Officer Daniel Zavadil forged a panhandling suspect’s name

[KC]

FORT LAUDERDALE — A police officer who forged a panhandling suspect’s name on a court citation has been suspended without pay and is slated to be fired.

Officer Daniel Zavadil, a four-year veteran who is also a licensed attorney, is scheduled for termination effective Nov. 24. Zavadil admitted to investigators that he signed the suspect’s name on a notice-to-appear document. A review by the Broward State Attorney’s Office found that Zavadil’s actions did not constitute a crime. A police department internal affairs investigation, however, determined that Zavadil did violate city policy.

“You are hereby notified that you are being suspended and dismissed from City employment as a Police Officer in the Police Department,” Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Franklin C. Adderley wrote in an Oct. 27 internal memorandum issued to Zavadil. “Your suspension, without pay, for (20) twenty days is effective immediately and your dismissal from City service will be effective at the close of business on November 24, 2009.”

Adderley’s notice further states, “Your conduct not only demonstrated a lack of integrity and poor judgment, it also confirmed a flagrant disregard for Department rules and regulations and violated the basic trust placed in you as a Police Officer.”

The suspension notice was issued nearly seven months after Zavadil was placed on paid administrative leave on March 30, 2009. That’s when supervisors initially discovered the forged signature.

Zavadil could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Michael E. Dutko, said he represented Zavadil in the criminal investigation conducted by the State Attorney’s Office, but that Zavadil’s union is handling the employment case.

Union officials say they are vigorously challenging the suspension and pending termination.

“It’s an ongoing case, so we’re not commenting,” said Jack Lokiensky, president of the Fraternal Order of Police union, which represents sworn officers in the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. “It’s in the first step of the process and we are fighting it.”

The incident in question concerns Daniel Lee Roberts, who on Tuesday, March 17 was panhandling [begging for money] in the roadway at the intersection of the Southeast 17th Street Causeway and South Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale.


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