'Wild' video costs Punta Gorda officer her job

Gina Wiseley is fired for showing film while on duty.

By KEVIN DALE
kevin.dale@heraldtribune.com

PUNTA GORDA -- A Punta Gorda police officer featured in a "Girls Gone Wild"-style video six years ago has been fired following claims she showed the film to a detective while the two were on duty.

Other officers also viewed, on a computer at work, the graphic video of Gina Wiseley, according to an internal investigation.

One sergeant, Craig Brandon, was suspended without pay for viewing the video, which had made its way to the Internet.

Wiseley called the public-exhibition film "the video that ruined my life," according to the investigative report by Capt. David Lipker.

The graphic clip shows Wiseley partying on a Key West street during the city's 2001 Fantasy Fest.

The video drew attention in 2005 when Wiseley was an eight-year officer with the Lee County Sheriff's Office.

She resigned after investigators there looked into the video. At the time, the video was publicized through local TV news stories.

Punta Gorda police officials were aware of the video and its graphic content when they hired Wiseley in October, Deputy Chief Albert "Butch" Arenal said in a Feb. 22 interview.

"She is an experienced officer and detective, and she made a mistake not related to her duty," Arenal said. "We're prepared to defend our (hiring) decision."

However, the department fired Wiseley a week later. The investigation started in late January, after superiors learned that detective Harvey Ayers had told some co-workers that Wiseley showed him the video from a laptop inside her patrol car.

After a wide-ranging, 23-day probe, Lipker didn't find enough proof to support Ayers' claim that Wiseley showed him the video.

"I was a little shocked that she showed it to me, and why she showed it to me I wasn't sure," Ayers told investigators.

He recalled saying: "So that's the infamous video?"

Wiseley denied Ayers' account and provided an opposite one, according to the investigative report. "At no time did I ever do that," she said.

Wiseley said she called Ayers to her patrol car, but only to seek his opinion about a legal document she was drafting in a matter with her ex-husband, the report said.

Wiseley, who refused an offer to resign, was fired Feb. 27 because she called Ayers soon after she learned of the investigation against her. The call is considered a violation of department policy, according to the written conclusions on the investigation.

Wiseley, who was still a probationary employee, told investigators she called Ayers "because I wanted to know why he's lying ... I did it because I was horrified with the allegations," according to the report.

Last modified: March 20. 2007 9:33AM
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