Pape resigns as FDLE Special Agent in Charge

Spokesperson, Gretl Plessinger, informed Historic City News this afternoon that Florida Department of Law Enforcement Jacksonville Regional Operations Center Special Agent in Charge Dominick Pape has resigned his position effective next month.

Pape began his FDLE career in 1988 as a Special Agent and was promoted through the ranks. He has been in charge of the Jacksonville Regional Operations Center since the retirement of Rick Look in 2005. He was responsible for directing FDLE law enforcement investigations for 13 counties.

“Dominick has been a dedicated leader for FDLE Jacksonville,” said FDLE Commissioner Gerald Bailey. “His knowledge of law enforcement and criminal investigations has been a tremendous asset to FDLE.”

He has earned multiple awards during his time at the Department of Law Enforcement; including three Commissioner Awards, two Davis Productivity Awards and a Superior Unit Citation. According to Plessinger, Pape is leaving to accept a director position with a large private security firm which he will begin in May.

Pape, and one of his assigned investigators, Rusty Rodgers, were blasted for their handling of a shooting death investigation in St Johns County in 2010. Local deputies investigated the death of 24-year-old Michelle O’Connell — based on an autopsy, two medical examiner’s reports, an investigation by a State Attorney outside the Seventh Judicial Circuit appointed by the governor, and physical evidence collected at the scene; they ruled her death a suicide.

In a complaint delivered to Commissioner Bailey two weeks ago, Sheriff David Shoar accused Rodgers of falsifying his reports, doing “shoddy work” and having “inappropriate conversations” with O’Connell’s family supporting his own belief that O’Connell was killed by her boyfriend, St Johns County Deputy Jeremy Banks. Pape did not escape the sheriff’s criticism.

In the cover letter that accompanied the 150+ page internal investigation of the suicide investigation, Shoar wrote, “in the event that SAC Pape and Agent Rodgers continue to serve as law enforcement officers,” he wouldn’t allow them in secure areas of the St Johns County Sheriff’s Office — without his prior knowledge. Shoar explained himself to news reporters by saying that he trusted neither man and would fire them if he was their boss.