Under Fire, Sgt. Matt Mortimer Quits Troubled Bunnell Police–and Applies to be Deputy at Flagler Sheriff’s Office

No sooner had Mortimer resigned than he applied to be a cop with the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office. “Mortimer has applied,” the Sheriff’s Chief Mark Strobridge said today. “We have not reviewed it yet.”

In less than a month, the Bunnell Police Department–a force of about nine uniformed officers–lost its chief and two top officers in Sgts. Mortimer and Dominic Guida, who died on Nov. 9 during a training exercise. Foster, who resigned on Dec. 2, said Guida’s death affected him to the point that he had decided to retire. Neither his resignation letter, a city news release nor City Manager Alvin Jackson, in an interview, spoke of the more serious issues that had led to the resignation, which was essentially forced on Foster, if not on Mortimer as well. The nine-page disciplinary report, a written reprimand and a 30-day ultimatum to execute 16 corrective actions, was an unexpected capstone to Foster’s career.

One of the issues Jackson cited in the report was Foster’s failure to submit the last evaluation of Mortimer to him in a timely way, before Foster had met with Mortimer to give him the evaluation. By then Jackson had learned from others in the police department of allegations of grave problems involving Mortimer.

“The City Manager was approached in face to face meetings with concerns,” the city clerk told FlaglerLive about inquiries about a written document outlining the issues police officers had at the department. So there apparently was no written document. But Jackson’s disciplinary report to Foster made the issues explicit, citing “negative attitudes/actions of Sgt. Mortimer,” “How he (Mortimer) talks down to officers,” “retaliates toward officers if they complain,” sets poor leadership examples, fails to turn on his GPS, and “taking off the days when he wants and not being considerate of others.”




Based on Jackson’s interpretation of conditions at the department, Foster had taken no action to correct Mortimer’s behavior, leading officers to consider him protected and to see inequitable treatment of personnel at the agency–including the “badmouthing” of officers and the “bullying” of officers, directly and indirectly.

Immediately after Foster’s resignation, Jackson hired Brannon Snead, formerly with the Florida Highway Patrol and in the last four and a half years a reserve officer in Gretna, to the interim chief post, a post briefly held by Shane Groth, one of Bunnell’s police officers. It was to Groth that Mortimer tendered his resignation, in which he thanked the city but did not say why he was resigning.

On Monday, the Bunnell City Commission met for the first time since the upheaval at the department. It was as if the commission was in an alternate universe. Commission meetings usually celebrate any arrivals or promotions at the police department. In this case, other than acknowledgement of Snead, who was present, there was not a word from the city manager–no explanation, no reference to any departures, no reassurances about what may be ahead. Ironically, a local business owner of a gun shop had asked to make a brief presentation to the police department–what’s left of it–calling it “an incredible, incredible group of people.” As a “token of good will, and like a Merry Christmas,” he said, he’d prepared a bag with “an extra set of handcuffs, a double-handcuff holder, a lighten handcuff key, and a flashlight” for each of the officers.

The mayor asked the city attorney if there was an issue accepting the gifts. “Not at all,” the attorney said. (Most local governments have strict policies against accepting gifts that are above a certain value.) When Jackson’s turn came to speak at the end, under the city manager’s report, he had nothing. Commissioners devoted all their discussions of non-agenda items to the previous Friday’s Christmas in Bunnell event. The scene was reminiscent of the early 2010s when the police department was mired in a different set of issues and the city commission kept on a happy face, which–with Mayor Catherine Robinson’s exception–did not help commissioners keep their seats at the time.

Shortly after noon today, the city issued two releases, one of them announcing the posting of the job for police chief, which may be a mere formality required by law, and the announcement of the elevation of Shane Groth and Scott Bagwell from corporal to sergeant. The city hired Bagwell in 2014, Groth in 2013. Groth has had a previous disciplinary issue involving the ridiculing of Trayvon Martin’s killing by George Zimmerman in 2013. Groth was the Flagler Kiwanis Club’s Officer of the Year two years later.




Mortimer, 36, joined the Bunnell Police Department in 2005. He was promoted to corporal in August 2007. His personnel file includes several letters of appreciation naming him, among others, for particular instances of exemplary service. It also includes mostly “average” inspection reports of his weapon, uniform and professional appearance, vehicle and so on, though those inspections appear to have been conducted only for a few years.

More seriously, one document lists a “chronology” of issues involving Mortimer in 2008, including an off-duty incident in St. Johns County which Mortimer failed to report to authorities there–until he was located by a St. Johns County deputy, even though it was his duty to report the incident.

“Cpl Mortimer has a prior written reprimand for failing to report an off duty incident,” the document states, though no such reprimand appears in his personnel file.

The St. Johns County incident involved “possible road rage,” according to a Sept. 7, 2007 St. Johns County Sheriff’s report. A St. Johns deputy stopped an “extremely agitated” driver who’d sped away from the scene the deputies were dispatched to investigate. The deriver described a confrontation with another driver, who turned out to be Mortimer. The driver “stated that the other driver got out his vehicle and was cursing at him and produced a weapon and a Sheriff’s badge and identified himself as a Deputy Sheriff,” according to the incident report.  The driver gave deputies an approximate tag number and a description of the other vehicle, which deputies stopped soon after. Mortimer was at the wheel. He identified himself as a Bunnell police officer. Mortimer said the other driver had come at him with a tire iron so he took out his badge and drew his weapon, warning the driver to get back in his vehicle.

Mortimer got a written reprimand and two-day suspension.




The chronology also lists failures to complete the report of a domestic violence incident, failure to complete paperwork, failure to appear in court on a case, and “continuing performance deficiencies.” In April 2008, he got two disciplinary actions, including a written warning for “Neglect-Failure to perform duties” and a written warning for not following an order. One of those issues involved the failure to report a natural death he’d investigated. He’d violated procedures by failing to notify the police chief (at the time, Armando Martinez, who would eventually become city manager).

“Yeah, I got lazy,” Mortimer is reported to have said after being served the warnings, according to the document. (See the disciplinary documents and the report of the road rage incident here.)

No other disciplinary documents are in the file. In 2011, he’d been the department’s field training officer. He asked to resign, citing personal reasons. Then-Police Chief Arthu Jones accepted the resignation.

Mortimer was last evaluated in October. The evaluation was conducted by Foster. Foster was required to change the evaluation after Jackson saw it, lowering what had already been lower grades regarding collaboration and teamwork, and communication, each category getting lowered from “effective” to “needs improvement,” the lowest grade possible. Mortimer refused to sign off on the changes. For that matter, Foster did not sign off on the new changes, either: both his and Mortimer’s initial signatures were dated Nov. 3.

Foster had added notes on each change, specifying that “based on new information provided by the CM,” the city manager, “Matt needs to improve in this area.” Notably, Foster did not take responsibility for the “new information.” The points total on the evaluation were not changed accordingly. Mortimer in the original  evaluation had scored 22 out of a possible 24 points. The revised evaluation’s score would have had to be 20 out of 24.

Mortimer’s evaluation the previous year garnered a perfect 24-point score. The year before that, he was at 21 points, getting lower marks on the same areas that p[roved problematic this year–teamwork, collaboration, communication. But the evaluation still concluded on glowing terms: “Actively cooperates  with supervision. Goes out of his way to assist others. Exhibits a positive attitude toward work and the City. Accepts criticism and is a strong force in group morale.” For several years before that, Foster was stingy with “outstanding” marks for Mortimer, rating him merely as “above standards” in most regards. One of the evaluations alluded to his work ethic: “I would like to see improvement in Corporal Mortimer’s work productivity, by setting a higher standard so his squad follows.”