UPDATED: Clearwater, Florida Chief Jamie Geer fired after arrest on child sex charges. Police say 17-year-old girl was eight when attacks began.
From Christopher Collette & Noah Pransky at WTSP-TV:
Clearwater’s fire chief has been fired after his arrest on capital sexual battery charges.
Jamie Geer, 56, was arrested by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) Monday after a four-month investigation into allegations of sexual battery on a person less than 12 years of age. The crime is a capital felony and, if convicted, Geer could earn life in prison.
The FDLE began investigating Geer, who lives in Dunedin, in August after receiving an anonymous tip that he had an inappropriate relationship with a minor.
Investigators say they learned Geer had numerous sexual encounters with the female victim – now 17 years old – over the past nine years.
He currently faces one count of sexual battery on a person less than 12 years of age and was booked into the Pinellas County Jail. Bond was set at $500,000.
FDLE won’t identify the victim but continues to investigate Geer to see if he had inappropriate relationships with any other minors.
Geer is recently divorced and had two stepchildren.
Shortly after Geer’s arrest, the City of Clearwater terminated his position as the city’s fire chief. Geer has been with the Clearwater Fire Department since August 2004 and came to the department from Tennessee.
“This has nothing to do with the City of Clearwater,” said Jim Madden, Special Agent in Charge of FDLE’s Tampa Bay Regional Operations Center. “It just so happened (Clearwater) is where he worked.”
Deputy Chief Robert Weiss was announced as the interim fire chief.
Geer was hired as fire chief on Aug. 23, 2004. He joined Clearwater Fire & Rescue in the wake of criticism about the department’s handling of a June 2002 blaze at the Dolphin Cove Condominium that killed two people and injured seven others, including three firefighters.
Former Chief Rowland Herald resigned in 2004 after 25 years with the department. A report released months earlier criticized the department’s handling of the Dolphin Cove fire, faulting firefighters for using only one radio channel, which mangled communications, and also blamed a resident for not calling 911 earlier.
According to a message Geer posted on the department’s website, “Leadership skills and experience don’t mean anything if your team members won’t line up behind you and say, ‘OK, let’s go.’ For me, that’s priority number one. What I enjoy most is the sense of pride when people belong to a fire service organization where employees are happy to come to work and perform their best.”
