The State Attorney’s Office has decided not to pursue criminal charges against the 15-year-old Central Florida boy who said he was only trying to help a three-year-old tot, a release said on Tuesday. This decision comes one day after Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings wrote to the State Attorney’s Office asking that formal charges not be pursued.
“This afternoon the State declined to file criminal charges in the investigation related to McFarland, Edwin (sic). The Sate will not make any additional comments. There are no public records available at this time,” the release from the State Attorney’s Office said.
Edwin McFarlane had been arrested on June 10, after he had accompanied a three-year-old tot whom he thought was separated from her mom, out of a Burlington Coat Factory on west Colonial Road. McFarlane had said from the outset that he was just trying to help the child find her mom. Prior to leaving the store, McFarlane said he had told his mother that he was going to help the girl find her mommy.
In related developments, the Orange County Sheriff’s office has its own internal investigation taking place, after a source close to the McFarlane investigation discussed the case with someone outside the agency and who posted the information on a popular internet blog site.
According to Local 6, the individual being investigated in the Sheriff’s office is, high-ranking Major Frank Fabrizio, who it seems discussed the McFarlane case with his daughter, who blogged about it. Moreover, it would appear that Fabrizio was aware that his daughter would be writing about the case on the internet.
It is not the only incident in which the same blogger has posted details of high profile cases of Sheriff’s office investigations on the internet, reports Local 6.
Demings has said publicly, his letter to the State Attorney’s Office requesting that no formal charges be brought against McFarlane, came about because he believed the teenager could not get a fair trial, although he indicated in his communication, “there was probable cause for the arrest.”
Meanwhile, Natalie Jackson, one of McFarlane’s attorneys, earlier this month, called upon the Sheriff’s Office to do an administrative expungement of her client’s arrest record. It is not clear when and if they will take place.
But, for now, Sheriff Demings has his hands full with the ongoing internal investigation on the breaches surrounding the McFarlane case.
Sooner or later too, it may well be that his Office could be facing a multi-million dollar law suit.
