A sheriff’s deputy in Florida has been suspended after showing up drunk for a Mothers Against Drunk Driving banquet.
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Officer Michael Szeliga was set to be presented with an honour from the non-profit at their Fort Lauderdale conference in July.
MADD was to give Szeliga an award for making more than 100 DUI arrests, but when he arrived for Friday night banquet, he was in no shape to mount the podium in front of 200 invited guests. Really?'” Yes. Really. According to Raw Story ” s account, it “is assumed” that the officer drove himself to the conference, though Szeliga denies this and claims he just had “one or two drinks” before attempting to accept the award.
Szeliga responded to Vincent’s warning with “disrespectful” comments, according to the documents, and Vincent subsequently informed the deputy’s supervisors that Szeliga was “wasted”. He decided the training was no longer “relevant” to him since he was transferring out of the DUI unit into a detective position.
Adds WFLA: “Szeliga signed in and attended a morning session of the DUI enforcement training but left with two other deputies following the first break”. The three officers were technically on duty when they skipped the training and headed to the pool.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told the news station that Szeliga is a good employee who made a mistake. Szeliga drank and played cornhole until he saw his fellow deputies leaving training.
As evening approached, the report continued, a sergeant who runs the DUI squad in neighboring Pasco County reported seeing Szeliga in the hotel hallway, drunk and wearing “nothing but boxer shorts”.
“I addressed you in a disrespectful manner”, he wrote. After Vincent found Szeliga’s superiors and told them their officer was “wasted”, they sent the inebriated officer back to his room.
The bulging 274-page report detailed how a local police chief, Robert Vincent, encountered Szeliga outside the banquet and suggested it wasn’t appropriate for him to attend due to his intoxication.
Most surprisingly of all, perhaps, is that since the incident occurred last month, Szeliga has been promoted to detective in the sheriff’s office’s crimes against children unit, according to WFLA. “And I displayed a lack of professionalism…..Please accept this letter as my formal apology for my actions”.
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At the time, Gualtieri said he didn’t want to “heap any more embarrassment” on Szeliga because “he’s already taken his licks”.
