Former Lee deputy has certification revoked

Former sheriff's Deputy Robert G. Logsdon II faced administrative charges of uttering a forged instrument and perjury. An internal affairs inquiry found that he lied about prior police experience, which had put him on the fast-track to becoming a deputy in Lee County.

Logsdon said the position was with a sheriff's department in Circleville, Ohio, when his W-2 tax form showed it was for working at a McDonald's.

The 19-member Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission revoked Logsdon's law enforcement officer certification, meaning he cannot work as a police officer in the state, said Michael Crews, bureau chief for the FDLE's standards division.

"He could go to another state, but he could not work here," Crews said after the vote.

Attempts to reach Logsdon were made Thursday, but he could not be located for comment. J. Michael Hussey, last identified as Logdon's attorney, was on vacation and could not be reached for comment.

Logsdon resigned from the Sheriff's Office in February after his ex-wife earlier that month reported that Logsdon lied to the Police Applicant Screening Service, which screens Sheriff's Office job applicants. Logsdon said he had worked as a sheriff's deputy for one year and was assigned to patrol duty. He presented a fake 1995 W-2 tax form to the screening service, according to a report issued after the internal affairs investigation. Logsdon confessed to submitting the fake W-2 the day he resigned, according to the report.

In Logsdon's Feb. 21 resignation letter, he said he would seek employment outside of law enforcement.

Crews said neither Logsdon, nor a lawyer representing him, appeared before the commission Thursday prior to the vote.

Commission members believed that the evidence presented against Logsdon was sufficient to validate the administrative charges against him, Crews said.

"They had no option but to revoke," Crews said. "For perjury there is only one penalty and that is revocation."

Logsdon should receive in about two weeks the commission's final order declaring his certification is revoked, Crews said. If Logsdon is working in Florida as a police officer, he has two weeks -- until he receives the final paperwork -- to remain an officer, he added.