FL: A third Boynton Beach police officer arrested this week

A third Boynton Beach police officer was arrested this week, this time for allegedly planting a gun on a suspect, the State Attorney's Office said. Officer Alex Lindsey, 28, was arrested Friday, charged with official misconduct and faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

Lindsey arrested Jeffrey Pugh, 42, of Boynton Beach, in December on drug and gun charges and the case was adopted by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

During trial preparation a copy of the booking video was requested and Lindsey admitted he lied about the gun, his arrest report shows.

"The arrest today of Officer Lindsey, and the arrests of Officer Michael Mulcahy and former Officer Michael Arco earlier this week, are not indicative of the consistently dedicated service and integrity of the men and women of the Boynton Beach Police Department," Police Chief Matthew Immler said in a statement.

"The case against Lindsey, along with the other recently filed cases against [Boynton Beach police] officers, illustrates our commitment to the profession and the community."

Michael Mulcahy, 29, and former officer Michael Arco, 26, turned themselves in at the Palm Beach County Jail on Tuesday.

Their arrests stem from an internal police investigation claiming they lied about the details of an arrest they made at the Golden Sands Inn on Southeast 21st Avenue. Mulcahy and Arco wrote in their reports that they knocked on the door of an armed robbery suspect's motel room and arrested him as he tried to back away.

Their supervising sergeant, who was suspicious of their story, talked to the motel manager, who said he unlocked the motel room door for the pair at their request, according to a report from the State Attorney's Public Integrity Unit. The two did not have the right to enter the room the way they did without a search warrant, their sergeant later said in the report.

In early July, Boynton Beach police suffered a blow as its 2010 Officer of the Year was indicted on federal meth trafficking charges. David Britto, 28, pleaded not guilty to the charges and was ordered to live under curfew and with an ankle monitor at his mother's house in Coral Springs pending court proceedings.

Original report here



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