A Gainesville Police officer was fired after he had sex with a young woman and illegally gave her alcohol about 44 days after he arrested the woman for shoplifting at a Target.
Chief Tony Jones signed the officer’s termination form on Oct. 22 after an internal investigation uncovered that Robert V. Gebhardt visited the 19-year-old woman while she was in jail after he arrested her on March 23, 2013. The woman told officers that Gebhardt was flirtatious while driving her to jail.
The report said after the arrest, Gebhardt also went to a known drug house to look for the woman, whom he knew to have a narcotics problem. Further investigations concluded that Gebhardt also went on a date with the young woman, paid her $50 for sex and gave her alcoholic beverages.
The report says Gebhardt was well aware that the woman was involved in criminal activity. He also knew that the woman was on probation in Marion County and has a history of drug problems and a criminal background.
When Gebhardt visited the woman at the Alachua County Jail 15 days after her arrest, he gave her his phone number and business card, according to a report. During the one-hour visit, he told the woman to call him when she was released so he could take her out.
Forty-four days after Gebhardt arrested the woman, he picked her up from her uncle’s house and took her out to dinner at Ichiban Sushi. The two then went back to his apartment, where a report said they stayed until the early morning to have sex and drink Coke and whiskey. At some point, the woman went into the bathroom to smoke crack and then asked Gebhardt to take her home. Gebhardt offered her $50 to stay.
During a criminal interview following the incident with the 19-year-old, Gebhardt denied everything.
On Nov. 4, 2011 Gebhardt was disciplined for personally visiting other inmates and “associating with known offenders and persons of questionable reputation.”
Other Gainesville Police officers have engaged in improper sexual activity in the past and have been fired for it, GPD spokesman Ben Tobias said.
In 2010, David Reveille was arrested and sent to prison for two years after he forced prostitutes to have sex with him while he was on duty.
In 2009, Bill Billings was arrested on charges of scheme to defraud and misconduct for paying a woman to have sex with him while on duty.
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 12/2/2014]
