Since allegations emerged about a June incident involving three Spring Hill firefighters and a woman in an Altamonte Springs hotel room, the firefighters have declined to talk about it.
On Wednesday, the State Attorney’s Office in Seminole County released documents detailing the stories the firefighters told investigators during the course of the recent investigation.
Prosecutors last week announced they lacked sufficient evidence to charge the firefighters with rape, as alleged by the 32-year-old Spring Hill woman.
One firefighter, Thomas White, 38, told investigators the woman came on to him and he had sex with her. Another firefighter, Edward Falk, 39, said the woman performed oral sex on him. And the third, Lt. John Ferriero, 39, told police that he remembered oral sex, but didn’t recall having intercourse with the woman. But, he said, “it could have happened,” a report states.
The firefighters told police that the woman was alert and consented to the sex acts.
The woman maintains that the men took advantage of her. The Times is withholding her name because of the nature of the allegations.
The firefighters have been on paid leave since August. Spring Hill Fire Rescue soon is expected to begin an internal investigation to see whether the firefighters violated district policies.
Under oath, Ferriero told an Altamonte Springs police detective that he and the two firefighters spent an evening drinking with the woman and then returned to his hotel room.
He said the woman was “coming on to him and being very flirtatious,” a report states. He said he remembered the woman performing oral sex but did not recall whether they had intercourse.
He then asked the detective to stop the tape and ended the interview, records show.
Falk told the detective that he had invited the woman to the convention.
He called the woman “flamboyant.” She made it clear that she wanted to “fool around with someone,” Falk told investigators.
The woman wanted to return to Falk’s hotel room, he told investigators, but he told her no.
He told the detective that he did not know whether Ferriero and White had sex with the woman as they did not discuss it.
White said the woman asked him to stay in the room as the other firefighters went to the hotel lounge. He said she pulled him on the bed, kissed him and they had intercourse.
About two weeks later, White said, Ferriero called him and said there was a lot of talk around the fire station about the woman. Ferriero, who was the union president, instructed White to tell other firefighters to “keep their mouth closed,” the report states.
Falk told White that the woman had performed oral sex on him, and Ferriero admitted to having sex with her, White told police.
Jeff Cario, the firefighters’ Spring Hill attorney, said his clients have been unjustly accused by a woman scorned.
“I think these three guys may have made a mistake,” Cario said. “Certainly, they didn’t commit a crime. They’ve been persecuted for it, pretty much by the newspapers. If they weren’t firefighters, this wouldn’t have been in the paper.”
Falk declined to discuss the incident but offered a prepared statement: “Upon the advice of my attorney, I am not discussing this matter while I research possible civil remedies due to me as a result of defamatory statements published about me by various persons and journalists.”
Ferriero and White could not be reached.
he woman on Wednesday said she would not pursue the matter further.
“I plan on moving on with my life,” she said.
_ Jamie Jones covers law enforcement and courts in Hernando County and can be reached at 754-6114. Send e-mail to jjonessptimes.com.
