MBI superiors, Jenarine and FDLE agent William Powell, asked him to break into the unit on two different occasions as Winter Park police officer Marco Marcovigi served as the lookout, documents alleged.

Jenarine, Powell and Marcovigi were charged with giving false information to law enforcement.

Marcovigi was found guilty earlier this week. Charges were dropped against Powell, who resigned from FDLE. Isaacs, charged with trespassing, awaits trial. He resigned from UCFPD.

Jenarine is relieved of duty with pay at OPD, pending the outcome of an internal investigation.

The MBI is a multi-agency group of local, state and federal law enforcement under the State Attorney of the Ninth Judicial Circuit in Central Florida that investigates narcotics, prostitution and organized crime.

The incident caused MBI to request an outside investigation to look for other problems within the agency. It found that the incident was isolated and “failures in judgment on behalf of the individual officers, not behaviors accepted in or endemic to the culture of the agency.”