Sheriff’s Office clerk resigns after grand theft arrest

Bradenton Hearld, bradenton.com
BYLINE: LAURA C. MOREL —
Link to Article

Manatee County, FL

MANATEE - A Manatee County Sheriff’s Office property clerk resigned late last month after he was arrested for taking money from a bag at the jail, according to a professional standards investigation.

On Aug. 19, Gammahl Pierre-Louis was arrested on drug charges. Detectives found money on Pierre-Louis. They counted, organized and stacked the cash and placed it into an envelope inside a bag, documents show. The total amount: $1,902.

Clerk Frederick Roberson was working when detectives entered the jail with Pierre-Louis and his property.

Video surveillance captured a deputy placing the bag on the window ledge of the property unit.

Roberson then removes the bag from the ledge and takes it inside the property unit where he is working alone, documents show.

Moments later, he places the bag back on the window ledge.

When deputies counted the money again, $300 were missing.

When Roberson was informed about the missing cash, he placed the crumpled bills on the window ledge, documents show, and told the deputies the money was inside Pierre-Louis’s shoe.

But according to his arrest report, Pierre-Louis’s clothes were placed in a separate bag as deputies placed the other bag containing the money on the window ledge.

Roberson, of Ruskin, told a professional standards investigator “several different explanations on the whereabouts of the missing money,” his arrest report says.

The investigation began Jan. 27.

On Jan. 30, Roberson was placed on administrative leave with pay “pending the result of this case,” documents show.

On Feb. 3, Roberson, 37, was arrested and booked into the Sarasota County jail on a warrant. He was charged with grand theft, Manatee court records show, and posted $10,000 bond seven days later.

On Feb. 22, Roberson resigned. He worked at the sheriff’s office since 1996, said spokesman Dave Bristow.

Investigators found Roberson guilty of conduct unbecoming of an employee. He could have faced between five days of suspension and termination, documents show.

He resigned before the sheriff’s office could decide on any disciplinary action, Bristow said.

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