Officer fired, Chief suspended over kicking incident

Sarasota, Flordia -- One officer has been fired, the Police Chief gets a two week suspension without pay and other officers are in trouble over an incident in Sarasota where a handcuffed suspect on the ground was kicked by an officer. Then the city of Sarasota tried to pay the man off so he wouldn't sue.

Sarasota City Manager, Robert Bartolotta says although the allegations are serious, he wants to be sure the entire community does not rush to judgment on the entire Sarasota Police Department.

But Bartolotta's judgment of Officer Christopher Childers -- who kicked the suspect -- was to fire him. Sarasota Police Chief Peter Abbott has been suspended for two weeks without pay. Officer Demitri Konstanopoulos got a 1-day suspension while Officer Ken Castro and Risk Manager Larry Hobbs received a letter of reprimand.

Bartolotta says they were wrong and they are paying the consequences. However the police union (PBA) says despite the 3,000 page report done by the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office which investigated the matter, they believe the city manager got it wrong. In addition, the Union lashes out at Bartolotta and the way he handled the entire incident.

Sarasota PBA President Mick McHale says he doesn't believe it is within the scope of the law for Bartolotta to be involved in the internal affairs investigation. McHale says Bartolotta is not a sworn police office and can't get involved.

McHale says the Union will fight Childers' dismissal and he says the matter should have been handled by the Sarasota Internal Affairs division, but Bartolotta wouldn't allow that.

McHale says the city manager and the city manager alone wanted an outside agency because of public concern. According to McHale, Bartolotta is the only one causing the public concern.

But Bartolotta says he is only doing what he thinks is right for the city.