Law Offices of Jeffrey N. Ivashuk, P.A.
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WOMEN: DEPUTY BEAT ME SCOTT HIGHAM Herald Staff Writer Twice disciplined for behavior unbecoming an officer, Broward Sheriff's Deputy Michael Lord is in trouble again, this time for allegedly beating a mother in front of her 7-year-old son and a house full of friends. Lord purportedly pulled the woman from her Pompano Beach home, grabbed her by the hair and slammed the side of her face against a porch several times, according to witness statements now part of a court file. "I kept saying, 'Don't hurt me anymore. Don't hurt me,' " said Lori Henke, 30, who filed a complaint against Lord this week with the sheriff's internal affairs division. "He kept hitting me." Lord, 33, did not return telephone messages left at his office. In a sworn statement to defense attorneys earlier this month, he said Henke started the struggle and he denied striking her. "She would not allow me to cuff her," said Lord, who arrested Henke on charges of disorderly conduct, battery and resisting arrest. "She continued to twist and turn. She curled up in a ball with her knees, her elbows flew around. She put up a very good struggle." A sheriff's spokesman declined to talk about the allegation. "An investigation is under way," Maj. Ralph Page said Friday. In his four years as a road patrol officer, Lord has been the subject of five internal affairs complaints, records show. He has been disciplined twice, once for abusing a motorist during a traffic stop and again for ripping a patch of hair from the head of man he wrongly thought was wanted on an arrest warrant. Lord blamed the incidents on inexperience. With a high school education and military training, he was hired in 1984 as a jail guard, then transferred to the road patrol in December 1987. "You make mistakes," he said in his statement. "You move on." The most recent allegation dates to Aug. 17, 1991, when Lord responded to a disturbance at the home of Henke, a single mother of two who had been arrested earlier that year for allegedly hanging around a house of prostitution. The charge eventually was dropped, court records show. Henke was having a party and Lord wanted to talk with her boyfriend, who was standing inside the house. Henke would not let her boyfriend out, told Lord to leave and then tried to close the front door. She said in an interview this week that the deputy handcuffed her, grabbed her hair and began beating her. "He threw me to the ground and started to smack my head against the concrete porch," Henke said. Her 7-year-old son, John, said he saw part of the incident. "I saw him slam my mom to the ground," he said. "Then someone told me to go to my room. That's all I know." Some of Henke's friends said they also saw the incident. "He stepped into the house, grabbed Lori and put a handcuff on her," said Terri Reasland, who was visiting from Illinois that weekend. "He threw her up against the house, handcuffed her, and then threw her to the ground. Then he got on top of her. He started to hit her head against the cement pavement." |
Lord denied doing anything improper.
"I was doing my best to restrain her and get her under control," he said. Later that night, while Henke was at the Broward County Jail, she said she was approached by a deputy who was wearing the name tag "C. Lord." Lord's wife, Carol, is a detention officer. "C. Lord came out of the office and was guiding me by the left arm into a room with a door at each end," Henke said in a statement to internal affairs detectives. "C. Lord said, 'If you sue my husband, I'll beat your a--.' " Carol Lord did not return telephone messages this week. Henke and Michael Lord had met before the August incident. Henke said Lord responded to a burglary at her home in June 1991. She said she complained to the sheriff's office at the time because Lord didn't seem interested in solving the case. A month later, Henke said she ran into Lord again, this time at a Denny's restaurant. She said Lord opened the door for her, then began to laugh. He asked her how much she would charge to perform a sexual act, she said. Henke said she tried to slap Lord in the face, but he fended her off. The first citizen complaint against Lord was lodged eight months after he became a road patrol deputy. In August 1988, he pulled over a motorist who cut him off after changing lanes. Lord let loose with a string of profanity, took the motorist's driver's license and flung it at him, internal affairs records show. "That was a stupid god---- thing to do," Lord said, according to the files. "Get your head out of your f------ a--." Lord received a written reprimand for conduct unbecoming an officer. A month later, Lord and another deputy went looking for a wanted suspect. They wound up at the home of David Pearson, 25, who has a long arrest record. Lord asked for identification. Pearson asked for a badge number. Lord grabbed Pearson by the hair and allegedly swung him around the house, ripping a hunk of hair out of his head, according to the records. Pearson was handcuffed and taken to jail. "He kept trying to hit me with his flashlight," said Pearson, who said he fought with the deputy after his hair was pulled. "I said, 'Look, I'm not the one you want.' " Several hours later, police realized Pearson was right and they freed him. Lord and his partner received two-day suspensions for conduct unbecoming police officers, among other charges. Although his most recent job evaluation describes Lord as dependable, earlier reviews were not as flattering, personnel records show. "This employee is not familiar with rules and regulations and general policy," a 1988 evaluation said. Supervisors said Lord had trouble filling out reports, making arrests and controlling his squad car. Relations with people on the street were particularly poor, according to his file. "Lord has a tendency to be too direct in his dealings with citizens," said another evaluation, in 1989. "He could do well to practice more tactfulness." |