TALLAHASSEE - As protesters gathered and civil rights leaders headed to town, Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Guy Tunnell decided he had become too much of a lightning rod.
The student protesters knew him by name. They knew him as the former Bay County sheriff who founded the boot camp where a teenager was beaten and later died. They knew him as the leader of the state agency first asked to investigate.
And they knew him as the country boy whose chummy e-mails to friends back in Bay County offered sympathy during the death investigation of Martin Lee Anderson, the 14-year-old who died a day after he was beaten by boot camp guards in January.
So about 6 p.m. Thursday night, Tunnell went to the Governor's Mansion and told Gov. Jeb Bush he would resign.
"I just knew that was what I needed to do," Tunnell told the St. Petersburg Times. "I think the governor needed it. He was in a bad situation. I did it for the good of the order."
Anderson's death started as a small event in the small town of Panama City, but mushroomed into a controversy that cast a long shadow over Tallahassee and the state. Lawmakers are debating whether to shut down or change the way boot camps operate, and Bush was prodded by the recent protests to formally ask the new lead investigator to hurry up.
For Tunnell, it resurrected a long-debated charge that had followed him from Bay County - his sensitivity on racial issues.
Even before the college students, most of them African-American, descended on Bush's office this week to demand arrests in the Anderson case, Tunnell struck the race note again. In a meeting among state agency leaders, he joked about the expected arrival of the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Sen. Barack Obama, two African-American leaders invited to Friday's protest.
Tunnell called them "Jesse James" and "Obama bin Laden."
Word leaked out.
Tunnell said he was joking, trying to bring a little levity to a dour meeting and insisted he "wasn't being derogatory toward those two gentlemen."
On Friday, Bush said the "inappropriate" remarks didn't determine his decision to accept Tunnell's resignation. Bush said it was the cumulative effect of controversy.
"I think he realized it would be difficult to lead the agency and to deal with these perception questions," Bush told reporters Friday. Bush said he reluctantly accepted the resignation, but does agree it was "the right thing to do."
Almost from the beginning, Tunnell drew criticism for the way Anderson's death was handled. So far, there have been two autopsies, the case has been taken out of Bay County and away from the FDLE and given to the state attorney in Hillsborough County, a surveillance videotape of the incident has circled the globe, but no one has been charged.
The criticism peaked when it was revealed that Tunnell was having e-mail exchanges with Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen, who replaced Tunnell as sheriff.
Tunnell said he was merely sympathizing with his old friend, not trying to compromise an investigation. He regrets those e-mails.
"But I can't walk around on eggshells," Tunnell said. "What you see of me is kind of what you get. If there is any difference in state and local politics, it's that folks here (in Tallahassee) aren't always used to getting the straight scoop."
But the perception of a problem was cemented.
"It's vitally important that when government investigates itself that it avoids even the pretense of favoritism," said Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach. "He created a sense that FDLE was on one side. I don't think that FDLE nor the governor wanted that perception."
Tunnell stands 6-feet, 7-inches tall, an imposing figure in any circle. He has spent his entire adult life in law enforcement, most of it in Bay County where he was born.
He started his career in Orange County as a sheriff's deputy, spent six years in the Navy as an investigator and six months as a small town police chief before his 1988 election to the Bay County sheriff's job. Bush and the state Cabinet appointed him to the $124,000-a-year FDLE post in 2003.
At a 2004 confirmation hearing, an issue was made of an opinion in a federal case that was written by U.S. District Judge Stephen Mickle. The case was a civil rights lawsuit that accused Tunnell of discrimination because Bay County sheriff's deputies had raided a club that drew primarily African-American customers in 1997.
Judge Mickle ruled that the complaint had standing, because "it appears that Sheriff Tunnell and the Commission undertook to close the Sun Dancer down solely because the neighbors (and as a consequence they, too) did not want a Black club around," according to federal records.
The case was later dismissed and didn't go to trial.
Tunnell denied the racism charge then, and does so now.
"My Christian beliefs don't allow me to be prejudiced," he adds. "It's like accusing me of malfeasance. I hold honor, duty, integrity, character to the highest standards."
Those who know him support that. Several of the former sheriffs who worked with Tunnell describe him as a dedicated law enforcement officer who never left anyone with doubts about how he felt.
"He is a super cop and a person of great integrity," said Leon County Sheriff Larry Campbell. "I think he resigned to benefit FDLE and the governor. By doing it he took some of the spears and arrows that he felt would come to him instead."
And former state Rep. Scott Clemons of Panama City says Tunnell, an acquaintance of 20 years, never really learned political techniques practiced by many politicians especially when faced by controversy.
"Guy Tunnell is not apt to spin. He's very to the point, but always a gentleman," Clemons said.
Tunnell said he doesn't know what he'll do next. He hopes to spend more time with two young grandchildren. With 33 years in law enforcement, Tunnell could retire with 90 percent of his salary.
"Sometimes I'm my own worst enemy," Tunnell said in reflecting on recent events. "I hope, if nothing else, people know I'm sincere. I don't hold things back."[Last modified April 22, 2006, 06:03:03]
