You can click here and take your pick of news articles about it.
Here's an example:
A Department of Children and Families spokesman arrested on child pornography charges met one victim who was in state care through his job, Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey said Monday afternoon.
Al Zimmerman, 40, allegedly offered at least two male teenagers, ages 16 and 17, money in exchange for photographing them in sexual acts. He wanted nude pictures of them so he could make child pornography, according to a probable cause affidavit.
To DCF's credit, they've fired Zimmerman, and DCF websites and the State 411 directory are already being sanitized of any mention of him.
But he's out on bail, which means he's free to do things like delete his myspace page.
But there's this thing called a cache.... Click here for Mr. Al Zimmerman's MySpace page, which he last logged into on 1/28/08, courtesy of DependencyDefense.com. Sorry, but the "view my pics" link is already deleted and no cache available.
This is a horrific story, and I pray that the kid he allegedly photographed in Orange County isn't from one of my attorney ad litem cases. I also pray that DCF is forthcoming, at least to the applicable judges, about who the victims are.
Beside the creepy citing of a youth camp in New Hampshire as one of his "groups", the cached myspace page has some other items of note:
1. "Status: Swinger"
2. "Occupation: Press Secretary State of Florida
Tallahassee, Florida US
Press Secretary
DCF"
3. Comment from a "friend": "how's the syphilis treating you?"
4. Comment from a "friend": "shouldn't you be at work?"
5. Comment from a "friend": "still flying around on the company dime?"
6. Exchange between DCF spokesman and a "friend" between December 3 and 5, 2007, seems to be setting up a "swap" between friend's girlfriend and DCF spokesman's sister. Just hanging it all out there on the internet and all.
It's a shame that the random "friends" of Mr. Zimmerman on his MySpace page are immortalized here. I suppose there's an object lesson there.
2 comments:
The missing part of this story is how he ended up being hired in the first place. In addition to not having a background check, Zimmerman was also not required to submit a standard state employment application. None of his former employers were contacted before or after DCF hired him.
To me, this looks like a clear cut case of patronage gone wrong.
Zimmerman had connections with then Attorney General Charlie Christ, the Tampa Police Department, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue and Brighthouse Cable Networks. It appears that he dropped a few of these names on his resume and that's all it took to land a fulltime job with DCF.
Instead of being hired based on merit, experience and background, Zimmerman was hired based on his high profile connections. Hiring policy was disregarded and overlooked. Favors were called in. Based on my experience with state government, it's safe to say this isn't an isolated incident.
Unfortunately, for everyone concerned, this is what you might call a "worst case scenario."
Zimmerman is pretty much done. His career is effectively ruined and, depending on the outcome of his trial, he could spend many years in prison. However, his individual punishment does not really address how to prevent the circumstances that lead to this incident from happening again.
Bob Butterworth is initiating a full scale review of DCF's active 13,500 personnel records. Even a cursory examination of those records is liable to uncover a great deal of inconsistency, patronage, and out right graft. The ball will be in Butterworth's court on how to play it. Full disclosure could damage the former Jeb Bush and current Charlie Christ administrations a great deal. Or, Butterworth could compromise and trade favors for the advancement of his personal agenda; which may or may not coincide with the welfare of Florida's children and families.
It is amazing that this kind of information does not appear in the paper. Victimizing children who have already been victimized is unconscionable. Unfortunately, after dealing with DCF all these years, I don't find it a bit surprising.
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