Deputy is fired for slamming student’s head
Internal sheriff’s panel had voted to clear the officer
A Broward sheriff ’s deputy has been fired for an arrest in April in which he slammed a teenager’s head against the asphalt, an encounter that drew accusations of police brutality and criminal charges against him and two other deputies.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office fired Deputy Christopher Krickovich on Tuesday after the completion of a review and disciplinary hearing about the case, Sheriff Gregory Tony said Wednesday.
The sheriff had vowed accountability after cellphone videos of the April 18 arrest surged across social media showing the takedown of the teenager, Delucca Rolle, in the parking lot of a McDonald’s in Tamarac, a short walk from J.P. Taravella High School.
The termination of the deputy adds to a growing list of deputies that Tony has fired or suspended since he was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis 11 months ago.
The firing comes after an 11-member panel, which is comprised of mostly sheriff’s office employees, reviewed the internal affairs report and voted unanimously to clear Krickovich of all wrongdoing. Union President Jeffery Bell said to fire someone after a panel is in full agreement of exonerating that person is wrong.
“It’s appalling,” Bell said after the announcement.
Tony said he reviewed the same investigative material as the panel but came to a vastly different conclusion.
“He was terminated yesterday because we don’t have a policy in place that provides deputies the opportunity to slam people’s faces, head into the ground, especially under those circumstances,” Tony said.
Tony said that doesn’t mean that there may not come a time when such force is necessary. Krichovich, whose legal case is still playing out in court,
is expected to fight the termination.
A fight broke out April 18 after about 200 teenagers gathered at the McDonald’s. Deputies said they had to act quickly to take control of an unruly crowd. They had one teen pinned on the ground when Rolle, of North Lauderdale, reached for a boy’s cellphone on the ground.
Deputies then subdued Rolle, saying he defied orders and posed a threat. They arrested him on charges of assault of an officer, resisting arrest and trespassing.
Broward prosecutors decided just days later not to pursue charges against the 15-year-old. An investigation began into the deputies’ actions. Months later, Krichovich and Deputy Gregory LaCerra were arrested on misdemeanor battery charges as well as falsifying records charges, also misdemeanors. Their cases are still playing out in court.
A third deputy, Ralph Mackey, was arrested on the charge of falsifying records, but he was acquitted of that by a jury in September. Tony announced Wednesday that Mackey received a written reprimand for failing to turn on his recording device.
LaCerra’s case has not wrapped up internally in the agency, and because of that, Tony said he would not be commenting until after LaCerra’s pre-disciplinary hearing, typically the last step in the agency’s disciplinary process.
Video taken by a bystander shows LaCerra pushing the teen’s head back when the teen tried to grab a cellphone. Video then captures LaCerra pepper-spraying the teen.
After LaCerra gets the teen to the ground, Krickovich is seen slamming Rolle’s head into the asphalt and then punching him in the side of the head.
Krickovich’s termination comes just a month after a school resource deputy in November was arrested on felony child abuse charges after he was seen on school surveillance video grabbing a 15-year-old girl by the neck and slamming her to the ground. The teen landed on her back. When Tony announced deputy Willard Miller’s arrest, he called the deputy’s actions deplorable and uncalled for. Miller has been suspended without pay.
In October, Tony fired Deputy Jorge Sobrino, who was caught on camera punching a hospitalized, handcuffed man in the head. Sobrino’s case is also still playing out in court.
Earlier this year, rookie deputy Kevin Fanti was fired on the spot after Tony saw a video of the new deputy slugging a handcuffed 19-year-old who was being processed in jail.
Tony also fired deputies Brian Miller, Edward Eason and Joshua Stambaugh for neglect of duty after the 2018 Parkland massacre at Majory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a gunman killed 17 and wounded 17 others.
In Rolle’s case, the backlash that surfaced from the teen’s arrest was immediate with many calling for the immediate termination of the deputies. Tony said Wednesday the matter had to run its course.
“Anytime we have some sort of form of excessive force, anytime something pops up on the camera, there is an immediate outcry that we terminate people — that we get rid of them,” said Tony. “That is not just.
“We cannot operate that way as a law enforcement operation. But what I am trying to establish here … we are holding people accountable and it requires patience if we want it done right.”