Video draws ire of Sarasota city manager

SARASOTA - Several Sarasota police officers, the police chief and a city employee may face disciplinary actions in the wake of an investigation that the city manager said he was troubled by.

"I'm not happy with some of the activities over the last several weeks. We've made some major mistakes and we're going to correct those mistakes," said Robert Bartolotta, Sarasota city manager.

Back on June 26th, Officer Christopher Childers arrested Juan Perez for disorderly intoxication.

When they got to jail, Perez, who was handcuffed, is seen on surveillance video, escaping out of the window of the cruiser.

Officer Childers is then seen kicking Perez twice and holding him down with his foot.

Bartolotta said his first concern is that none of what is seen in the video is documented in Childers' report.

"I'm concerned that those police written reports match what occurred. They should match. If they don't than there's a matter of concern, why don't they," Bartolotta said.

As for the investigation after, a shift commander saw the video, but Bartolotta says he didn't bring it to the chief's attention for days. Bartolotta said the commander should not have waited.

Sarasota Police Chief Peter Abbott is also accused of directing the city's risk management manager to try to settle with the victim, with cash.

Bartolotta said Abbott should have never made that request for him to fix it.

"The chief specifically called Mr. Hobbs on Saturday morning. Mr. Hobbs came up with the amount of what to offer," Bartolotta said.

Perez was offered $400. He signed a waiver that he wouldn't sue the city. An internal affairs officer, who was also investigating the case, drove Perez to the bank to cash the check.

Chief Abbott said he only did that to be helpful and act as an interpreter.

But now Abbott said it was a bad decision and took full responsibility.

"It was a moronic decision. I'm just going to say that. I made a decision that I shouldn't have made. And out of all the things that came out of it, all these others things morphed out of it. It's on me," Abbott said.

When asked why it was done on a Saturday in what appeared to be a rush, city manager Robert Bartolotta said he can only speculate.

"I suspect it was because it was before the video was released. That's my suspicion," he said.

Chief Abbott apologized for his actions. An outside agency will now investigate the police department and this case specifically. It will cost taxpayers about $75,000.