OLDSMAR, Fla. — A local family is planning to sue the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office after a mix-up led to guns being drawn on a father and his teen daughter. The incident unfolded on January 1 and lasted for about 20 minutes.
10 Tampa Bay obtained body camera and dash camera video, showing the incident from multiple viewpoints. There is about 90 minutes of video that shows how a typo led to guns drawn and pointed at Jason Frederico and his 16-year-old daughter.
"Driver, step out of the vehicle," a deputy yells at Frederico. "Driver and all passengers-- hands up."
Frederico complies with the deputy's commands, not knowing why he was pulled over with guns drawn and pointed at him.
"The dad was taking the daughter home to mom's house after having a nice dinner," TJ Grimaldi, an attorney representing Frederico and his daughter, said.
Frederico is detained in handcuffs and put in the back of a sheriff's vehicle. Then the guns point towards his daughter.
"She's 16 years old," Frederico pleads.
"That's okay," a deputy replies.
"You have a gun on her — she's got epilepsy. What is going on? What are you doing?" Frederico asks. "Just her, she's she's a special needs child."
As Frederico continues to try to reason with law enforcement, he watches as his daughter is detained in handcuffs while multiple guns are pointed at her.
Minutes later, dash cam audio captures a deputy request the license plate of the vehicle be run again.
"That's not signal 10. The license that was run was November Mike Lima seven six nine... that one is signal ten," the deputy says. A signal 10 is the law enforcement code for a stolen vehicle.
They ran the wrong tags. Frederico's tag is "NMLY69" while the stolen car's tag is "NML769."
"I think that a lawsuit is necessary for my clients to be vindicated and that, hopefully, the sheriff gets the understanding that this is a problem," Grimaldi shared.
Guns were then lowered and handcuffs were removed. A law enforcement officer apologized to Frederico for the mistake.
"I'm sure they said but I am truly sorry that you had to go through this," a deputy said.
"Three, three of those guys, they had guns on her," Frederico responded. "What if she, like, made a sudden move she wasn't aware of...?"
"And luckily she didn't," the deputy said.
Frederico's attorney has filed a notice of intent to sue. Because the lawsuit is against sovereign immunity, notice is required.
"I'll be suing over negligence as a result of the officer creating the typo," Grimaldi said. "And then the incident that occurred afterward. And then I'm also going to be most likely suing for negligent hiring and training. Because it is clear, especially now that this video is out there, it is clear that not only is this officer not trained appropriately, but it sounds like there's some sort of systemic issue that officers on this exact shift, have a problem. So whether it's the officer in question that has the issue, or his training superior, someone is dropping the ball."
After the deputies walked away, their cameras caught some colorful words.
"Well that sucks," the deputy responsible for inputting the wrong license plate said.
"This is what I'm f*cking talking about," a female deputy said. "People on this g*dd*mn shift not knowing what the f*ck they're doing"
"Yeah, people make mistakes," the deputy responsible for the traffic stop shouted. "Get over yourself..."
"You could have gotten somebody killed," another deputy said back.
10 Tampa Bay reached out to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office on the incident, asking how this mistake was made, how license plate readers are used, and what the protocols are when an event like this happens.
"Due to pending litigation, we have no comment," a sheriff's office spokesperson responded via email.
Along with body and dash camera footage, 10 Tampa Bay obtained the case report made on the traffic stop. This is what the report said:
"On January 1, 2024, at 1923 hours, I queried a FL license plate as "NML769" attached to a newer modeled Kia Forte into FCIC/ NCIC as I was driving eastbound along Tampa Rd approaching Shady Oaks Blvd. Dispatch immediately advised of a Stolen Vehicle hit. At this time, the vehicle had stopped at the Tampa Rd/ Shady Oaks Dr. traffic signal. Once the light turned green, the vehicle continued eastbound along Tampa Rd before making a northbound, left-handed turn onto Bay Arbor Blvd before coming to a stop. I immediately activated my overhead emergency lights and challenged the occupants within along Deputy June #61496. The driver and passenger were given commands at gun point to exit the vehicle separately and apart from one another where they were both temporarily secured in handcuffs. It should be noted, a deputy arriving on scene advised the vehicle's plate was queried incorrectly, and the vehicle was not stolen. The tag attached to the vehicle was a FL tag of "NMLY69." The tag originally queried was ran as FL, "NML769" which comes back to a New Mexico license plate attached to a Stolen Vehicle. Both subjects were immediately removed from handcuffs. The driver was identified as Jason Daniel Federico...[daughter's name redacted]. Jason advised his daughter was epileptic, therefore, the emergency lights were turned off immediately. Both subjects involved were apologized to for the error. I advised Jason I made an administrative error in querying the vehicle and was alerted to a Stolen Vehicle. Jason was provided the case number, my name and badge number for his records."
Frederico's daughter's name was removed from the above report.
Malique Rankin is a general assignment reporter with 10 Tampa Bay. You can email her story ideas at mrankin@10tampabay.com and follow her Facebook, X, and Instagram pages.