With Felony Charge Dropped and IA Closed, Flagler Sheriff’s Detective Coma Accepts Discipline for Speeding

Ardit Coma, the Flagler County Sheriff’s detective arrested on a charge of fleeing and eluding by Ormond Beach police last week, will serve a two-day suspension without pay and the loss of his take-home privilege of an agency-issued car for 90 days for speeding on his way to work. 

The State Attorney’s Office dropped the fleeing and eluding charge within four days of Coma’s arrest, a dismissal that underscored the charge’s inappropriateness and likely lack of probable cause. Ormond Beach Police Chief Jesse Godfrey defended the arrest in a statement on Thursday.

Sheriff Rick Staly had immediately suspended Coma without pay over the third-degree felony charge. He was reinstated Monday. The two-day suspension without pay already served is the penalty: he will not have to lose an additional two days. 

“Sheriff Staly believes in accountability and transparency, and Detective Coma accepted full responsibility for his actions and quickly waived a formal disciplinary hearing, which allowed us to resolve this matter quickly once all investigations were completed,” Chief of Staff Mark Strobridge was quoted as saying in a sheriff’s release. 

The sheriff’s internal affairs investigation was as rapid as the State Attorney’s action, following Coma himself filing a “Notice of Expedited Discipline.” 

Two pages of the seven-page IA summarize the arrest and the dismissal of the charge, which left the internal investigator with examining only the speeding issue. Coma had been clocked going 88 in a 55 on U.S. 1. He did not dispute doing so. He’d had an issue getting to work on time previously, had been talked to about it, and that day was speeding to make it to Bunnell on time.

“A review of the reports from the Ormond Beach Police Department was consistent with footage from their Axon Body camera footage,” the internal investigation states. “After a review of the Axon Body camera footage, no interviews were necessary.” 

Coma’s informal statements, if there were any, are not to be made part of the formal record. But FlaglerLive learned that he was deeply regretful of the incident, but also disturbed by the treatment he received at the hands of Ormond police, who went so far as to refuse him water at one point as he was inexplicably held for several hours in a patrol car. 

His speeding amounted to violations of two Sheriff’s Office policies–unbecoming conduct, and violating rules of the road with his agency vehicle. “Personnel shall operate official vehicles in a careful and prudent manner and shall obey all laws and all agency orders pertaining to such operation,” the policy states. 

The IA was completed and signed by all parties today. The Sheriff’s Office announced it in a release late this afternoon. 

“Our employees are held to a higher standard than the average driver, which is why, on top of whatever a court determines the traffic infraction fine to be, he faced additional discipline by the agency to include a suspension and loss of his take-home vehicle privileges,” Strobridge said. “His actions hurt the image of our agency and the trust people have in the men and women who work hard to serve and protect our citizens. It is my hope he will learn from his mistake and move forward solving crimes and seeking justice for victims.”

The release states that the two days’ suspension cost him $851.48 in wages and benefits, though the figure is significantly larger than how it will directly affect Coma: his pre-tax salary is $62,000 (or $340 for two days), and he will not be losing, say, a fraction of his equipment, his insurance or his ammunition, though all those costs are generally included in the full sum of a deputy’s annual cost to the agency. 

Coma, 28, had applied for work at the Ormond Beach Police Department at the same time that he had at the Sheriff’s Office in 2023. He opted to work for the Sheriff’s Office even though he was being offered a job in Ormond (the department had already issued him his name plate).