JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville Sheriff’s officer facing battery and false imprisonment charges involving a domestic violence victim has been the subject of multiple past internal investigations, according to documents provided by JSO.
John C. Burgos has been stripped of all police authority, suspended, without pay, and will be terminated Director of Personnel and Professional Standards Brian Kee said during a news conference on Thursday announcing his arrest.
Burgos' arrest report said after conducting a domestic violence investigation which led to the arrest of the victim’s boyfriend, Burgos returned to the scene of the crime, still acting as a law enforcement officer. The arrest report said during the exchange, at one point, Burgos prevented the victim from leaving and touched her without consent.
A look at Burgos' administrative investigation history indicates multiple incidents where Burgos faced disciplinary action following seven separate investigations.
The documents, which don’t go into detail, show in 2020, Burgos was in two separate officer-involved vehicle accidents. In the earlier incident, he received informal counseling and remedial training. In the later investigation, he received formal counseling and remedial training. He was involved in another crash in 2023.
The documents also show in 2021, Burgos was the subject of a citizen complaint for rudeness. He also faced an in-house complaint in 2022 for a secondary employment violation. For these incidents, he received both formal and informal counseling.
Then, in 2022, he received a written reprimand for failure to conform to work standards. He was exonerated of a rudeness allegation.
Most seriously, another in-house complaint was received in 2022. The allegations listed as part of the complaint included the violation of weapons policy, failure to conform to work standards, and incompetence. A related departure from the truth allegation was found to be not sustained. For these incidents, the report shows Burgos received a more serious written reprimand.
“We take our internal investigations very seriously,” Kee said. “And if someone is getting worse, then it involves progressive discipline all the way to termination. So, he never did anything to get terminated, but he was certainly working towards that and being monitored by his supervisors.”
News4JAX Crime and Safety Analyst Tom Hackney served with JSO for more than 30 years, many of which as a supervisor.
“A strong effort is made by the sheriff‘s office to look for these types of violations, for these types of officers to really keep an eye on them, to make sure that these things don’t happen,” Hackney said. “It’s an absolute crying shame and criminal that this happened to this victim.”
Hackney explained the challenges that can come with firing officers with multiple disciplinary questions.
“There’s union protections,” Hackney said. “The officers that are members of the union. Between contractual obligations, between the FOP union, and the sheriff’s office, city of Jacksonville, some of the job protections that they have, are good things. Absolutely good things. However, sometimes they can be stumbling blocks toward removing that bad apple.”
Burgos had his first appearance in court Thursday afternoon. His bond was set at $30,000. He was ordered to not come in contact with the victim and to wear GPS monitoring.
