Should Dean be investigated for shooting the keg

If they haven't already, someone who was out there that night needs to step up and file a complaint with the State Attorney's Office or FDLE. It doesn't necessarily need to be the owner of the keg, just someone who witnessed the keg being shot.

What's the complaint? Sheriff Kelly, like all cops, are trained to shoot safely. That's exactly what he did. He shot in a legal place and in a safe manner. The keg was a piece of abandoned property just like all of the other junk in the Mondex. The idea that someone was in danger is a myth; people want you to belive that there were kids quivering in the bushes right behind the keg, a flat out lie. People have shot at everything out there for years. No problem...no complaint. I think that if he finds another one out there again next Friday, he'd shoot that one too. I don't blame him...hopefully he video records this one and puts it on YouTube for parents to see for themselves that he did exactly what most fathers in this county would do if they found their kids at a keg party in the middle of the woods. Good job Sheriff!

no criminal mischief occurred. the message the kids got is if you abandon your keg in the woods it gets shot and you lose your deposit. I hop it scared them to death. A few years from now they will respect the situation they were in. Forget following the keg...shoot the dang thing!

No Complaint wrote:

What's the complaint? Sheriff Kelly, like all cops, are trained to shoot safely. That's exactly what he did. He shot in a legal place and in a safe manner. The keg was a piece of abandoned property just like all of the other junk in the Mondex. The idea that someone was in danger is a myth; people want you to belive that there were kids quivering in the bushes right behind the keg, a flat out lie. People have shot at everything out there for years. No problem...no complaint. I think that if he finds another one out there again next Friday, he'd shoot that one too. I don't blame him...hopefully he video records this one and puts it on YouTube for parents to see for themselves that he did exactly what most fathers in this county would do if they found their kids at a keg party in the middle of the woods. Good job Sheriff!

Were YOU out there? Can YOU come forward and prove that there was no one else out there to witness the first round NOT penetrate the keg, then witness an AR-15/Mini-14 (rifle) being pulled out, & witness "beer going everywhere" when IT did penetrate the keg? If so, then YOU need to come forward in defense of the good sheriff.

If it were anyone else out there acting in an official capacity as a law enforcement officer discharging a firearm without the threat of imminent danger to his life,(using deadly force) and he didn't write a report as directed in Sheriff's Office policy, he would have been investigated, terminated, and promptly arrested.

For those "old school" law enforcement officers who said: "If a report wasn't written, then it didn't happen.", then is THIS THE CASE? Well, Dean ADMITTED that it DID, in fact, HAPPEN. Yet no report was written because he used his "executive privilege" to circumvent his own policies. Is the sheriff above the restraints of his own policies, made to ensure that the agency employees in kept in line???

HOW DARE HE?

Dean, of all people, should know better. IS HE NOT a member of the National Sheriff’s Association's Ethics and Training Committee, and a Commissioner on the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation as claims in his BIO???

The Governor of Florida, the Honorable Charlie Crist, should REMOVE Dean Kelly from office, appoint SOMEONE Sheriff of Putnam County, and INSIST that Dean Kelly be investigated for possible criminal acts as he openly admitted in public forum.

While they are in town, they should also investigate Scott Simmons' involvement with a locally owned pharmacy and THAT pharmacy's contract with the jail at the Sheriff's Office.

It is high time the Sheriff's Office GET BACK to professionalism, with great leadership in place, and a more positive culture encouraged for higher morale.

This is not just political speech-making….. It’s what’s morally and ethically right, plain and simple. Pat Dean on the back all you want to…. He’s made some decisions that I, as well as a great many people, think that he should be held accountable for.

Didn't Hardy go through an investigation because he didn't follow up on or make sure there was a report for some small damage to a patrol car four years ago. Oh as a Lieutenant he couldn't use executive power, and allow the deputy to get it fixed on his own!!! Typical of the "Good Ole Boy" System. It's ok for the Sheriff to do it, but no one else can do it.



So if a deputy chases a car, the person runs on foot and abandoned the car, it is ok to flatten the tires so that we can send a message to the bad guy. As much as we would like to issue our own form of punishment to these people, deputies are held to a higher standard and are suppose to set the example for the civilians they protect. If a father had gone out and shot the keg, a deputy who have responded, wrote a report, probably filed criminal charges against the person (even if they believed that the father did the right thing.) and sent the case to the State Attorney’s Office for review.



NO it’s not ok, that is an integrity issue. Deputies are not the JUDGE, JURY and EXECUTIONER. They are the mechanism that brings the alleged offenders to the court to answer for their indiscretion.



The Sheriff should have taken the keg into evidence and initiated a report for found property.(I know that is what other officers have done in the past. I am not aware of any shooting the keg and leaving it. Just ask the evidence section at the Sheriff’s Office if they have had any turned in before) He could have gone to the paper and reported what he found, which would also have put parents on notice that there was a large underage drinking party going on. If there were that many kids scattering from the area, he could have had additional officers stop some of the influx of vehicles in the area and done an investigation. But no, he did the next best thing, showed how big and bad he was, and damaged someone else’s property. Shoot, the Sheriff's Office gives vehicles back to innocent owners who didn't know that their vehicle was being used by a drug addict, rather than seizing it. But this was just a beer keg.



Now everyone errors in their judgment on occasion, and I am sure that all the kids in the area were gone before the shots were fired. So this incident could be forgiven, if the Sheriff acknowledged that he had a lapse in judgment. But NO, the narcissistic leader that he is caused him to justify his illegal and unethical actions, and say he would do it again. The real loser here is the Law Enforcement Profession. Once again a bad apple has made the apple basket look sour.

If you read my prior posts, you know I am not a Kelly fan. However, I think the idea that he should be investigated and fired over this incident is a bit much.
Should he be investigated and reprimanded? Certainly, but in terms of being fired and all that other madness, probably not. If you're looking for things to fire the guy over, pick something more significant, like oh say, driving the Sheriff's Office into the ground, or some of the other things that have been mentioned around here. If a deputy did that, do I think he/she would have been fired? No, they would have been written up, and had a letter put in their file, unless someone was in grave danger, or someone got hurt.
Kelly's big mistake was his inability to admit that he was WRONG, and should have done something different. I think by now he's realized that he's paying for that mistake, by looking like a complete idiot in front of a bunch of people. That serves him right. If no more discipline is ever taken against him, fine, because he showed everyone in the entire forum that the words, "I'm sorry," and "I was wrong" are not in his vocabulary.

You're missing the point. He IS the Sheriff. If he makes on the spot policy and says its ok to shoot a keg, even if for one time, one location, and one instance, then it is ok. No one can alter that policy (or executive) decision.
The only ones who can take action are a senior law enforcement agency (not gonna happen) or the voters. Let's let the voters decide. I think the citizens of this county are ok with a hole in a keg or two if its to protect kids lives.

That's the craziest thing I've ever heard. The guy was wrong, and he knows it, and so do you. If he wasn't wrong, neither you nor anyone else would be making excuses for him. <br>
Can you show me how this could possibly have saved even one kids life? Give me a break. "Saving kids lives" is silly hyperbole designed to add unnecessary emotion to this situation, while deflecting attention from the real issue. <br>
If you want, you can look up "Criminal Mischief" in the statute and you'll see that what he did falls SQUARELY in the statute for Crim. Misch. If you like, I can quote it for you, but basically it says that if you willfully damage the property of someone else, you've committed Criminal Mischief. <br>
That's all beside the point however, about that you're correct. What is the point is the Sheriff pretty much said, "I can break the law, and because I'm the Sheriff, I can make that policy change, even if it is against the law." <br>
The other issue is, let one of his deputies do that same thing, and you'll see that the law applies to them, but not to him. THAT'S THE POINT. So we're not missing it.

he was oversaid that he has never apologized for being an aggressive Sheriff and he said he isn't backing down little bit on this Keg Deal.
He must be right because he doesn't seem safrsid of yhr lsw or the voters. The voters will be kind. They see it for what it is.

oops overheard

What does being an aggressive Sheriff have to do with this issue? I hope he doesn't back down on the Keg issue. Every time he re-iterates that he's allowed to do whatever he wants, people see him for what he is.
So far you haven't presented one rational argument for him doing that, and not being punished at all. Nor have you presented any rational arguments for his ability to break the law at will.
My guess is that you're right, the voters will see it for what it is. We will know exactly what they think shortly.

I see Buford Pusser made the paper again today7/22/08. Maybe the States Attorney can find out about the incident after the Beer keg shooting. It only gets better.

Need to watch channel 4 @ 6:00 ,GOOD STUFF

If only the citizens of Putnam County knew what really goes on in that Sheriff's Office, they would be quite shocked and amazed! It's about time Sheriff Kelly gets investigated for a wrongdoing that he cannot get out of. The law is the law and it should be for all (sheriff or not. Yes, the good old boy system is still in place within that agency and it's about time justice comes around! Hooray for Jeff Hardy, and I for one, hope he wins the upcoming election!!!

Yes!! He is no better than any one in his jail!

http://www.news4jax.com/news/16959470/detail....
try this link

You mean, those guys actually hit what they were aiming at? Or was the keg hit by accident?
Good job D. K., your deputies marksmenship amazes me.

This one goes out to all you clueless ignorant Palatkans! For Christ sakes, this incident happened at the Island Pond in the Mondex. It is unofficially as always been an area for shooting guns. The area is countless times larger than a football field and depending on season is either dead dry land or pondish terrain.

I am a 21 year old male and can tell you when I used to go to parties out there the age ranged from high school to early twenty individuals. Florida does not have a keg-tagging law making it possible to track them. Obviously no one of age in their right mind is going to fess up to buying the keg due to a surely arrest following suit. Therefore the police usually haul the keg off and disband the party.

In this case they left the keg their disabling it by a bullet hole making the keg useless. In addition to this if the buyer of this keg tries to turn it in for a deposit by repairing or hiding the hole then the police now have a suspect of interest.

Regardless of how you feel, I can tell you that since the incident no longer do large party's take place in the Mondex as the notion that police will arrive shortly after, is burned into all of Palatka's youths minds.

In fact in general, large parties which feature a significant age difference in Palatka have dropped to rare & few. This is due mainly because of the efficent responce of the Sherrif Office. Now parties of this magnitude must take place in distant private hunting property. For people of age the HighleveL and bars of such more than suffice.

For all of you who are amazed, outraged, or downright appalled by the keg shooting;........ get out of your politically correct bubble and realize this is a real world where anything put into context can be deemed immoral and unjust. In my eyes the keg shooting made the Sherrif office look intimidating & impossible to invade. We would either conform to fighting the power with more parties or disband to another location.

You miss the point, maybe Sheriff Kelly did send a strong message to underage drinkers. However, refusing to document what he did, which is using deadly force, and destroying private property, tampering with evidence, all dismissed by his own words "excutive privelege". The Sheriff is not above the laws he is entrusted to enforce, no matter what the excuse.