Two Pinellas County sheriff's deputies have resigned after being arrested on charges of unlawfully accessing databases to get information on women without their consent.
Thirty-three-year-old Travis Stanton is accused of stalking a 17-year-old girl. He allegedly used sheriff's databases to get her address and photos. He then visited her at a local restaurant where she worked at least nine times.
"Stanton was well aware of the legal requirements to access this database and the consequences for misuse," Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said during a news conference Wednesday. "Running the plate of a 17-year-old girl who you are interested in is clearly inappropriate and clearly unlawful."
Gualtieri said law enforcement officials are required to enter a reason anytime the identification databases are accessed.
"Stanton lied and put in the verification code stating that he was quote verifying an identity," he said. "Now he was verifying an identity all right, but it was not for official reasons, and it was because he was interested in this 17-year-old high school student."
Stanton was placed on unpaid administrative leave while an investigation was held and resigned on Friday. He was arrested Wednesday and charged with two felonies, for unlawfully accessing the computer network and for official misconduct. Gualtieri said Stanton was booked into the Pinellas County Jail on $10,000 bail.
The second deputy, Karl Gwynne, has been accused of allegedly using five different law enforcement databases — 381 times — to get information on a woman he was interested in dating.
Gualtieri said Gwynne also let the woman and her mother stay in a condo he owns and bought her gifts. He said he wanted to date her while she continued to reject his advances, saying she wanted to be just friends.
Gwynne was taken into custody Wednesday and charged with four counts of Access Computer Electronic Device Without Authority and one count of Official Misconduct.
"They knew what they did was wrong, especially with a 17-year-old girl," Gualtieri said. "Both of them are clearly wrong."
