Sen. Greg Evers, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, said in a radio interview yesterday that he plans to pursue an investigation into alleged cover-ups at the Department of Corrections, even if he has to call on the FBI for help.
On Tuesday, Evers’ committee heard sworn testimony from current and former Department of Corrections investigators who said they were ordered by the inspector general’s office to quash cases that could embarrass the agency or high-ranking officials.
Appearing on News Talk 1370 WCOA’s Pensacola Speaks, Evers said, “I’m waiting to see right now if the Governor or the Chief Inspector General in the Governor’s office will step in and do something. If not, then I feel compelled that it’s my responsibility to ask for a full investigation.”
The News Service of Florida reported on Tuesday that Gulf County Sheriff Mike Harrison, who was a DOC investigator prior to his election in late 2012, told the Senate Criminal Justice Committee that investigators were encouraged by the DOC inspector general’s office to pursue administrative cases — which could end in firings but not criminal charges — “to make it look favorable upon the department.â€
“Criminal charges on a high-ranking colonel or warden or assistant warden would obviously be a black eye on DOC,†testified Harrison, who said he was told not to pursue criminal charges against a former Jackson Correctional Institution warden and assistant warden regarding a cover-up of the medical treatment of an inmate at the Panhandle prison in which two inmates nearly lost their lives.
Harrison’s supervisor, Doug Glisson, said the decision not to pursue criminal charges came from Inspector General Jeffrey Beasley, who answers to Gov. Rick Scott’s Inspector General Melinda Miguel.
This was not the only time this happened. Glisson told the committee that he was also told to drop an investigation into a high-ranking corrections official’s possible involvement with wrongdoing at a training academy. Two days after one of Glisson’s inspectors asked the official about the academy, Glisson said, “We were called to the office of the inspector general and we were warned that the person we had named as a subject, that there was a ‘Capitol connection’ with this individual.â€
Evers pledged in the radio interview to not let the matter drop. He said that if the governor doesn’t investigate, the he will send a letter to Florida Department of Law Enforcement asking them to do so.
“If FDLE does not do it, then I would be forced to go to the FBI or the Department of Treasury,” said Evers.
Department of Corrections Secretary Julie Jones, who took over the department in January, has stood by her inspector general. She said that the Senate hearing on Tuesday referenced cases that “happened years ago†and were “declined due to a lack of probable cause or sufficient evidence.”
Jones said in a statement to The News Service of Florida, “I am personally disappointed that the environment in which current and former department staff were asked to testify did not allow for the presentation of all known facts regarding the incidents in question.â€
For more on Tuesday’s hearing, read “Prison investigators silenced by ‘upper level management.”