DeLand police captain fired after 7-month-long investigation

DeLAND, Fla. — The DeLand Police Department said Tuesday that it had fired one of its captains after a seven-month-long internal affairs investigation.

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Records said DeLand police Capt. Francisco Williams was terminated after he was accused of using sexual, offensive and derogatory slurs toward women and fellow officers.

The investigation’s 20-page summary revealed that a third-party consulting company determined that Williams violated the agency’s policies at least 11 times.

DeLand’s city manager hired the outside party after a sergeant filed a complaint in February.

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The company interviewed at least 10 employees, who described numerous occasions in which Williams used offensive and derogatory comments toward women and fellow officers based on gender and sexual orientation, the report said.

The allegations include sexually explicit comments about a woman he had seen running in a Stetson University 5K in February.

The report said Williams also used his hands to mimic her breasts on his chest.

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Employees said they heard Williams use a derogatory term toward a female police training officer for being a tough grader on new recruits.

Officers said Williams also used derogatory slurs relating to sexual orientation when referring to a detective.

Employees alleged Williams referred to some officers as “country bumpkins” and “rednecks” when discussing how they handled jurisdictional boundaries between the city and unincorporated Volusia County.

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Williams denied most of the allegations.

In the report, the investigator said Williams at one point instructed supervisors about the use of “locker room talk” and how it was not appropriate particularly in front of lower ranking officers.

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