Seminole County deputy sheriff transferred, suspended

Probe found he lied about parking tickets, records say

A Seminole County deputy sheriff was recently transferred from his specialized detective role and suspended after an internal review found he lied to try to get out of paying for traffic tickets he’d been issued for his undercover agency vehicle, records show.

Deputy Maurice Edwards, who’d received awards for his intelligence work focused on human trafficking, was transferred this summer from the youth services division to court security after the investigation, which also found he repeatedly used his agency vehicle to travel well beyond Seminole County while off duty, driving to the Palm Coast and Clearwater on the agency’s dime, records show.

Seminole Sheriff Dennis Lemma said he planned to fire Edwards after the probe found the 15-year deputy made false statements and violated policies on conduct and vehicle use, but was “satisfied ... that [Edwards had] learned a valuable lesson from this experience,” the final disciplinary letter said.

Edwards was suspended without pay for almost two weeks of work, ordered to pay the more than $400 he owed in traffic tickets as well as pay back SCSO for all his non-work travel costs. Agency spokeswoman Kim Cannaday said human trafficking cases will now be handled by other detectives. Edwards also used to serve on the county and FBI task forces on human trafficking, Cannaday said.

The internal investigation began after Orlando officials placed a boot on Edwards’ agency truck in January because of his seven outstanding parking tickets with the city, records show. At the time, Edwards called to have the boot removed, explaining it was an undercover law enforcement vehicle, but he did not “ever pay the citations nor make a phone call regarding the citations,” Lemma’s letter said.

The seven tickets were issued from February 2020 through January for meter or freight zone violations, and while two of the tickets were issued while Edwards was parked for a work event, he admitted four of them were from when he stopped downtown to smoke a cigar at the Corona Cigar Bar, not actively working an investigation, the letter said. Edwards told investigators he did not remember when he got the seventh ticket.

Orlando parking officials told Edwards the citations would be voided with a supervisor’s note that he had been parked there “for the purpose of an emergency or for undercover activities,” but the probe found that was never the case.

“Instead… [Edwards] provided [his supervisor] with a letter to the city of Orlando listing the citation numbers and stating that

[he was] working with MBI in an undercover capacity when each citation was issued,” Lemma’s letter said. “[Edwards] knew the representations in the letter were inaccurate but presented the letter to [his] sergeant.”

Though Edwards’ supervisor requested he write such a memo, Lemma said even a draft should not include inaccuracies, and called Edwards actions “completely unacceptable.”

Because of the investigation’s findings, the Seminole-Brevard State Attorney’s Office has flagged Edwards in its internal system as a witness with a potential credibility issue, which must be disclosed in any case Edwards is involved, under a 1963 Supreme Court decision.

State Attorney spokesperson Todd Brown said the office doesn’t know how many cases will be affected by the recent untruthfulness finding, but the Orlando Sentinel confirmed at least two human trafficking cases in which prosecutors have already disclosed Edwards’ disciplinary history.

The SCSO internal investigation also found Edwards “took advantage” of working in the field and on independent investigations, not closely supervised, by traveling in his agency vehicle across the state, often on vacation. Based on fuel and toll receipts, SCSO found he traveled to Clearwater, Palm Coast and Riverview while he was taking time off from work.

While Edwards did not explicitly deny the allegations, he explained that he is often on call and working while on vacation.

Edwards’ attorney, Lisa Haba, a former prosecutor who focused on human trafficking with him, declined to comment on behalf of her client.