DeLand, FL - A DeLand police officer gets pink-slipped following a lawsuit which accused him of injuring a man and falsely detaining him over a year ago.
Johan "Joey" Mulero - a five-year veteran of the DeLand Police Department and a K-9 handler - was terminated this morning (December 3rd), according to an emailed statement from city officials on behalf of DeLand PD Chief Jason Umberger.
"Police officers are called upon to serve our residents and we often encounter challenging scenarios," Umberger noted. "In the majority of incidents, our officers display remarkable restraint, patience and valor as they respond to calls for service. However, there are times when our actions do not come anywhere near achieving the standards of excellence that we have set for our officers at the DeLand Police Department. Unfortunately, this is one of those times."
DeLand PD also released body camera footage today (posted below) of that September 2017 incident near the corner of Orange and New York avenues, a video which Umberger claims wasn't available until recently because of technical issues with the city's body camera system.
WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE
"In the fall of 2017, the Police Department had body-worn camera technology that did not function properly and, as a result, we were unaware that a full video existed of the incident," Umberger added. "We have since changed companies and the way we manage body worn camera video and its storage."
Mulero had been on administrative leave with pay since late July after Umberger saw the video and ordered a full internal investigation, with a copy of that video sent soon afterward to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the office of Florida 7th Judicial Circuit State Attorney RJ Larizza for a review of any possible criminal charges.
"FDLE and the Office of the State Attorney reviewed the video and police reports and determined that no further criminal investigation was warranted, nor were any criminal charges warranted against Officer Mulero," Umberger stated. "They referred the matter back to the DeLand Police Department for an administrative internal investigation stating in their report to our Police Department that the conduct was 'troubling and inappropriate'."
That investigation - a memo of which you can read in full here - found Mulero was in violation of five separate department policies, including that he had no legal basis to arrest Allan Kidd and used excessive force against Kidd during the incident.
"As a result of the sustained findings of misconduct on the part of Officer Johan Mulero, I recommended to the City Manager that Officer Mulero be terminated from employment as a police officer," Umberger stated. "The City Manager has upheld this recommendation."
Mulero initially joined DeLand PD in February 2013.
