FDLE Special Agent and Ex-Husband former KWPD Captain Saved By Statute of Limitations

Mr and Mrs Smith for web

by Naja and Arnaud Girard……

A long awaited investigative report on a scandal that greatly tarnished both FDLE’s and KWPD’s image in the community is finally complete.

FDLE Special Agent Kathy Smith and her ex-husband, former KWPD Captain Scott Smith, could have been prosecuted for the criminal acts of perjury and mortgage fraud in connection with a $461,500 bank loan they’d obtained for a Big Coppitt home.

Could have… had the acts been discovered much sooner, that is.

It took over six months for FDLE investigators and Assistant State Attorney Mark Wilson to conduct what became pejoratively known as the ‘two-paper investigation.’

The Smiths had signed two loan documents claiming they were still married even though their divorce had been formalized more than four months prior.

“Of the documents in which Scott and Kathy Smith claimed to be married, the least ambiguous is the “Continuous Marriage Affidavit,” which they signed on March 3, 2010. This one-page document had a single purpose: to affirm they ‘were husband and wife at the time they acquired title to the above described property and that their marriage to each other has been continuous and uninterrupted up to and including March 03, 2010,’” wrote Wilson, “It is difficult to countenance that the Smiths were unaware of their marital status in March 2010. Divorce is typically distressing, unpleasant, and expensive and not something a person is likely to be confused about.”

Wilson concluded that the Smiths’ statement in the sworn affidavit of continuous marriage “was obviously false.”

Since then, the Smiths have apparently failed to keep up with the payments on the $461,500 loan they received in 2010 for the house they claim to have purchased for $132,500 in 2004. Both are now named in a foreclosure suit which was filed by Capital Bank last December.

The fact that these two high-profile law enforcement officials were caught-up in accusations of perjury and mortgage fraud was one of the bombshells that rocked Key West during the protracted investigation of thirteen KWPD officers who had been involved in the death of a tourist named Charles Eimers on Thanksgiving Day of 2013.

FDLE Special Agent Kathy Smith had been in charge of that “independent” investigation. But as disturbing allegations of cover-up began to accumulate, Agent Smith’s impartiality came into question more and more. Not only had her ex-husband and father of her child, KWPD Captain Scott Smith, been the one to call her that morning about investigating the police officers under his direct supervision, but it was also discovered that, even though FDLE had been called in to conduct an investigation immediately, Taser video and dashcam video involving the incident had never been preserved and came up missing or destroyed. Eyewitnesses had not been interrogated and a bystander cellphone video that ultimately demonstrated that several KWPD officers had lied under oath was never brought into evidence. The Horan law firm, representing the Eimers family, said at the time that it took no more than a 5-minute phone call to obtain that cellphone video. FDLE Agent Kathy Smith had had the same easy access to it all along.

FDLE top brass had been pressured early on about concerns over a conflict of interest but responded only by saying that they were confident that all “safeguards” were in place. Attorney Darren Horan, alarmed at FDLE’s handling of the investigation of his client’s death, conducted a little investigation of his own and discovered the perjury/mortgage documents.

Special Agent Kathy Smith has been on paid administrative leave since the third week of November 2014 when the investigation of suspected perjury and mortgage fraud was launched.

“Even if the actions of Scott and Kathy Smith were criminal in March 2010,“ wrote Wilson in his report, “they cannot be prosecuted because the relevant conduct occurred outside the period of limitation.”  [Two years for the perjury charge and three years for mortgage fraud.]

FDLE, however, indicated that their internal investigation is ongoing.

A burning question in the minds of many who have followed the Eimers case is whether and to what extent Agent Kathy Smith’s conflict of interest, due to her family ties with then KWPD Captain Scott Smith, had influenced her investigation of the Eimers’ in-custody death case.

One thing’s for sure, the record had all the appearances of a cover-up and, so far, none of the officers involved have been disciplined: Not for their apparent perjury, not for their mishandling of important evidence, and not for having chased away important eyewitnesses from the crime scene.

And, it can’t all be blamed on Kathy Smith.

 

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6 thoughts on “FDLE Special Agent and Ex-Husband former KWPD Captain Saved By Statute of Limitations

  1. An individual far wiser than I, inferred that a ‘statute of limitations clock’ may only start in some cases, when the criminal conduct of an individual has been detected.

  2. The Smiths certainly have violated the public’s trust and therefore should not be paid with taxpayer dollars. They should both be fired. Those that have delayed this should also be fired.

  3. It sure must be nice to break the law while working for FDLE. Not only did Kathy Smith obstruct justice while investigating the Eimers murder but now she’s gotten a seven month paid vacation while being investigated for mortgage fraud. Doesn’t anyone else wonder why it took seven months to determine that the statute of limitations had expired?

  4. suffice it to say the eimers case is so riddled with misfeasance malfeasance nonfeasance and any other feasance if there was such that one only needs be a moronic idiot to give a breath of credence to any of the players in this fiasco of lies wink n nod cover up and damnable criminal actions.

    and this applies to everyone from the city commission and city management to the chief criminal lee along with the f-bomb butt boy lovett and all the individual police who contributed to and supported this crime of murder/manslaughter that occurred on that day of infamy in the sand of the beach at duval street’s south end for make no mistake that was the day Charles Eimers died and to hell with the ‘official’ death certificate a week or so later after the ‘machinery’ was removed….
    no he died that day so obvious by his totally sand caked face in the 2nd video indeed from being asphyxiated by the thugs with badges and guns playing out some swat television show theme.

    and a special thumbs down to fdle and their con-job and our very own states attorney vogel with her grand jury circus act.

    they will all rot for their heinous crimes against truth justice fair play and equity and for violating their respective oaths of office to uphold the constitution of our country which apparently is meaningless to them.

    key west will forever be changed in the view of many.
    Charles Eimers R.I.P.

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