Hollywood's Finest

An unnamed community activist alleged that, while on duty patrolling Hollywood Beach, Joynt would often leave his unattended police jeep on the sand in front of a bar every night for three to four hours.

For a three-month period, Joynt's paperwork was "totally inaccurate," McGarry said.

An anonymous tipster reported that Joynt's wife was driving his city vehicle.

From December 1999 to January 2000, Joynt took an "abnormal period of time" for sick leave. Neither he nor a member of his family had an illness that would explain the need for time, a personnel report states.

"I believe that Brian's work product was going downhill," said his supervisor, Richard Nardello, who now works in the department's IA unit.

The report states that Joynt did not deny many of the allegations but does not discuss specifics. New Times asked to interview Joynt for this article. The department refused.

Based on the report's findings, Deputy Chief Standley testified that he did not have "faith" in Joynt's ability "to carry a gun on the street." He put the officer behind a desk.

Chief Scarberry ordered Joynt to take a drug test. "I think a sworn police officer is held to a higher standard than a record clerk or a civilian employee...," Scarberry testified. "To be involved in that sort of activity is just unacceptable and intolerable."

The results of the drug test were negative. But Scarberry discovered that the test did not scan for ecstasy. Hollywood police sent a sample of Joynt's hair to another testing facility, which reported a positive for "chronic use" of ecstasy.

Joynt told IA investigators that the result was a false positive. The problem, he suggested, was that he was taking an over-the-counter nasal medication and a prescription medication for recent dental work. Or perhaps, Joynt said, someone had slipped something into his drink at a club.

Scarberry didn't buy the excuses. "The message has got to be that if you use drugs, illegal drugs, felony drugs, and you're a police officer with the City of Hollywood, you're going to be terminated," Scarberry testified.

On March 23, 2000, Scarberry fired Joynt. But the officer appealed the termination, alleging that the drug test should be invalidated because the officer who took his hair sample did not wear rubber gloves. The case went to arbitration.

"The chronic use was recognized in the largest quantity of the hair, not in any sort of residue that might have been introduced into the sample," Scarberry testified.

On April 11, 2001, arbitrator James E. Carnicella ruled against the department. The arbitrator ordered that Joynt be suspended for 90 days without pay and subjected to three random drug tests within six months.

Scarberry admits that, after having assigned Joynt to a desk job for the past five years, he recently agreed to put him back on patrol. "Brian Joynt's commanding officers came to me and explained that they believe he is ready again for the responsibility," Scarberry says.

Florida law prohibits law enforcement agencies from hiring an officer who has used illegal drugs within the three years preceding employment.

"Brian Joynt has taken responsibility," Capt. Rode says. "He made mistakes and owned up to them. Now he wants a second chance. I think he deserves that much."

THE FUTURE

Hollywood Police Officers Christina Rodriguez, Vinicio Perez, and Brian Joynt illustrate a major problem in law enforcement, not just in Hollywood but across the United States. Applicants who are hired despite bad or questionable backgrounds often turn into bad cops. It's a lesson that South Florida should have learned in the late 1980s, when about 100 cops were arrested, fired, or suspended in Miami-Dade County in what became known as the Miami River cops scandal. Those officers were hired in a hurry after the Mariel boatlift despite involvement by some in street gangs. After joining the force, several were convicted of cocaine theft and murder.

The former assistant chief of the Miami Beach Police Department, Scarberry knows what kind of havoc applicants with questionable backgrounds can cause when given guns and badges. For that reason -- among others -- Scarberry says he will not offer employment in Hollywood to anyone with troubling psychological exams or significant background problems. In fact, 33 law enforcement positions remain unfilled in the city, he says, because "I haven't had applicants who can pass the psychological exam."

The chief believes that background and psychological reports can predict behavior. "They will fit the officer to a T," he says.

Yet Scarberry has no intention of terminating any of the officers hired a decade ago during Hollywood's hiring scandal. "A decision was made before me not to fire those officers," Scarberry says dismissively. "The city didn't do it then. It's not my place to do it now."