POLK COUNTY, Fl – When investigators raided the home of a 43-year-old Florida man with an extensive record, they say they seized drugs, weapons and stolen property. One thing they missed, however, was a security camera.
It was that camera, set up in the home of Michael Difalco, near Lakeland, that caught video of the officers playing a Wii bowling game over the course of the nine-hour drug raid.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd calls the display embarrassing.
"How do you explain it? Well you can't explain that, my deputies know that they shouldn't have been playing Wii while they were involved in that search warrant.”
Detectives from the Sheriff's office, Winter Haven, Auburndale and Lakeland police departments all participated in the raid, and were all caught on camera.
Judd says it was the supervisors who are at fault.
“That doesn't please me,” he said. “What pleases me less is the supervision that didn't say turn the television off."
Instead of ordering the video game and television turned off, this supervisor from Lakeland PD joined the fun.
Defense attorney Rick Escobar watched a sampling of the drug raid video
"I've never seen anything like this. I find this very offensive. Shocking embarrassing I'm sure that the department is extremely embarrassed by this behavior."
Records show 16 detectives spent 9 hours searching Difalco's property, the cost to taxpayers $4,000.
Escobar thinks this will not look good to the public.
"All the citizens are thinking wait a minute we are paying these people to go out and protect us and here they are playing bowling on our time."
The sheriff argues there is always down time during searches and no tax dollars were wasted.
"The nature of a search warrant is hurry up and wait, it just is,” he said. “Am I trying to defend the fact that they were bowling not at all, that was inappropriate."
The sheriff claims he launched an internal administrative investigation, and will wait for a final report before he decides if anyone will face discipline.
"It's an embarrassment to the detectives involved and its an embarrassment to the organization. But you know what, we employ 1,800 people and not one of them is perfect. We all make mistakes. They made a mistake."
