{"id":119606,"date":"2026-01-15T19:57:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T19:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/119606\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T19:57:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T19:57:24","slug":"case-against-tampa-hard-rock-explosives-suspect-ends-as-cops-results-in-plea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/119606\/","title":{"rendered":"Case against Tampa Hard Rock explosives suspect ends as cop\u2019s results in plea"},"content":{"rendered":"

A St. Petersburg police officer who shared confidential information with a man accused of leaving homemade explosives in Tampa\u2019s Hard Rock Casino in 2024 could have his charges dropped in a year if he completes a court program.<\/p>\n

Brandon Klaiber, 41, was entered into a pretrial intervention program in court on Wednesday, an option available to select first-time offenders who are charged with non-violent felonies, according to Assistant State Attorney Kendall Davidson.<\/p>\n

Davidson said the state is satisfied with the outcome and that Klaiber was cooperative with the investigation.<\/p>\n

Klaiber was arrested<\/a> in April on two counts of offenses against intellectual property, and he was suspended from the St. Petersburg Police Department without pay. A department spokesperson said Klaiber is still suspended without pay until his criminal proceeding concludes and the department can begin an internal investigation.<\/p>\n

The investigation began after the Florida Department of Law Enforcement notified the police department of \u201cpotential criminal violations\u201d involving Klaiber for \u201csharing protected information from law enforcement databases with one of their suspects,\u201d according to a release from the department.<\/p>\n

The suspect, Bryan Eckley, was arrested<\/a> Oct. 30, 2024, on charges of making and placing destructive devices with the intent to harm.<\/p>\n

Eckley left the devices in two men\u2019s restrooms at the casino at 5223 Orient Road late on Sept. 29 and in the early hours of Sept. 30 of that year, officials said.<\/p>\n

An arrest warrant filed in Hillsborough County said the device consisted of a \u201cfireworks receiver with blue wires connecting the receiver to a black plastic firework hand grenade and a small aerial mortar.\u201d The warrant noted that one device was found near a gas line, and both devices were placed in a manner that \u201chad they detonated, it posed a risk of serious bodily injury to anyone in the vicinity.\u201d<\/p>\n

A casino employee found the first device, prompting officials to evacuate the casino, then investigators found the second device. The Hillsborough County Sheriff\u2019s Office bomb squad responded and rendered both devices safe.<\/p>\n

Investigators were not able to establish what may have motivated Eckley to plant the devices prior to his death, according to court documents.<\/p>\n

His attorney, Anthony Rickman, told the Tampa Bay Times that Eckley has died, but he did not know the circumstances of his death. The state filed a notice in court dropping its case against him.<\/p>\n

Investigators learned that Klaiber and Eckley had been friends for 15 years. A police search of Eckley\u2019s phone revealed a text chain with \u201cBRANDON, St. Pete police,\u201d according to court documents.<\/p>\n

Eckley asked Klaiber to share confidential information about two people through the Florida Driver and Vehicle Information database during the summer of 2024.<\/p>\n

Investigators found that Klaiber had \u201cbeen providing similar information as far back as May 2015,\u201d according to court documents.<\/p>\n

It is unclear whether Klaiber shared information with Eckley that contributed to the Hard Rock incident. A spokesperson for the St. Petersburg Police Department did not know, and the State Attorney\u2019s Office was not able to be reached for additional comment.<\/p>\n

If Klaiber\u2019s case does not result in dismissal, his charges are punishable by up to five years in prison.<\/p>\n

Times staff writer Dan Sullivan contributed to this report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A St. Petersburg police officer who shared confidential information with a man accused of leaving homemade explosives in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[60026,60028,60025,4860,60027,199,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-119606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-brandon-klaiber","tag-bryan-eckley","tag-confidential-information","tag-florida-department-of-law-enforcement","tag-pretrial-intervention-program","tag-st-petersburg","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}