"SERVING ALL OF FLORIDA"
Lynum is found not guilty of grand theft charge
By BILL GRAF
After less than an hour of deliberation Tuesday afternoon, a Lake County jury found former Wildwood Police Chief Ed Lynum not guilty of grand theft.
Lynum appeared visibly relieved at the verdict. Moments after walking from the courtroom with his attorney, family and friends, the 56-year-old veteran law officer's eyes were red and teary as he shook hands and celebrated the jury's decision.
"I knew I wasn't guilty," he said.
"I plan to go back to the construction business, then sometime soon retire from everything," said Lynum, adding that he has accumulated more than 30 years toward state retirement and plans to tap into that soon.
Orlando attorney Russell Troutman, who represented Lynum during the two-day trial, said he and Lynum have discussed a possible civil suit claiming wrongful prosecution. But, Troutman said no decision has been reached about filing the claim.
Lynum, who served 10 years as chief before resigning in April 1986, was accused of pawning a .32-caliber handgun that was being kept as evidence. Witnesses testified that the gun was confiscated by police at the Canadian border. The gun was shipped to Wildwood police when registration showed it belonged to Felix Thomas, formerly of Wildwood.
Thomas is still being sought on charges of aggravated assault and unlawful exhibition of a firearm, stemming from a confrontation with Wildwood resident Oscar Small in September 1982, prosecutor Ric Howard said. Small's wife and child left Wildwood with Thomas, but were later killed in a car accident in North Carolina while traveling with Thomas.
Former Wildwood police Sgt. Dexter Lillard testified Monday that Canadian authorities shipped the gun to Orlando International Airport, where he picked it up on Feb. 24, 1983. Upon returning to the police station, Lillard said Lynum ordered him to sell the gun at Wildwood's Nordic Pawn Shop. The $40 check received from the sale of the gun was deposited in a police department account, Lillard said.
Charles Kiehl, an officer at the Wildwood department in February 1983, testified that he was in the room when Lynum ordered Lillard to sell the gun. Lillard, however, said he did not remember Kiehl being there when the order was given.
Troutman did not put on a defense case, instead relying on the cross-examination of prosecution witnesses to disprove the accusations.
Lillard could not answer 17 questions about the gun sale, the Felix Thomas case and his tenure at the department, which were posed by Troutman during cross-examination.
"He couldn't even tell me the year of the civil dispute at the Smalls'," Troutman said during closing arguments.
On cross-examination, Kiehl testified that he kept notes about the gun sale in a personal file.
"In case you had problems with Chief Lynum?" Troutman asked. "Yes sir," Kiehl said, adding that he had received a number of reprimands from the chief especially after pushing for the formation of a police union in Wildwood.
Troutman's "first line of defense" was his claim that the prosecutors failed to show criminal intent. Secondly, he said he was not convinced that the gun was ever pawned. And finally, he said, the state failed to prove that the gun belonged to the city of Wildwood as stated in the document charging Lynum with theft.
Howard tried in vain to include in the instructions for the jury Florida laws that dictate that police chiefs should turn unwanted guns over to the county sheriff. Troutman argued that Lynum was not charged with improperly disposing of the gun, and Howard's motion was overruled. However, the only question posed by the jury before they reached a verdict was about Florida laws on the disposition of unwanted firearms.
Moments after the question, Circuit Judge John Booth told jury members they had to rely on the evidence presented in court, then asked them to return to the jury room to decide whether they wanted to go home and return in the morning, or continue until they reached a verdict. The verdict was returned less than five minutes later.
From:
Leesburg/Commercial
Wed. May 20, 1987
Troutman, Williams, Irvin, Green, Helms & Polich, P.A.
311 W. Fairbanks Avenue - Winter Park, Florida 32789 - Phone: (407) 647-2277