The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) has terminated one of their patrol deputies, 29 year-old Joshua Sacino. He was was originally hired by PCSO in November of 2017.
According to the Administrative Investigation Division, on March 30, 2022,
Deputy Sacino was directed by his supervision to conduct proactive
initiatives, focusing on traffic enforcement in the area of Seminole
Boulevard. Deputy Sacino ignored these instructions and sat idle in his agency
assigned patrol vehicle for over four hours surfing the internet.
Upon completion of the initiative, Deputy Sacino was instructed to provide
statistics and related case numbers to his supervisor. Deputy Sacino lied and
told his supervisor that he conducted one traffic stop and provided a motorist
with a “verbal warning,” when he did not actually conduct any traffic stops.
Deputy Sacino ignored the requests from his supervisors when asked for the
case number and documentation for the traffic stop.
The Administrative Investigation Division determined that after being
questioned by his supervisors about his inactivity that night, Deputy Sacino
drove to a Walmart and found a vehicle lawfully parked in the parking lot. The
vehicle’s owner had not actually done anything wrong or illegal. He never
exited his patrol vehicle, ran the license plate of the vehicle and then left
the parking lot. Deputy Sacino later fabricated a report and entered it into
the agency’s report management system (ACISS), falsely documenting that the
vehicle’s owner was involved in drug activity.. In the report, Deputy Sacino
stated an anonymous transient flagged him down regarding a suspicious vehicle
involved in narcotics activity, which was a lie. Deputy Sacino then documented
that he located this vehicle and falsely documented the owner’s involvement in
drug activity.
Deputy Sacino was questioned by his supervision after reviewing his Computer
Aided Dispatch (CAD) activity, body worn camera activity and in-car camera
activity for the shift. When questioned whether or not the traffic stop really
occurred, Deputy Sacino originally stated he pulled up next to a vehicle, made
contact with the occupants and gave them a verbal warning for a traffic
violation. When confronted further, Deputy Sacino admitted that the traffic
stop did not occur and he fabricated the entire incident.
Additionally, Deputy Sacino intentionally and knowingly falsified the
narrative of the suspicious vehicle report. He admitted there was no transient
who flagged him down, it was just a vehicle legally parked in the parking lot,
and he had no reason to suspect anyone related to the vehicle was involved in
narcotics activity. Deputy Sacino intentionally attached a citizen and their
vehicle to a narcotic-related report that could have adversely impacted the
citizen. (The report has been deleted from the system and there is no adverse
impact to the innocent citizen.)
During the Administrative Interview, Deputy Sacino admitted to fabricating
information into official documents to include CAD and ACISS and stated, “It
is very serious, and it’s criminal grounds and grounds to be fired. It’s a
serious matter.”
Sheriff Gualtieri stated, “Deputy Sacino did this for self-serving reasons, to
conceal his lack of activity and incompetence, with no regard of the
consequences this report could have had for the citizen involved, or for any
citizen operating that vehicle in the future.”
As a result of the investigation, the Administrative Review Board determined
that Deputy Sacino committed these violations and Sheriff Gualtieri terminated
Deputy Sacino effective Tuesday, June 28, 2022.