Deputy Austin Douglas took graphic photos from the scene of a Feb. 19 suicide where the victim was shot in the head and then sent the photos from his phone to his ex-girlfriend, telling her how his weekend was going. The woman then reported the photos to authorities.
Douglas is in a custody battle with the woman over their children, MyFoxTampaBay.com reported.
Douglas later told investigators that he sent the photographs because he was having a bad weekend.
Pasco Sheriff’s Office: Deputy Austin Douglas was arrested Thursday and terminated today. He is charged with a custodian providing unauthorized photograph or video or audio recording that depicts or records the killing of a person. The charge is a third-degree felony.
The charge stems from photos Douglas texted to his ex-girlfriend of a deceased male who committed suicide in February. Douglas responded to the scene while on duty, photographed the scene using his cellphone and later sent multiple photos to his then-girlfriend.
“(We’re) not proud that we have to arrest somebody from the sheriff’s office,” Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco said during a press conference Friday afternoon. “But you realize if we’re going to hold ourselves accountable, if we want our citizens to trust us, these are the actions we have to take. I go back to discipline and accountability, if we don’t have those in our agency, we’re going to crumble.
“As a leader, as the Sheriff, I am very proud of the members who have to take these investigations forward because I know it’s very tough on them. It’s very tough that they have to go through this and investigate one of their own. But at the same time they realize, this uniform, this trust that we have with our citizens is paramount.
If our citizens don’t trust us, everything we do fades away.”
Douglas, who was released from the Land O’ Lakes Detention Center this morning after posting a $5,000 bond, began his employment with the Pasco Sheriff’s Office in May 2006.
