Suspension of Sheriff 4 Scott Israel ______: 5
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1 THE FLORIDA SENATE EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 19-14 2 3 IN RE: SUSPENSION OF SHERIFF 4 SCOTT ISRAEL ______________________: 5 6 7 8 9 Wednesday, June 5, 2019 10 One East Broward Boulevard Suite 902 11 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301 4:56 p.m. - 6:24 p.m. 12 13 14 DEPOSITION OF CAPTAIN JAMES DIEFENBACHER 15 16 17 Taken before Carol Ann Kridos, Registered 18 Professional Reporter and Notary Public in and for 19 the State of Florida at Large, pursuant to Notice 20 of Taking Deposition filed in the above cause. 21 22 23 24 Diefenbacher Deposition Transcript.3412804 (060519).6-5-2019.txt[6/9/2019 10:51:00 PM] 25 2 1 APPEARANCES: 2 3 On behalf of Governor Ron DeSantis via Skype: 4 5 EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR 400 South Monroe Street 6 Suite 209 Tallahassee, FL 32399 7 BY: NICHOLAS PRIMROSE, DEPUTY GENERAL COUNSEL (850) 717-9310 8 [email protected] 9 10 On behalf of Sheriff Scott Israel: 11 12 KUEHNE DAVIS LAW, P.A. 100 Southeast Second Street 13 Suite 3550 Miami, FL 33131 14 BY: BENEDICT P. KUEHNE, ESQ. (305) 789-5989 15 [email protected] 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Diefenbacher Deposition Transcript.3412804 (060519).6-5-2019.txt[6/9/2019 10:51:00 PM] 24 25 3 1 INDEX 2 WITNESS PAGE __________________________________________________ 3 4 CAPTAIN JAMES DIEFENBACHER 5 Direct Examination By Mr. Kuehne ...........4 6 Cross-Examination By Mr. Primrose ..........40 7 Certificate of Oath ........................59 8 Errata Sheet ..............................61 9 Certificate of Reporter ....................63 10 Read and Sign Letter To Witness ............64 11 12 13 EXHIBITS 14 (No exhibits were marked during the deposition.) 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Diefenbacher Deposition Transcript.3412804 (060519).6-5-2019.txt[6/9/2019 10:51:00 PM] 24 25 4 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 Thereupon: 3 CAPTAIN JAMES DIEFENBACHER 4 was called as a witness, and having been 5 first duly sworn and responding "I do," was 6 examined and testified as follows: 7 DIRECT EXAMINATION 8 BY MR. KUEHNE: 9 Q Please state your name and spell your 10 name. 11 A James Diefenbacher, 12 D-i-e-f-e-n-b-a-c-h-e-r. 13 Q Should I address you as captain? 14 A Sure. 15 Q Captain Diefenbacher, all right. 16 My name is Ben Kuehne. I am counsel for 17 Sheriff Israel in connection with senate review of 18 his suspension. 19 A Right. 20 Q So I'll be asking you questions about 21 that and just some background questions. 22 MR. KUEHNE: Mr. Primrose, would you Diefenbacher Deposition Transcript.3412804 (060519).6-5-2019.txt[6/9/2019 10:51:00 PM] 23 announce your appearance? 24 MR. PRIMROSE: Nick Primrose for 25 Governor Ron DeSantis. 5 1 BY MR. KUEHNE: 2 Q You are a sworn law enforcement officer? 3 A I am. 4 Q For how long? 5 A Since 1991. Just going on 28 years. 6 Q Well, thank you for your service. 7 What agencies have you worked with as a 8 sworn law enforcement office? 9 A Just the Broward Sheriff's Office. 10 Q So you went to the academy and became a 11 deputy sheriff in 1991? 12 A I did. Detention deputy sheriff. 13 Q You worked for detention for how long? 14 A I still do. I'm actually working as a 15 detention officer in the Department of Law 16 Enforcement. 17 Q Department of Law Enforcement? 18 A Right. 19 Q And how long have you held the rank of 20 captain? 21 A Approximately five years. 22 Q And what are your current duties and Diefenbacher Deposition Transcript.3412804 (060519).6-5-2019.txt[6/9/2019 10:51:00 PM] 23 responsibilities as a captain currently? 24 A I'm a captain of the policy and 25 accountability division which handles policy, 6 1 standard operational procedures, CJIS, which is 2 Criminal Justice Information Systems, compliance, 3 contracts with the state of Florida, FBI 4 compliance. Mainly anything governmental 5 compliance-related I handle. 6 Q And how long have you been in that 7 position? 8 A Approximately eight years. 9 Q Some before you became captain? 10 A Yes. 11 Q My focus for my questions are primarily 12 around the time of the Fort Lauderdale Airport 13 shooting, I'll refer to it as the "airport 14 shooting," which was in January of '17, going 15 through to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High 16 School shooting, which was February of 2018. 17 A Right. 18 Q And I'll have some other questions 19 around that time, but that's going to be the 20 primary focus. Did you -- and I'll also ask about 21 the after-action report for the Fort Lauderdale Diefenbacher Deposition Transcript.3412804 (060519).6-5-2019.txt[6/9/2019 10:51:00 PM] 22 Airport shooting. 23 Did you have a role in the Fort 24 Lauderdale Airport shooting on the scene during 25 the time of the shooting and its aftermath? 7 1 A No. 2 Q Did you go to the Fort Lauderdale 3 Airport at any time during it being classified as 4 an active crime scene for the Fort Lauderdale 5 shooting? 6 A No. 7 Q Did you have a role in evaluating the 8 Fort Lauderdale shooting for purposes of an 9 after-action report? 10 A Yes. 11 Q What was your role in that regard? 12 A I am uncertain if it was Colonel John 13 Dale or if it was the Assistant General Counsel 14 approached me and said they had a public records 15 request from the Sun Sentinel newspaper asking for 16 the agency's draft AAR, which is an after-action 17 report, for the Fort Lauderdale shooting. 18 Q Okay. 19 A I was given a copy of the current draft 20 which was prepared by Major Cedeno and, using my 21 own words, they described it as emotional and Diefenbacher Deposition Transcript.3412804 (060519).6-5-2019.txt[6/9/2019 10:51:00 PM] 22 non-pragmatic and they wanted me to look at the 23 report to see if I could structure it more like 24 other agencies had structured their AARs. 25 Q And did you do that? 8 1 A I did. 2 Q And what was the result of your 3 fulfilling that task? 4 A The Sun Sentinel was insisting upon 5 immediate release of the draft. Our lawyers 6 negotiated ten days for me to review a box full of 7 materials. I then looked at Major Cedeno's draft 8 of the AAR and I added or changed the structure. 9 Before doing so, I researched several other AARs 10 from other airport shootings, Sandy Hook tragedy, 11 some FAA AARs. The one I settled upon was one 12 offered by the United States Army and I structured 13 mine based on their recommendations. 14 Q Did your research of those other AARs or 15 the type of document you've described come because 16 of a decision by you or were you directed to look 17 at those items in particular? 18 A That was my decision. 19 Q Okay. You researched other AARs 20 involving scenarios that you thought would be Diefenbacher Deposition Transcript.3412804 (060519).6-5-2019.txt[6/9/2019 10:51:00 PM] 21 helpful in guiding you in the format -- 22 A Correct. 23 Q -- of an AAR? 24 A Correct. I had never written an AAR in 25 that grand a scope so I looked to others to find 9 1 examples and I selected the format that I felt 2 would work best for us. 3 Q What did you understand as you were 4 performing this task the purpose or function of an 5 AAR to be? 6 A Before or after I read the others? 7 Q In the entire process. 8 A In general? Basically you evaluate what 9 happened based on the facts, based on reports, 10 based on any evidence collected. You examine how 11 you responded to the event and you identify areas 12 of improvement or you identify areas that you did 13 well. Basically pragmatically take the facts and 14 list them in a time -- I found that listing them 15 in a time frame as they happened was the best way 16 to explain this very complex event. 17 Q Was your effort to do this job an 18 effort -- an attempt to accomplish what you 19 understood to be the purpose of an AAR? 20 A What I understood, yes. It was never Diefenbacher Deposition Transcript.3412804 (060519).6-5-2019.txt[6/9/2019 10:51:00 PM] 21 intended to be an AAR, it was intended to be a 22 draft so that the command could examine the facts 23 in a different format than what Major Cedeno had 24 presented. 25 Q And did you understand from your 10 1 research and review that an AAR in general is 2 reviewed by several layers of reviewers? 3 A Of course. My review would be the very 4 lowest. Mine is the collection of all of the 5 facts. I spoke with many different entities that 6 had participated in the event, including Broward's 7 emergency management agency or organization, the 8 county's ORCAT division, which is the radio 9 system, and I got their input and I included their 10 input in my draft of the AAR.