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Pinellas deputy accused of having inappropriate relations with women he met on calls

Deputy Frederick Post resigned amid an internal affairs investigation.
 
A Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office deputy has resigned after he was accused of having inappropriate relationships with women he met on calls, according to an internal affairs report made public by the agency this week. This photo shows a deputy vehicle being used to block traffic in September.
A Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office deputy has resigned after he was accused of having inappropriate relationships with women he met on calls, according to an internal affairs report made public by the agency this week. This photo shows a deputy vehicle being used to block traffic in September. [ JEFFEREE WOO | Times ]
Published Jan. 31, 2023|Updated Feb. 1, 2023

A Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office deputy has resigned after he was accused of having inappropriate relationships with women he met on calls, according to an internal affairs report made public by the agency this week.

Deputy Frederick Post, 40, resigned in late December. He had worked for the sheriff’s office since 2013.

The internal affairs investigation began on Nov. 12 after a partner of one of the women contacted the sheriff’s office about the deputy’s conduct. Internal affairs investigators then spoke to three women who said Post had pursued relationships with them, including one that included a meet-up where Post and the woman had sex. Another woman said Post prompted a relationship where the two exchanged explicit photos, and a third woman said she believed he was trying to get her to send nudes, though they never exchanged explicit photos.

The investigation ended when Post resigned.

If the investigation had concluded with a finding that the allegations were substantiated, Post would have been terminated, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told the Tampa Bay Times in an interview.

“The allegations are serious,” he said.

Post had previously received an 8-hour suspension in 2020 after he ran the license plate of a woman he met at a Wawa while on patrol. He exchanged social media information with the woman and they messaged for about a month, according to that internal affairs case.

Post did not return a request for comment left on his phone number by a Times reporter. He also did not respond to a message left with an attorney who had represented him during the internal affairs case.

Post’s alleged involvement with the first woman began on Aug. 7 when he responded to a call in which the woman reported she was being harassed online.

During that interaction, Post and the woman discussed tattoos and she mentioned she was a tattoo artist. He told her he wanted to extend his tattoo sleeve and gave the woman his cell phone number, she said in an interview during the investigation. She later reached out to him and he told her he preferred to communicate over Snapchat.

The two began a consensual affair over Snapchat, during which Post sent her sexually explicit text messages and pictures, the woman said. Both she and Post were married.

The woman did not have a driver’s license and Post told her where deputies were conducting traffic stops so she could avoid getting pulled over, the woman said.

Post and the woman met up once to have sex while her husband was gone, she said. She said Post drove his cruiser and was in uniform, but she believed Post was off-duty because it was after his normal work hours. The last time they talked was in early November.

The woman said she was in some trouble with the law and she worried telling law enforcement about Post would cause retaliation.

In an interview with a Times reporter on Tuesday, the woman said she was disgusted with Post’s actions. He received her phone number from an incident report and then asked for her Snapchat information, she said. Post then messaged her daily asking her to meet him, she said.

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”You know in hindsight, of course, 20/20, it’s disgusting for someone in that profession to pretty much prey upon someone vulnerable already,” said the woman, who the Times is not naming because of the nature of the allegations.

Post also had begun sexting with another woman he met on a call around the same time, according to the internal affairs investigation.

In September, Post helped investigate reports of shots fired near the Lealman Fire Department station. During that investigation, he met a woman and her partner, who was arrested in connection with the incident.

In early October, the woman received a call from the Sheriff’s Office. She called Post to ask if it was him, according to the internal affairs case. He said it wasn’t, but asked about the woman’s Snapchat, she told the sheriff’s office during the internal affairs investigation. She accepted his friend request on Snapchat, which had been pending, and he asked for pictures of her that same day, she said.

The two began exchanging messages, pictures and videos, some of which were sexually explicit, the woman told the sheriff’s office. They stopped talking around Nov. 11 after they got into an argument: The woman’s on-again, off-again partner — who had been arrested in the September incident — had found the messages and reached out to Post.

The man reported the messages to the sheriff’s office on Nov. 12. The woman, who the Times is not naming because of the nature of the allegations, also emailed the sheriff’s office about the messages. She later told the agency during the internal affairs case that she felt Post could arrest her in connection with the September incident if she didn’t send him photos.

During the internal affairs investigation, the sheriff’s office also interviewed Shelby McNeil. She said she met Post during an investigation after her ex-boyfriend broke into her parents’ house. Post also came to her workplace after it was robbed and asked for her Snapchat, she said. They texted on and off for a week or two but didn’t exchange any explicit photos or videos. She said she believed that Post was implying in his messages that he wanted her to send nudes.

McNeil, who agreed to be named in this story, said she had called the the sheriff’s office about a couple of separate cases, and in those instances Post responded.

Post asked for McNeil’s Snapchat when he responded to one of her calls, she said. McNeil said Post told her if she wanted to send anything private or personal, to send it over Snapchat and not on his work cell phone.

In an interview with the Times on Tuesday, McNeil said she felt Post was taking advantage of women and not doing his job.

“He doesn’t deserve to be a cop,” McNeil said. “You’re not supposed to go to people who are vulnerable and in need or scared or in danger or whatever the case may be, and press yourself on them just because you’re the law.”