[FL] Groveland Police KNEW WELL what Jesse Baker had done BEFORE they hired him

Groveland Police Lt. Jesse Baker (center)

"...in spite of the scathing report in which Baker was fired as a wildlife officer, he was hired by Groveland Police Department. The police chief knew about Baker's past but didn't want to talk on camera..."

He is a Lieutenant now
and appears to be 2nd in Command.

Groveland - his home turf.

Some things just beg
to be remembered.

Previous post:

[FL] Sgt. Baker, a pile of screaming articles, & this awful tossing and turning

EXCERPTS FROM PAST NEWS ARTICLES

GAME OFFICER IS ARRESTED IN BEATING
Official's Arrest Just 1 Of Many During Weekend
The Orlando Sentinel
September 15, 1997
By Robert Sargent Jr.
A Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission officer was arrested Sunday on charges that he beat a woman so severely that he broke her collarbone and caused bruises over 75 percent of her body, authorities said... Baker, 39, of Groveland, was being held without bail in the Lake County Jail. He has been placed on administrative leave, said Lt. Joy Hill of the Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission. The couple were fighting at their home when a relative separated them and took the woman to the hospital, according to a police report. Deputies interviewed the woman and then arrested Baker at 1:10 a.m. Sunday, confiscating his badge and a .38-special handgun...

WIFE SUES OVER CASE AGAINST HUSBAND
The Groveland woman, who was bruised over most of her body, blames her manic-depressive illness.
The Orlando Sentinel
November 15, 1997
A woman whose husband was arrested on charges of domestic violence is suing the State Attorney's Office, saying that she didn't complain to authorities about the alleged abuse and that her right to privacy has been been violated... his wife was treated for bruises over 80 percent of her body, a large bump on the back of her head and a collarbone that was separated from her shoulder blade... Pamela Baker states that she suffers from manic-depressive and bipolar disorders, had overdosed on prescription drugs and "has little memory of any events occurring after she ingested the prescription drugs." She said her husband has never hit her in their 18 years of marriage. Jesse Baker, apparently, is sometimes frightened of her, according to the suit. It said he has sometimes seen her lose control and has locked himself in the couple's bedroom, in part to keep prescription drugs away from her. One of the drugs, according to Jesse Baker's criminal attorney, James Hope, is Depakote, an epilepsy medicine used to treat seizures and convulsions. One of the side effects is that it causes bruising... Blair said no one knows what happened. "She took way, way too many pills," Blair said. "She has no memory." The suit said Jesse Baker found his wife nude on the floor and put her in bed to recuperate from her injuries...

WAS IT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE?
Wife says she can't remember how she got cuts, bruises
THE ORLANDO SENTINEL
May 26, 1998
By Frank Stanfield
...Pamela Baker, 44, her body a mass of huge bruises and cuts, her collarbone broken and a shiner under one eye, stares bleakly into the camera lens on Sept. 14, 1997. Some of the bruises in the 8-by-10 color photos are huge, black splotches that cover her buttocks. Others on her body are sickly, yellow areas intersected by nasty-looking cuts. Her legs are a mass of mottling. More than 75 percent of her body was covered in bruises. "I've seen dead people who haven't looked this bad," said Assistant State Attorney Sue Purdy... Pamela Baker said she doesn't remember because she had overdosed on the pills she was taking for the treatment of bipolar disorder, sometimes called manic depression. She figures she probably trashed her house, then kept falling on the debris. One of the side effects of one of the pills she was taking is bruising...

COUPLE IN ABUSE CASE ALLOWED TO STAY TOGETHER
The wife said her injuries were not caused by her husband.
The Orlando Sentinel
June 5, 1998
By Frank Stanfield
A judge in a pending, controversial domestic violence case has ruled that the couple can be reunited even though the parties usually are ordered to stay apart until the matter is resolved....

BATTERY TRIAL DELAYED AGAIN
A possible conflict over lawyers has put off the trial of the former wildlife officer charged with beating his wife.
The Orlando Sentinel
July 24, 1998
By Frank Stanfield
...Not only does his wife, Pamela, not want her husband prosecuted, she even sued the State Attorney's Office asking that charges be dropped... She has speculated she caused the injuries to herself, but she cannot remember...

WOMAN: PAINFUL DAY WAS LOST IN DRUG STUPOR
Pamela Baker says she cannot recall the day she was hospitalized and her
husband was charged with beating her.
The Orlando Sentinel
October 27, 1998
By Frank Stanfield of The Sentinel Staff
Assistant State Attorney Sue Purdy promised jurors they would hear from witnesses who overheard the married couple argue before family members took Pamela Baker to the hospital. "Tell 'em I did it. Just tell 'em I did it," she said of a quote attributed to Jesse Baker. "You know you did it!" Pamela Baker supposedly shouted back. One of the first witnesses called to the stand was Pamela Baker's nephew, Michael Leverett. He testified that Pamela Baker showed up "a little intoxicated" at his home in Umatilla. He drove her to her house in Groveland on Sept. 11, 1997. He said he woke Jesse Baker, who asked, "Did she kill herself?" When he said no, he said, Baker replied: "I wish she had." Later, on cross-examination, Leverett conceded that because it was more than a year ago, he could not remember exactly what his uncle had said. Also testifying was Pamela Baker's sister, Jean McDaniel. McDaniel went to the house when no one answered the phone. She found the house "trashed," with furniture overturned and eggs and food thrown on the floor. She then discovered her sister naked, scraped up and puffy and sprawled on the bed, she said. She said she had seen similar incidents when her sister had abused pills, but conceded it had never been quite that bad. "Did Jesse or somebody do this to you?" she testified that she asked her sister. Baker said no. McDaniel said she asked repeatedly what had happened. "I fell a bunch of times," Baker said...

WOMAN'S BRUISES GET COURT SCRUTINY
Jurors must decide what caused them in the domestic-abuse trial of a Groveland man accused of beating his wife.
The Orlando Sentinel
October 28, 1998
By Frank Stanfield
Were some of the nasty black and blue bruises that covered Pamela Baker's body boot marks? Nurses and a doctor who treated Baker at Florida Hospital-Waterman testified Tuesday that they thought so. One reason, said emergency room nurse Katherine Urquhart, was a remark Baker made to her. "That's a pretty good-sized boot mark on my back, isn't it?" the 44-year-old Groveland woman said while being treated in September 1997... Also Tuesday, emergency room physician Dr. Bill Bernhart testified that he thought a round bruise looked like a boot mark. However, he said he couldn't say with absolute certainty that it was a boot mark. Defense attorney James Hope pressed for an alternative explanation for the mass of bruises on her thighs. He pointed out that family members found a bathtub full of water, a towel rack pulled off the wall, and razors in the tub. She could have fallen and straddled the tub, couldn't she? he asked. Bernhart couldn't accept the theory of how so many bruises ended up on the inside of Pamela Baker's limbs. "A person would have had to have dived head first into a tub." Hope went after the testimony of ER charge nurse Arlene Redmon, who also thought some of the bruises were boot marks... Rebecca Hutcheson said she walked into the middle of an argument when she approached her aunt's home on Sept. 12, 1997. She had learned from other family members earlier that Baker had been found naked, scraped and puffy in a house that had been turned upside down - furniture tipped over, a refrigerator rack pulled out, food and broken glass thrown on the floor. She testified she heard Jesse Baker say: "They're going to blame me for this, too." Pam Baker was quoted as saying, "You did this to me."...

SPOUSE DENIES INJURING WOMAN
He says she went on a rampage, hunting for prescription tranquilizers to
satisfy her addiction.
The Orlando Sentinel
October 29, 1998
By Frank Stanfield
...He said his wife, Pamela Baker, has wild mood swings, is impulsive, hears her dead brother's voice and undergoes periods of hyperactivity, sleeplessness and deep depression. In the hours leading up to her injuries on Sept. 12, 1997, she had gone on a rampage, demanding that he give her pills to satisfy her drug addiction... He said the only injuries he noticed were some red marks on her body. He picked her up, helped her to bed and left for work.... Baker said he had seen it before. He said he was reluctant to take her to the hospital because "all they have done in the past is give her more pills and increase my insurance bill."... Assistant State Attorney Sue Purdy tore into his story. "Were you not concerned enough to call 911?" the prosecutor asked, after reminding jurors that Pamela Baker also suffers from life-threatening seizure disorders.... Jurors also heard from Deputy Sheriff David Pelton, who talked to Pamela Baker at Florida Hospital-Waterman. "She did not understand what happened, that he had never beat her like this before," Pelton said....

BAKER IS FOUND NOT GUILTY
Man Didn't Beat His Wife, Jurors Say
The Orlando Sentinel
October 30, 1998
By Frank Stanfield
Former law enforcement officer Jesse Baker is not guilty of beating his wife, separating her shoulder and covering her body in bruises, a jury decided Thursday. "I'm very glad it's over," Pamela Baker said. "It's been a long year."... Jesse Baker took the stand to explain his wife couldn't remember because of prior injuries, including a car accident, years of severe mental illness and abuse of prescription medicine... Assistant State Attorney Sue Purdy showed picture after picture - more than 60 color blow-ups - of the ugly wounds that covered nearly 90 percent of Pamela Baker's body. Doctors and nurses at Florida Hospital-Waterman speculated some injuries looked like boot marks. But defense attorney James Hope argued the doctors' and nurses' views were tainted from the beginning with the suspicions of Pamela Baker's niece, Rebecca Hutcheson, who checked her aunt into the hospital. Hutcheson said she wept when she saw her aunt's shoulder drooping and bruises so bad on her buttocks they were black, not purple... Hutcheson also heard the couple arguing as she approached the house. "You did this to me," Pamela Baker shouted. Jesse Baker testified she was threatening to make up a story about abuse because he was refusing to allow her to overdose on tranquilizers... Jesse Baker's face was a knot of tension as he sat in Circuit Judge Barbara Gurrola's court- room awaiting the verdict. When it was read, he closed his eyes and let the tension slowly drain from his body. "I'm glad this part is over with," he said. "Now I'm hoping the Game and Fish Commission does the right thing and gives me my job back"...

OBITUARIES
THE ORLANDO SENTINEL
January 9, 2000
PAMELA DELOLA BAKER, 45, 16650 Douglas Road, Groveland, died Thursday, Jan. 6. Mrs. Baker was a homemaker. Born in Altamont, Tenn., she moved to Central Florida in 1957. She was a member of Hillcrest Baptist Church of Mascotte...

FLORIDA OFFICER WITH HISTORY OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PATROLLING THE STREETS
Story by wftv.com
November 14, 2005
...Channel 9 began to investigate Officer Baker, a sergeant at Groveland Police Department, after receiving complaints from other law enforcement officers in Lake County... A jury never heard testimony from her and Baker was found not guilty, BUT A SUBSEQUENT INVESTIGATION BY STATE OFFICIALS INDICATED "YOU WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE BATTERY OF YOUR WIFE," further finding that he "left her unconscious for six hours ... while he went to work" as a wildlife officer... In Baker's court files, a counseling evaluation states that he'd taken full responsibility for his actions. But when he was arrested and in the Lake County jail, the Fish and Wildlife Commission found Baker was "uncooperative, belligerent and made derogatory statements to corrections officers."... BAKER'S WIFE, PAMELA, DIED from heart trouble a year to the day after Baker was officially fired from Florida Fish and Game. But in spite of the scathing report in which Baker was fired as a wildlife officer, he was hired by Groveland Police Department. The police chief knew about Baker's past but didn't want to talk on camera. The chief told 9 Investigates that he is confident in Baker's ability and even gave him a lie detector test before hiring him.

PAMELA DELOLA
Feb 10, 1954 to Jan 6, 2000