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Fruit­land Park, FL

FRUITLAND PARK, Fla. — Fruitland Park’s police chief admit­ted that his col­lege degrees could be fake Wednesday.

Police Chief Mark Isom has under­grad­u­ate and master’s degrees from Youngs­field University.

Isom said he took online courses from 2003 to 2009 from the school, mak­ing A’s and B’s in cal­cu­lus, biol­ogy and sev­eral police-related subjects.

But Eye­wit­ness News found out that Youngs­field Uni­ver­sity is not a nation­ally accred­ited university.

It’s what is called a “degree mill” — an orga­ni­za­tion that allows peo­ple to pay a few hun­dred dol­lars for a bogus tran­script and degree.

Now, the Florida Depart­ment of Law Enforce­ment is involved because Isom was receiv­ing more money in his pay­check because of the degrees.

“They are fast. You don’t actu­ally have to put in any work, if all you’re doing is send­ing in a resume and get­ting a degree by return mail,” said Alan Con­tr­eras, a degree mill expert and the admin­is­tra­tor of Oregon’s Office of Degree Autho­riza­tion. He says Youngs­field Uni­ver­sity only has a Web site and no phys­i­cal address.

“There’s no evi­dence that we’ve found that Youngs­field Uni­ver­sity exists any­where as a legit­i­mate degree-granting insti­tu­tion,” Con­tr­eras said.

Isom would not speak on cam­era with Eye­wit­ness News, but he said over the phone he did put in the work dur­ing this off time.

Wednes­day, FDLE’s Orlando office told Eye­wit­ness News its crim­i­nal jus­tice stan­dards and train­ing com­mis­sion was look­ing into the mat­ter. The com­mis­sion could ask the city to con­duct an inter­nal inves­ti­ga­tion to see if Isom inten­tion­ally vio­lated state law, since he’s been receiv­ing about $80 a month in incen­tive pay.

Thurs­day, FDLE spokesman Mike Mor­ri­son, who is in Tal­la­has­see, said the com­mis­sion is not involved in the case but is aware of the inci­dent. Mor­ri­son also said the agency is work­ing with the city to deter­mine the next steps.

About the time Eye­wit­ness News requested Isom’s degrees and tran­scripts, the chief told the city there might be a prob­lem with the degrees and he should stop receiv­ing that extra cash.

Fruit­land Park City Man­ager Ralph Bow­ers said the chief is the vic­tim of a scam and a per­son of high integrity who wouldn’t hurt the city.

Isom, who has been with the depart­ment for 20 years and makes more than $70,000 a year, has agreed to pay back the money he earned from hav­ing the degrees. The city is still adding up a total.

This is just the lat­est scan­dal for the Fruit­land Park Police Department.

In the last month, Eye­wit­ness News reported how $2,000 dis­ap­peared from the department’s evi­dence room.

Eye­wit­ness News also broke the story of a dri­ver who’s in the process of suing the depart­ment, after he said Offi­cer John Matey beat him up and arrested him, because he honked his horn to let the offi­cer know his car was stick­ing out in the road.

Last year, Eye­wit­ness News exposed an offi­cer work­ing for the depart­ment who was a mem­ber of the Ku Klux Klan.

James Elkins resigned and agreed to give up his law enforce­ment certificate.

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Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment“
www.IAPE.org

The Asso­ci­ated Press State & Local Wire

Austin, MN

An Austin police cap­tain who was con­victed in Novem­ber of a felony drug crime has been fired.

The Austin Daily Her­ald reports the three-member Austin Police Civil Ser­vice Com­mis­sion on Mon­day ordered that Curt Rude be ter­mi­nated as a city employee.

The com­mis­sion decided that since the state revoked Rude’s peace officer’s license Dec. 28 due to the felony con­vic­tion, the Police Depart­ment couldn’t employ him.

The for­mer police cap­tain had argued that the city should give him more time because he was con­sid­er­ing an appeal to get his license back.

Rude says he’s opti­mistic that he will work as an Austin police offi­cer again.

Rude was charged in 2007 after he took two bot­tles of the pre­scrip­tion painkiller Oxy­Con­tin from the department’s evi­dence room.

Infor­ma­tion from: Austin Daily Her­ald, ttp://www.austindailyherald.com

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Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment“
www.IAPE.org

Plain Dealer (Cleve­land, OH)
BYLINE: Donna J. Miller, Plain Dealer Reporter

Brate­nahl & Lyn­d­hurst, OH

[Pre­vi­ous non-P&E-related cases deleted from article.]

Paul Fal­zone, 64, of Brate­nahl: Trial begins Wednes­day for the for­mer Brate­nahl police chief charged with obstruct­ing offi­cial busi­ness and theft in office. Pros­e­cu­tors say he impeded an inves­ti­ga­tion into miss­ing guns, heroin, cocaine and cash from the evi­dence room.

Robert Colombo, 40, of North­field Cen­ter Town­ship: Sen­tenc­ing Wednes­day by Judge Michael Russo to up to two years in prison. The for­mer Lyn­d­hurst police offi­cer stole heroin May 19 from the Lyn­d­hurst evi­dence room and replaced it with rock salt. He over­dosed on heroin the next day at his home. He pleaded guilty to drug pos­ses­sion and theft in office.

[Remain­ing non-P&E-related cases deleted from article.]

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Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment“
www.IAPE.org