Three Gainesville Police officers were suspended within the past week after internal investigations revealed the officers were profiling, sending crude texts and posting anti-Semitic comments on social media.
Officer Nicholas Domico, Sgt. Billy Senn and Officer Michael Hamill have been suspended after a GPD investigation revealed their misconduct. While Hamill was suspended with pay, according to an internal affairs investigation report, Domico and Senn were suspended for 40 hours without pay, which is usually a work week.
Hamill was suspended Friday for making anti-Semitic remarks in Facebook posts from 2011 and 2013, which were discovered after a viral selfie he took with two other officers after Hurricane Irma made him famous as a “hot cop.”
An internal investigation, which was completed in August, disclosed that Domico told a clerk at a military supply store to call him anytime “a Muslim person” asked to look at firearms, so that he could check the individual in the computer system, according to the report.
Domico also told the clerk not to “worry” about telling him if an African-American came to look at firearms because the African-American customer “would complain,” according to the report.
A store employee told police the incident happened either just after President Donald Trump’s election or after his inauguration.
The employee told investigators that about a year earlier, Domico was in the store when a Muslim male entered with the intent to purchase police regalia. Domico asked to speak to the man outside and later told the employee that he spoke with him outside because he was Muslim, according to the report.
Domico told investigators he remembered this incident because “the conversation didn’t go well.” He told investigators that he did not use the term “Muslim” because it isn’t a race, and instead, he used the term “Middle Eastern descent,” according to the report.
Domico also told investigators that as a military veteran, who served in the Middle East, he was trained on awareness of terrorist activities and indicators of suspicious activity that can lead to terrorist behavior, according to the report.
Domico’s manners and methods gave people the impression that he was signaling out individuals based on their religious preference and race, which violated GPD policy, according to the report.
“Officer Domico’s actions demonstrated poor decision making,” the report said.
Senn was suspended after an investigation revealed he was harassing a Gainesville Fire Rescue driver and operator who was dating Senn’s ex-girlfriend, sending sexually crude text messages and publishing an inappropriate Facebook post, according to the report.
The GFR employee filed a complaint against Senn, claiming he posted on his Facebook page using vulgar language about his ex-girlfriend, who is also a GPD officer. According to the report, the post had a picture of Leonardo DiCaprio toasting with a champagne glass and a caption that said, “You can’t steal someone’s girlfriend. You can only steal someone’s whore.”
The GFR worker also told investigators that Senn showed up at his workplace one day. When asked by investigators why he went there, Senn said he wanted to speak with him about possible health issues, according to the report.
Senn’s ex-girlfriend told officers she received about 40 to 50 texts a day from Senn, and she provided investigators with screenshots of vulgar text messages Senn sent to her and other officers, according to the report.
In an interview with investigators, Senn said his Facebook profile is not connected to GPD, and that he made it as a private citizen, not as a sergeant of the GPD. He also said he thought using his personal phone to send personal texts while on duty was allowed, according to the report.
“Sgt. Senn is correct that he can engage in incidental errands while on duty. However, those errands are not permitted if they constitute a violation of city policy pertaining to conduct,” the report said.
Investigators said Senn violated a city policy prohibiting immoral, unlawful or improper conduct while on or off the job that would tend to affect the employee’s work and relationship with co-workers and the community.
“The Gainesville Police Department prides itself with our philosophy and mission of compassion, inclusion, and respect and will fully review the matter,” GPD wrote on its website’s front page.
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