{"id":29385,"date":"2023-01-26T12:22:52","date_gmt":"2023-01-26T17:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=29385"},"modified":"2023-01-26T12:22:57","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T17:22:57","slug":"lpd-asks-fdle-to-investigate-officers-accused-of-punching-a-man-the-four-officers-were-placed-on-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/01\/26\/lpd-asks-fdle-to-investigate-officers-accused-of-punching-a-man-the-four-officers-were-placed-on-leave\/","title":{"rendered":"LPD asks FDLE to investigate officers accused of punching a man; The Four Officers were placed on leave"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lakeland Police Chief Sam Taylor has asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to open a use-of-force investigation on the officers accused of punching a man during a traffic stop.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s investigation of the Dec. 18 arrest of Antwan Glover will be conducted separately from Lakeland’s own internal administrative review, Taylor said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I recognize the community has questions surrounding this arrest, and I appreciate the Florida Department of Law Enforcement\u2019s willingness to take on this investigation,” he said. “I am confident in their abilities to review the facts fairly, and the Lakeland Police Department will fully cooperate with any requests made by FDLE.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FDLE will gather evidence from the Dec. 18 arrest and conduct interviews of those involved as well as possible witnesses looking at any potential criminal action under state law, FDLE spokesman Jeremy Burns said. It will not assess whether LPD officers potentially broke the agency’s use-of-force policy. The FDLE investigation will be presented to the State Attorney’s Office to determine whether to file any criminal charges. There is no timeframe by which the state investigation must be finished, Burns said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There’s no hard and fast deadline,” he said. “With all cases, we are very thorough and expedient. We understand the public wants to know what happened.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taylor said the four officers involved have been placed on administrative leave until the FDLE’s investigation is underway: Sgt. Mark Eby, Detective Dillon Cornn, and Officers Anton Jefferson and Jason McCain. <\/strong>The officers are required to be available to answer to their supervisors, according to Taylor, but will not be allowed to exercise their police authority or work in extra detail. Up until now, they had been working on modified duty with limited public contact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n