APOPKA, Fla.,None — An Apopka police officer has been arrested three times, including, most recently, for threatening to kill her husband. After years of legal trouble, she was never fired from the force, until Monday.
WFTV has been reporting for years about Officer Tanya Culver and all her troubles. She was first arrested in 2007 for punching a police officer from Lake Mary, then, last month, WFTV reported she was arrested for firing a gun at her husband. Now, Culver is accused of threatening her husband again.
After Culver's last arrest, she was put on paid suspension. That paid suspension lasted only three days before the Apopka Police Department did a little investigating and she was taken off the payroll, but kept on suspension.
However, Monday, the department cut all ties; Culver has been fired from her job and won't be allowed to leave the jail.
The former Apopka police officer took a moment to rise from her chair when a judge called her name Monday afternoon. Culver said her husband made her return the Sanford home they shared, a home she was required to avoid after getting out of jail last time.
"He has contacted me and has threatened me that if I don't come back to the home that he would contact my employer and have me fired," she explained in court.
The nine-year police officer has had a history of run-ins with the law. In 2007, she punched a Lake Mary police officer after a car wreck. In March, she was arrested for firing a gun at her husband. Culver found her husband at a bar, reportedly saying she'd "end him," run him over and kill herself.
Neighbor Chris Krall saw all the police later at their home.
"Eight, nine, ten, 11 cars, and they took her off in handcuffs and put her in the back of the car," Krall said.
Despite the arrests and suspension, Culver wasn't actually fired from her $50,000 a year job until Monday. Police told WFTV it had been trying to give her due process.
"It's looked into and the officer is allowed to have their fair trial and a court process," Steven Popp of the Apopka Police Department said.
Attorneys said that deliberate pace can protect an agency from expensive wrongful termination lawsuits.
Culver seemed to think she'd done nothing wrong.
"I had to return to the home to grab some belongings. My husband had vacated the premises," she explained in court.
Despite her explanations, the judge revoked Culver's bond. She will remain in the jail at least until her next court date on the earlier charges, which is on April 13.