Deputies suspended for failing to search armed man
Suspect took four hostages, engaged in 90-minute standoff
Three Orange County deputy sheriffs were suspended after an internal review found they failed to properly search and detain a man during an arrest in March, enabling him to enter the county jail with a firearm and take four people hostage, including one of the deputies.
Deputies Jeffery JamesPotts, Leonardo Sauri Le Hardy and Emiliano Silva were each suspended without pay for 40 hours a few weeks after the March hostage situation, according to documents recently provided to the Orlando Sentinel through a public records request.
Internal investigators found the deputies improperly cuffed and searched Eric Stanley Jr., allowing the 25-year-old to slip out of the cuffs and pull out a concealed gun in the jail’s lobby, leading to a 90-minute standoff with law enforcement that included a shootout.
While OCSO determined the deputies violated agency policy in the arrest and search of Stanley, Orange-Osceola prosecutors found the deputies and Orlando police officers who fired at Stanley during the standoff, including Silva, were justified and acted within the law, records show. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement did a separate review of the shooting.
Stanley took James-Potts hostage, along with a corrections officer, jail nurse and the man with whom he had been arrested on marijuana charges.
After a struggle between James-Potts and Stanley, deputies attempted to fire at Stanley through bullet-proof glass at the jail, with one round making it through and hitting Stanley in the shoulder, according to summary of the FDLE probe by prosecutors. Stanley fired at least once at deputies outside the room where he barricaded himself and his hostages, but didn’t penetrate the glass, the review found.
No one else was shot in the incident.
Jay Smith, an OCSO union representative for the three deputies, did not respond to a request for comment on the case.
James-Potts conducted a traffic stop for speeding March 21, pulling over a vehicle in which Stanley was the passenger, the internal investigation report said. Deputies said they smelled marijuana and
Time magazine as Hero of the Planet and the Orlando Sentinel as Floridian of the Year in 2000. He died one year ago at the age of 76.
The Turtle Conservancy will be taking in the world’s third largest such collection, with 14,000 cataloged specimens from 270 of the more than 350 species of turtles, as well as live animals, artworks and Pritchard’s writings.
“This announcement is
Peter’s way of wrapping his arms around his broad community of supporters and inviting them to see what’s next for the Chelonian Research Institute,” Sibille Pritchard said. “As we move into the next phase of Peter’s 50-year legacy in global turtle conservation, we heartily pass the torch to our colleagues and friends at the Turtle Conservancy.”
The nonprofit Turtle Conservancy protects threatened turtles and tortoises and encourages public awareness. The group’s campus in Ojai, Calif., near Santa Barbara cares for more than 500 turtles and tortoises from 32 species.
The conservancy is not open to the public but welcomes students, academics and members.
“Peter Pritchard and his seminal books on turtles were probably the greatest inspiration in my lifelong love affair with turtles,” said conservancy founder Eric Goode. “I was fortunate enough to get to know Peter and Sibille over the years and I’m deeply honored to have the privilege to help carry on their legacy by creating a new home for the Chelonian Research Institute.”
Pritchard visited more than 100 countries for research in all continents and many remote islands. He wrote 14 books and several species of turtles were named after him. His Chelonian Research Institute collection is expected to open at the Turtle Conservancy in 2025.