David Cook, a former Lakeland Police officer, is running in the runoff election May 3.
Despite being a decorated former Lakeland Police Department officer, current Plant City Commission candidate David Cook had a record of “untruthfulness,” “unlawful conduct” and “conduct unbecoming” during his police career, according to investigations done by the Lakeland Police Department.
Cook medically retired as an officer with LPD amid those charges, which were later sustained by LPD in 2015. He had been found of being untruthful during interactions with the City of Lakeland Risk Management Department and during a deposition regarding a workers’ compensation claim.
The charges are related to a January 2008 incident, where Cook, at that time an officer with LPD, was involved in a “lethal force” incident. After a suspect in a van drove toward him, Cook fired his gun on the suspect and bit his his tongue while the suspect passed him, according to the LPD’s official accident report. The only photo related to an injury included in the official report is of the injury to Cook’s tongue.
According to an interview Detective Nona Dyess conducted with Cook after the incident, Cook said he had a “cut tongue” when asked about his injuries.
When asked if he had any other follow-up medical treatment, Cook said he was going to be checked on in a couple of days.
“If I start, you know, feeling any other soreness or something, where you know I might’ve got spun around or whatever,” Cook said.
Following the injuries, Cook filed a workers’ compensation claim.
During the course of the claim, his accounts of what happened during the accident in January 2008 changed. Cook’s story starts to vary in a court hearing for the accident on March 14, 2008. During questioning, Cook said, once the vehicle he fired at passed him, “my radio was disengaged, my mouth was busted, my shoulder’s busted,” as recorded in an LPD investigation report.
Cook also said during the hearing the van hit him. Previously, he had said the van passed him.
“I don’t remember which part hit me,” Cook said in a statement during the hearing. “Most likely it was the rearview mirror, or whatever, but that’s when I got my tongue and mouth busted and my shoulder.”
When asked if part of the van struck him, Cook then changed his story again and said, “I don’t remember that. Everything was pretty fluid at the time.”
Cook’s story again differed when he had a deposition with a workers’ compensation attorney, Barbi Feldman, on May 23, 2014.
During his deposition, Cook said, “I don’t remember the actual impact … I don’t know if the gun … or the mirror hit my mouth, but something hit me in the mouth.”
Cook additionally said during the deposition, “It was amazing to me that I was still breathing and I, you know, got out of there alive … I ended up on the ground … my shoulder mic, was I believe, was messed up, the front of my uniform was messed up.”
The accounts differ from the official accident report with the Lakeland Police Department, which stated Cook only had injuries to his tongue.
The LPD’s Internal Affairs Unit Case Summary of the 2008 incident reported Cook “took evasive action and moved out of the path of the van as he fired his weapon,” meaning that he was not hit by the van. The unit case summary also reported, “Officer Cook had been transported to (Lakeland Regional Medical Center) for a minor injury to his tongue during the incident.”
Furthermore, witnesses, including LPD officers, reported seeing the van pass Cook without hitting him.
The LPD investigation states, “Cook’s workers’ compensation deposition testimony … and interrogatory questions answered by Officer Cook revealed a myriad of statement variances.”
Feldman, the attorney who interviewed Cook regarding his worker’s compensation, filed a complaint that included multiple alleged untruthful statements by Cook.
At the completion of the internal affairs investigation, LPD sustained allegations of untruthfulness, unlawful conduct and conduct unbecoming.
Prior to the conclusion of the investigation, Cook medically retired from LPD. According to the investigative report from LPD, Cook was “offered the opportunity to be interviewed without guaranteed protections afforded by the Police Officer Bill of Rights and Garrity Warning. Officer Cook notified Attorney David Dee and declined to interview.”
When Cook was contacted by the Plant City Times & Observer on Tuesday, April 26, he said he was not offered an interview by the LPD regarding the investigation, despite the LPD’s report that said otherwise.
“That (internal assessment) was not completed the way it was agreed to be done,” Cook said.
In that same document, termination was recommended as the suggested course of action. Termination was not fulfilled since Cook had already medically retired from LPD.
LPD’s Office of Professional Standards sent Cook a notice on Sept. 21, 2015, stating that the charges related to untruthfulness, unlawful conduct and conduct unbecoming had all been sustained. The letter to Cook was signed by Sgt. LeRon Strong.
“All violations were sustained based on your failure to provide a statement to correct or dispute the many inconsistencies found in the course of your investigation,” Strong wrote.
Cook said, although the allegations were sustained, the case wasn’t truly finished.
“I’ve maintained a faith-based, no gutter-slinging campaign,” Cook said. “I do possess the information that shows that (the internal assessment) was not factual.”
Cook declined to present the information to the Plant City Times & Observer when he was contacted April 26.
“I should not have to be clearing anything up,” Cook said. “I retired because I had a hip replacement, and I wasn’t able to work the streets. That (case) is not finished out. The facts are in error, that is something that is 100% untruthful.”
Contact Emily Topper at etopper@plantcityobserver.com.
