{"id":68982,"date":"2025-12-03T02:32:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T02:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/68982\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T02:32:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T02:32:25","slug":"tampa-code-enforcement-director-fired-after-fdle-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/68982\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa code enforcement director fired after FDLE investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tampa\u2019s code enforcement director was fired Tuesday after an investigation<\/a> by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement ended without charges, according to a text message to the Tampa Bay Times from a city spokesperson.<\/p>\n

\u201cThough the FDLE investigation concluded and the State Attorney\u2019s Office declined to file criminal charges due to insufficient evidence, O\u2019Connor\u2019s supervisors determined that his poor judgment merited dismissal,\u201d wrote the spokesperson, Adam Smith.<\/p>\n

A Nov. 19 memo from the State Attorney\u2019s Office in Hillsborough County obtained by the Tampa Bay Times confirms that O\u2019Connor will not face criminal charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case presents an example of what the State strongly believes happened versus what it can actually prove in court,\u201d read the memo from Michael R. Lennon, the chief of the office\u2019s economic crimes unit.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor\u2019s lawyer, Ralph Fernandez, said in a phone call Tuesday evening that neither he nor his client were aware of the dismissal. He said O\u2019Connor was not given the opportunity to \u201cpresent his side of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCommon decency dictates that you don\u2019t blindside someone like this,\u201d Fernandez said. \u201cI had to find out from the media, rather than his employer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The memo laid out the details of the case.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor, a former deputy police chief, has decades-long ties to another former code enforcement employee, Aubrey Pierce, who was arrested in August on unrelated charges.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor cashed a winning $20,000 scratch-off Florida Lottery ticket on behalf of Pierce, who owes more than $70,000 in past-due child support payments, read the memo, which did not specify the dates of the events.<\/p>\n

If Pierce had cashed the ticket, his winnings would have gone to the Florida Department of Revenue to contribute to his outstanding payments. Instead, the memo stated, O\u2019Connor cashed the ticket and \u201cthe mothers of Pierce\u2019s children did not receive funds from the winnings to which they were entitled.\u201d<\/p>\n

Records obtained by the Times show that O\u2019Connor claimed a $20,000 lottery prize from a scratch-off ticket purchased at a 7-Eleven in Tampa on March 7. It is not clear what he did with that money.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the longtime and extremely close relationship between Pierce and O\u2019Connor, a strong presumption may exist that O\u2019Connor knowingly participated in a scheme to ensure that the mothers of Pierce\u2019s children would not receive any child support from the winnings,\u201d the memo read. \u201cThis conduct is suggestive of theft.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, Lennon wrote, a strong presumption \u201cdoes not meet the criminal standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt of theft.\u201d<\/p>\n

In one statement to a special agent with the law enforcement department, Pierce claimed to have \u201cgiven\u201d the winning ticket to O\u2019Connor, the memo stated. A search of O\u2019Connor\u2019s cell phone yielded no definitive evidence that showed O\u2019Connor knowingly participated in theft.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor\u2019s firing comes three years after his wife, former Tampa police chief Mary O\u2019Connor, resigned amid criticism from a viral golf cart traffic stop<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur organization is built on professionalism, accountability and integrity,\u201d Mayor Jane Castor said in a statement Tuesday. \u201cThe community we serve expects and deserves the highest standards from all City employees, especially those in leadership positions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa\u2019s code enforcement director was fired Tuesday after an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement ended…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[39486,1080,4860,39484,135,19880,137,136],"class_list":["post-68982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-aubrey-pierce","tag-criminal-charges","tag-florida-department-of-law-enforcement","tag-keith-oconnor","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-times","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68982","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=68982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}