By Tony Marrero
Tampa Bay Times
TAMPA — A Tampa police officer was fired this week after an internal investigation found he put a suspect in a chokehold earlier this year, among other policy violations.
Officer Michael Scaglione was terminated Tuesday for violating three Tampa Police Department policies during a domestic battery call in April, the department announced in a news release.
The president of the police union said the department made the wrong call in the case and that Scaglione will fight his termination.
On April 12, Scaglione and another officer, Anthony Girouard, responded to a home on the 8000 block of North 10th Street in Sulphur Springs and determined there was probable cause to arrest a 36-year-old man on a domestic battery charge, according to a disposition letter to police Chief Lee Bercaw that summarizes the findings of an internal affairs investigation.
As the officers approached the man inside the home, he “refused to place his hands behind his back by bracing, tensing, and pulling away,” the letter states.
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As the three men fell to the ground, Scaglione can be seen on body worn camera footage grabbing the suspect’s left wrist with his right hand to put the man in a chokehold. The hold rendered the man unconscious, and he went limp and began to snore, according to the letter.
Scaglione released the man and put his hand around his neck. The man awoke seconds later and resisted again by pulling his arms away from the officers. Scaglione struck the man’s head several times with his fist and placed his hand around the man’s throat to pin him to the ground, the video shows.
During the incident, Girouard is positioned near the man’s feet, trying to gain control of his arm to place him in handcuffs. The officers eventually handcuffed him.
The officers arrested the man on charges of assault, battery, marijuana possession and resisting an officer without violence. Prosecutors dropped the first three charges the following month. On Wednesday, prosecutors dropped the resisting charge, records show.
Scaglione told internal affairs investigators that he was trying to use a “seatbelt” technique, which is allowed under department policy, to get control of the man but couldn’t employ the technique properly because the man fell to the ground, according to the letter. Scaglione initially disagreed with the assertion that he used a chokehold, then after watching the body camera video conceded he might have done so inadvertently.
A lead defense tactics instructor for the department testified that chokehold and seatbelt techniques “cannot be confused with one another,” the letter states.
According to department policy, “chokeholds and/or vascular neck restraints are prohibited unless deadly force is justified.”
Scaglione also failed to properly document the blows he delivered to the man’s head, which are allowed under department policy to gain control of a resisting suspect.
The investigation also found that Scaglione and Girouard failed to document in their report that a 3-year-old child was present during the incident, failed to notify the Department of Children and Families of the child‘s presence and failed to document or investigate allegations that the child had been sexually abused by one of the suspect’s relatives.
The internal investigation found that Scaglione, who joined the department in 2016, violated policies related to standard of conduct, response to resistance, philosophy of enforcement and attentiveness to duty.
Investigators found that Girouard violated the policy on attentiveness to duty. He received a letter of counseling for the violation.
In a statement included with a news release on Scaglione’s termination, Bercaw said domestic violence investigations “are one of the most dangerous and volatile situations an officer can respond to, and the dynamics can quickly change.”
“It is imperative that, even in the heat of the moment, officers must be able to respond according to established policies and training procedures which were developed to ensure the safety of the officers as well as the public,” Bercaw said. “In this case, these standard expectations were not met, and his employment was terminated.”
Brandon Barclay, president of the Tampa Police Benevolent Association, the union that represents about 1,000 of the department’s sworn officers, said the union will “vigorously defend” Scaglione as he appeals his termination.
Barclay said Scaglione tried the seatbelt technique, which is used to restrain someone from behind by placing one arm under the person‘s armpit and the other arm over the person’s shoulder and across the chest, then locking hands.
“But when somebody’s actively resisting and you’re trying to get into this technique, and the guy’s six inches taller than you and 80 pounds heavier, it makes it difficult, you end up on the floor, and this is how you end up in this situation,” Barclay said.
Barclay said someone at the scene mentioned the sexual abuse allegations in a “nonchalant” manner, as if the abuse had happened in the distant past, and didn’t make it clear the alleged abuse happened the previous night.
Barclay said Scaglione does not have any previous use-of-force violations or disciplinary history.
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