pinion PI Plate Run Raises Red Flags

This week, the battle for control over the billion-dollar entity known as the Manatee County School District took another sordid turn, ensnaring the Bradenton Police Department in a new semi-scandal, after a private detective claimed that the chief of police ran his tags as a favor to a city councilman.

Private investigator Warren Brittingham got into a dust-up with Bradenton Police Chief Michael Radzilowski on Tuesday over the chief running his license plate through the state's DAVID database back in late January. Brittingham says he was hired to investigate a group of elected officials and former educators opposed to the Manatee School District's current administration. The group was known to have semi-regular Friday meetings, and he was charged with finding out who was attending.

Brittingham says that while he was taking down plate numbers on a public street, he was approached by the group, which included Bradenton City Councilman Gene Gallo. At that point, the detective made up a story about what he was doing and went on his way.  

Brittingham, a former cop himself, says that on the following Monday he noticed an unmarked police car outside of his residence. A bit unnerved, he made an inquiry with FDLE to see if anyone had run his plate. He discovered that it had been run by the Bradenton Police Department around the same time as the altercation with Gallo. That raised a red flag with the PI, as the location of the meeting was well outside of city limits. Brittingham says he made requests for the chief's call logs that day and after several days of the runaround, was ultimately told he wasn't getting them.

Radzilowski then told Brittingham to come down to the station this past Tuesday, where the PI says he was told that his plate had indeed been run, though not by BPD, but another department as part of an investigation. Brittingham accused Radzilowski of lying to him and the chief acknowledges that he erupted in anger, telling Brittingham to “F**k off,” that he'd have to sue him for the records and to “Get the f**k out here.” Brittingham says he was then grabbed by an officer who led him and his partner out of the station house.

That night Chief Radzilowski sent Brittingham an angry email threatening to sue him and file a misconduct complaint – both of which the chief has since backed off of.

I spoke with Radzilowski yesterday, who acknowledged getting a call from Councilman Gallo on the morning in question, but said that Gallo didn't direct him to run the tag.

“Councilman Gallo called and said he had seen a suspicious vehicle in the neighborhood,” said Radzilowski. “At that point, I did what any police officer would have done. I asked, 'Did you get the tag?' He had, so I ran it. We do that all of the time when someone calls something like that in. It's normal procedure and perfectly legal.”

Radzilowski said that he did not disseminate any of the information gained by running the plate. When I pointed out that the alleged activity had not happened within his jurisdiction and asked why it had not instead been referred to the Manatee County Sheriff's Office, the chief paused and admitted he'd made a mistake in that regard.

“When the councilman called and said that there was a suspicious vehicle 'in the neighborhood,' I assumed he meant his neighborhood," said Radzilowski, "which is in the city. I should have asked where it had taken place. That part's on me.”

Radzilowski says that was the only aspect of his initial actions that were a mistake, though he has also apologized for cursing out Brittingham and his partner when they came to the station.

“Those guys showed up looking for a fight,” he told me, “but I should have handled it differently.”

Radzilowski also acknowledged that he understood how someone could look at the happenings and get a negative perception, but said that he stands by his record.

“I don't know anything about these meetings or this group,” said the chief. “I feel like I got a phone call, did what I was supposed to do and now wind up in the middle of some political mess that I have nothing to do with.”

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Brittingham says that he has nothing against the chief, but maintains that Radzilowski's story doesn't make sense and isn't supported by his actions, both on that day and afterward. Further information obtained yesterday does seem to raise more flags. Brittingham already had the recording of the dispatch call, but on Wednesday he finally got access to Radzilowski's phone log for Jan. 23, the morning that he'd had the run in with Gallo and the group. At 9:24 a.m. there was an incoming call from Gallo; at 9:25 an outgoing call to dispatch to run the plate, and at 9:27 a call back to Gallo.

“He says that when any police officer receives such a call, the first thing they are going to ask is if they got the tags,” said Brittingham. “Well when they call dispatch, the first thing they are going to do is make an effort to match the record to the vehicle in the report. He never did that. He didn't ask what the make or color of the vehicle was. The only thing he asks for is my address. Then he immediately calls Gallo back. If it were really a 'suspicious vehicle' complaint, wouldn't he have asked dispatch to send a patrol car over to the neighborhood and check things out, especially if it's the neighborhood of a city councilman who made the report? Obviously he couldn't do that because the neighborhood wasn't in city limits, but if he really didn't know that and assumed it was Councilman Gallo's residence, wouldn't he have sent a patrol car by? That never happened because that wasn't what the call (to dispatch) was about. The intent was clearly to get my address.”

Brittingham thinks Gallo called the chief and asked him to get someone's address from a license plate number and the chief complied. Only Gallo and Radzilowski know for sure what was said in their phone calls and obviously neither one of them has an incentive to acknowledge Brittingham's suggestion, were that the case, as it would be a violation of state law. Nonetheless, the timing of the phone calls, the dispatch recording, BPD's initial reluctance to give Brittingham public information and Radzilowski's kettle boiling over all seem to lean in that direction.

The notion of Radzilowski being Gallo's errand boy admittedly seems far fetched. When BPD investigated the Frazier sex scandal at Manatee High, they did so both aggressively and exhaustively, recommending the arrests of no less than five employees, most of whom had close ties with Gallo and his group. The chief has also shown an ability to own his mistakes and take one on the chin when it's warranted, like when the department chose not to make information about sexual assaults near Bayshore High public, as to not hinder the investigation, leading to another young female being attacked without parents having been made aware that such a criminal was at large in the area.

Still, could the chief have done a favor for a city official only for it to go sideways? Could such inquiries be commonplace when they come at the behest of a higher-up? Brittingham thinks the answer is obvious.

“You've got a city councilman calling a chief of police directly, asking him to run a tag for something not even in the city's jurisdiction,” said Brittingham. “If Councilman Gallo wanted to report suspicious activity, he of all people would have known that he wasn't in his own city and needed to call the Manatee County Sheriff's Office. Instead, he called the top guy at his city's police department and within minutes my plate had been run and he'd received a return phone call. If that's the culture over there, that's a problem.”

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I've received reports about the Friday group beginning in mid-2014 when they started meeting around the candidacy of Mary Cantrell. I didn't find it news-worthy and still don't, regardless of who attends. Private citizens can get together, they can plot to do whatever they please and as long as there aren't two members of the same board attending together and discussing matters that could come before that body, it doesn't violate the state's sunshine laws.

It is well known that there is a somewhat formidable group of ex-principals, former members of the Tim McGonegal administration, current and ex-school board members, and Manatee High School Football boosters who are working hard to oust current superintendent Rick Mills and his team. Again, so long as they aim to do it legally, that's their prerogative.

Gallo, who falls firmly in the football booster group, has very publicly inserted himself into the fight. He has called for Mills to be sacked on numerous occasions, all following the superintendent's actions in the wake of a Manatee High baseball scandal that occurred while former Manatee Football Coach Joe Kinnan was the school's athletic director and business manager.

After an investigation revealed that Kinnan had been aware that the school's baseball coach lacked the proper state certification and had known that money from the booster club was illegally being diverted to the coach's private academy, Mills recommended a 10-day suspension for the legendary coach. Kinnan appealed but ultimately retired, though he has said that he planned on returning to coach this season. The school's athletic department was sanctioned by the state for multiple violations.  

Mills received heavy criticism from the football faithful and says he was pressured by some members of the community to back off Kinnan. But the new superintendent had taken over a scandal-plagued district in which favoritism and inconsistent responses to wrongdoing had been a way of life. He and his staff had just implemented a series of reforms, including a process in which a discipline committee would review all investigations in which action was deemed warranted and make a recommendation to the superintendent. He wasn't about to ignore his own rules just because the first case involved a popular figure. He couldn't afford to if he wanted to remain credible to the thousands of employees outside of that small clique.

At that point, Gallo got more heavily involved, campaigning for Cantrell, herself a former administrator under McGonegal who'd been non-renewed by Mills, when she made a run at one of the superintendent's biggest supporters on the board, first-term member Julie Aranibar. None of this surprised Mills whose introduction to the city councilman prepared him for what was to follow. In March of 2014, when I was interviewing the superintendent for the baseball story, he told me of his very first encounter with Gallo in early 2013.

Mills, who had just been hired, had only recently arrived from Minneapolis and was invited to attend a Pirates-Twins spring training game in the city box. He said Gallo introduced himself as "Bradenton City Councilman, Vice Mayor, Manatee High alum and proud Manatee High School Football supporter." Next, the retired colonel said Gallo attempted to give him his marching orders.

“I'm gonna tell you what you're going to do,” Mills said Gallo told him. “You're going to take care of Manatee High School. You're going to take care of Bob Gagnon. You're going to take care of Manatee football, and you're going to stay away from those two ladies on your board (Aranibar and Karen Carpenter, who'd been the only two board members to oppose the McGonegal administration).

Mills said he was literally shocked into silence.

“I didn't know what to think,” Mills told me back then. “I thought, who the hell is this guy, is he serious?”

Mills found out how serious Gallo was as soon as he made the decision to treat Kinnan like any other employee.

When I asked him yesterday what he thought of this week's ordeal, the superintendent didn't seem surprised.

“I think it's very clear that Councilman Gallo has steadily tried to undermine me and my team at every turn, and it all leads back to the Joe Kinnan situation,” said Mills. “You've got these interests who were close to either Coach Kinnan or Tim McGonegal and his staff and for obvious reasons, the last thing they want is for this team to succeed. The unfortunate part is that nowhere in any of this is concern for the students in our classrooms, which is where we're going to remain focused.

“We've gone from the 47th ranked district in the state to number 37, while restoring sound fiscal footing. We were recognized by the state for being a top turnaround district. We're not going to let political rivalries take us off course. We're going to continue to turn this school district into a success story, and we're going to do it in spite of such resistance. At the end of the day, the vast majority of citizens in this county understand what we're doing here, and they want to see us continue to get this ship on course. No one person or program is bigger than this district. It can't be, not if we're going to provide our students with the best education possible, and that's my team's only agenda.”

As for Brittingham, it's clear that he isn't quite ready to forgive and forget. He wants better answers than the ones he's been given. The detective, whose firm, Brittingham, Laughlin and Associates is located in Sarasota, wouldn't say who hired him, though he did rule out Mills and his staff.

“I can tell you 100 percent, unequivocally, without question that my employer is not anyone who works for the Manatee School District or its board, and it definitely is not Mr. Mills,” said Brittingham when we spoke yesterday.

Meanwhile, the district will likely be back in the headlines next week after internal auditors present the audit committee with a long-awaited report, including specifics on irregularities related to spending from the 2009 bond issue that had FBI agents knocking at the district's door. Byron Shinn of Shinn and Associates told the board two weeks ago that the federal eyebrows were raised over issues of an “ethical nature” related to bids and the bidding process and potential “conflicts of interest.” While that's not the FBI's wheelhouse, it will be interesting to see whether the findings catch the attention of the FDLE. More on that in Sunday's column.

Dennis Maley's column appears every Thursday and Sunday in The Bradenton Times. He can be reached at dennis.maley@thebradentontimes.com. Click here to visit his column archive. Click here to go to his bio page. You can also follow Dennis on Facebook.