Activists seek officer’s exit, leaders say hands are tied

Local activists on Monday asked city commissioners to call for the resignation of Orlando Police Officer Robert Schellhorn, whose use of offensive language put him at the center of two separate internal affairs investigations in 2017.

“We have a saying: If you see something, say something. Well, we see something and we’ve been saying something for some time,” local activist T.J. Legacy-Cole said to city commissioners.

But council members said their hands were legally bound by Law Enforcement’s Bill of Rights and OPD’s union contract, which prevents an officer from being punished more than once for a particular offense.

“We don’t have the ability to do what you’re asking us to do today,” Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said. “Even if there are members up here who are sympathetic and think that’s exactly what ought to be done… the final call was within the police command system, and we don’t have the ability to change that at this point.”

Dyer called Schellhorn’s actions “offensive and reprehensible” but said the City Council does not have the legal authority to impose punishment on police officers. According to OPD’s union contract, recommendations for discipline must come through the agency’s chain of command, beginning with lieutenant.

Seven other activists asked the council to denounce the officer, who first came under fire in August 2017 after a socialmedia rant with racially charged language sparked a citizen complaint.

In one of the Facebook comments, while referring to professional athletes, Schellhorn wrote “what exactly are the ‘black rights’ these useless savages are standing up for???”

Two months later, a separate internal investigation began after body camera footage surfaced, showing Schellhorn using the same word to refer to a group of club goers at the LGBT nightclub Parliament House in May 2017. He used pepper spray while trying to break up a crowd after a fight.

“This is typically Sunday night, it’s just busy,” Schellhorn was heard saying to another officer on the footage. “All these [expletive] savages that [expletive] come out.”

Schellhorn received an 80-hour unpaid suspension for each incident but opted to forfeit paid time off instead.

The probe into the officer’s comments at Parliament House emerged publicly in September of this year, adding to outrage of local activists, who, along with the Citizen’s Police Review Board, believed the agency should fire Schellhorn over his social media comments.

The board did not review the investigation of the officer’s misconduct at the nightclub. An OPD spokesman said the probe was not initiated by a citizen complaint, but after a review of Schellhorn’s body camera footage due to his use of pepper spray.

At Monday’s council meeting, District 4 Commissioner Patty Sheehan, who said she was once physically thrown out of The Club at Firestone by Schellhorn years ago, told activists she was “disgusted” the commissioners’ hands were