- May 5, 2024
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A sergeant with the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office was fired May 24 after he used law enforcement databases to run checks on his former wife, her parents and employees of the Sheriff’s Office.
For nearly a decade, Christopher Ragazzo ran unauthorized checks on people using his access to the Sheriff’s Office’s Automated Training Management System and Driving And Vehicle Information Database, an offense that was discovered by Kathy Meyers, a field specialist for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, during a routine audit in November.
The discovery prompted an investigation, during which authorities determined that Ragazzo used two of the Sheriff’s Office’s records improperly dozens of times since 2004 to search for himself, his former wife, his current girlfriend, his former in-laws and non-departmental employees of the Sheriff’s Office.
In November 2012, two days after the county’s general election, Ragazzo ran checks on non-departmental employees of the Sheriff’s Office, including Sheriff-elect Jim Manfre and a handful of people who helped with Manfre’s campaign.
Ragazzo said he ran the names of those who helped with Manfre’s campaign because he heard they were a part of Manfre’s transition team and needed to be trained, the report states. However, the report said that Ragazzo ran the names “assuming” that the men would be hired without the direction or authority to do so. Ragazzo said he ran the other Sheriff’s Office employees through the system to see if they had valid driver’s licenses, which he said was a “common practice,” according to the FDLE investigation.
Ragazzo said he ran his girlfriend’s name because he thought she had a suspended driver’s license. He said he ran the names of his ex-wife and her parents because he knew his mother-in-law was involved in a crash and that he “responded at her request,” the report says.
Raaozzo denied disseminating any information he obtained from the databases. He also denied running some of the names he was accused of, including the name of his daughter’s friend’s father. He told investigators he “did nothing wrong,” according to the report.
However, the FDLE concluded that Ragazzo wrongfully used the agency’s search databases. Manfre signed Ragazzo’s termination letter May 24.
