FDLE chief's son, two other prison workers demoted, one suspended

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Thursday, March 09, 2006
By BILL KACZOR
Associated Press Writer

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. The son of Florida's top state law enforcement officer and two other prison employees will be demoted and a fourth suspended for their roles in a brawl while in Jacksonville for a softball tournament, Corrections Secretary James McDonough said Wednesday.

Last week, McDonough fired five other state prison employees because of a second fight in Tallahassee during a softball banquet.

McDonough announced that he would demote Bradley Tunnell, son of Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Guy Tunnell, from correctional services consultant to correctional sentence specialist, for conduct unbecoming a public employee during the Jacksonville fight on May 14, 2005.

"Let this be a reassurance to all department employees - we will not brutalize each other, nor will we dishonor our service with disorderly behavior," McDonough said in a statement.

In the consulting job, the younger Tunnell assisted a regional assistant warden with security and operational matters. His new job will be to calculate inmate release dates.

His lawyer, Harry Harper, said he couldn't comment because he had not yet seen documents related to the demotion including an investigative report.

Also slated for demotion are Sgt. Donnie Mayo of Washington Correctional Institution and Lt. James Barton of Charlotte Correctional Institution, both to correctional officer. Correctional Officer Ernest Tharpe of Liberty Correctional Institution will be suspended for 30 days without pay.

All four also will be transferred, and McDonough said in a statement that he would review the matter and consider whether further action is warranted. No telephone listings for Barton and Tharpe could be found and no one answered Mayo's home telephone.

The report indicates the fight broke out in a parking lot of a hotel where the employees were staying for a departmental softball tournament. Investigators were unable to determine who threw the first punch. Employees gave conflicting statements.

Barton and Tharpe were in a car looking for a place to park when they exchanged words with Tunnell before the altercation with Tunnell and Mayo, according to the report. Barton suffered a broken jaw and lost about 270 hours away from work. He declined to press criminal charges.

The report notes that Tunnell was offered a chance to take a polygraph test but declined through Harper.

Tunnell also had been investigated in connection with the Tallahassee altercation, but he was cleared of unbecoming conduct in that case.

Gov. Jeb Bush appointed McDonough last month after asking for and receiving the resignation of former Corrections Secretary James Crosby.