HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — George Floyd's death in 2020 ushered in a new era of calls for law enforcement transparency, equity, and accountability. Nearly four years later, that spotlight remains as the public questions the actions of police sworn to protect and serve.
As agencies work to maintain or rebuild trust, concerns from the community about a deputy within the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office first came to the I-Team more than a year ago, involving a use of force incident.
In Focus:
- Protecting law enforcement
- Social media post
- Use of force
- Improper use of official position
- Local and state response
This year, the I-Team received a new tip about concerns surrounding a deputy's Facebook post and what a community activist described as its racial undertones. Both involved the same deputy — Sean Bush.
The I-Team requested Bush's personnel file and, after digging further, found another internal affairs investigation involving "improper use" of his official position.
This deputy's story is an example of what experts say is a divide between public perception and law enforcement policies.
Protecting law enforcement
In April, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law that will go into effect in July, stripping city and county review boards of their ability to investigate officer misconduct.
At the bill signing in St. Augustine, DeSantis said, “We’ve got some strange currents going on in our society right now that really seek to delegitimize law enforcement and what they’re doing.”
DeSantis said the board, often composed of concerned community members, has turned into political weapons.
“They’ll stack it with activists, and they’ll just start reviewing things and trying to put people under the gun, even if there’s no basis,” DeSantis said.
Democratic State Rep. Christopher Benjamin of Miami Gardens had debated the bill.
“We don’t believe the police properly police the police,” he said.
Social media post
Those recent events — Bush’s Facebook post showing a black man, supposedly one of the Kansas City Chiefs parade shooters, handcuffed, with the caption “MSM rats, persecute him just like you did Kyle Rittenhouse”.
“Enough is enough. Now you’re putting racial undertone posts on your social media page,” Williams told the I-Team.
HSCO’s Chief Communications Officer Amanda Granit told the I-Team the social media post prompted an internal review that found no violation of policy.
Hillsborough County Sheriff Social Media Policy by ABC Action News on Scribd
Use of force
After reviewing nearly 500 pages making up Bush’s file, the I-Team found more than a dozen commendations and awards and five internal affairs investigations. Three of those were for traffic crashes said to be “avoidable”.
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“I’ve been following this deputy’s history for quite a bit,” Williams said. “There was an incident where his body cam was on, and he was being recorded very aggressively handling a transgender female.”
That use of force incident happened in November 2020, when Bush responded to a domestic violence call involving Jenny DeLeon.
At the beginning of the body camera video, DeLeon is seen in front of a house, saying, “This is my house.” Bush tells her, “Six feet, okay?”
Seconds later, DeLeon told Bush, “You’re so awesome; thank you for your service,” and fist-bumped the deputy.
What happened next, Bush later told Internal Affairs, is DeLeon grabbed his wrist, pulled it off the car, and he lost his balance.
In the video, DeLeon told Bush, “Hold up, you can’t touch my car.”
Bush said, “Don’t touch me.”
We want to warn you this body camera video contains footage that may be disturbing
Attorney Katherine Viker obtained the body camera video when she was working on a separate case, defending a Hillsborough deputy accused of excessive force.
“We had to go to court twice,” Viker told the I-Team, “and fight tooth and nail to get an unredacted version of the truth. Of what actually happened. Because what is in his IA report and what that video shows do not match up.”
As part of the administrative investigation, a detective asked Bush if there was any reason why he didn’t mention any of his “hand movements” in his report.
Bush said, “It wasn’t intentional” and that he “wasn’t intending on putting my hands around” DeLeon’s neck.
Bush said, “…that’s just where my hands landed as we landed on the ground.”
But the body camera video showed Bush’s hands on DeLeon’s neck a second time.
In the video, Bush said, “Stay on the ground. Don’t resist.”
DeLeon said, “I’m not resisting, I’m not resisting.”
Bush then said, “Taser, taser,” before using his taser.
The disciplinary action included a letter of reprimand, stating, “This action of grabbing around the throat was brief and unintentional, however, was admittedly not part of any training Deputy Bush has received as a member of the Sheriff’s Office.”
Bush also received four hours of use of force remedial training.
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Dr. David Thomas, a retired police officer and professor at Florida Gulf Coast University, told the I-Team, in this case, the sheriff’s office did the right thing.
“They evaluated, they asked the question, were you trained this way? Absolutely not, and so in order to make sure that doesn’t happen again, and to make him even more accountable, they brought him back to the gym and they re-trained him, brought him back to the mats to retrain him. Now, is that a standard? Yes, that is a standard, that’s what should have happened.”
Thomas is a recognized expert in the use of force and police practices in state and federal courts.
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Improper use of official position
Less than a week after the use of force incident, there was an incident that launched another internal affairs investigation when Bush showed up at a Hillsborough County Walmart while off duty.
One of Bush’s neighbors was detained for suspected shoplifting of a nearly $400 vacuum and called Bush for help.
In the body camera video, a deputy who was on duty and responded to the call told Bush, “I didn’t know why you were here.”
"Yeah I’m a neighbor, I was seeing if you guys could just do trespass,” Bush told the deputy. “Just out of good faith.”
A Walmart employee told Bush, “No. We’re going to prosecute at that value."
The deputy later asked Bush if he was a deputy. Bush said, “Yeah,” and showed his badge.
Bush told the responding deputy, “He’s a good family friend.”
That deputy told Bush his neighbor was on probation.
Reviewing public records, the I-Team found Bush’s neighbor was on probation for aggravated assault in Texas. In the shoplifting case, the neighbor satisfied his judgment, but that judgment and sentence were sealed by the court.
Documents from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office show Bush was asked why he injected himself into the investigation.
“I don’t have an excuse,” Bush said. “I don’t. I mean, my gut instinct was to try to help him out as far as making sure he got a fair shake.”
The internal affairs investigator asked Bush, “How do you think this would be viewed by the public?”
“Oh, it depends," Bush said. "Depends who in the public. I think it depends. I think some people understand that we’re human. In the jobs we do, we make human errors.”
The allegations against Bush for conflict of interest, personal involvement in cases or disputes, misuse of communications facilities, improper use of official position, and misuse of communications facilities were sustained.
HCSO suspended Bush for 10 days.
“There is an inherent responsibility to the public and to the organization, and I think when you start to abuse your power, it’s horrible for everybody,” Thomas said of the incident.
Under HCSO's policy, a deputy may be fired if he or she has three violations of the rules and regulations from three separate investigations within one year. In Bush's case, there were only two.
Local and state response
Despite multiple requests, HCSO would not agree to an interview because “…there is still an outstanding review by CJSTC.”
CJSTC is the state’s Criminal Justice Standards & Training Commission, under the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE). The commission's mission is, "To ensure that all citizens of Florida are served by criminal justice officers who are ethical, qualified, and well-trained."
An FDLE spokesperson told the I-Team that Bush had requested formal hearings for the two administrative complaints, the use-of-force incident and the Walmart incident. A formal hearing is the fourth step in the state's disciplinary process.
FLDE said a date has not been set for the hearing(s), and they do not have an ETA for that hearing(s).
The I-Team tried contacting Bush directly, through a phone number found in public record, but did not hear back.