FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A Fort Lauderdale Police officer accused of being a bar-hopping cop is on the brink of losing his job after a drunken night landed him in some deep trouble, and police said it wasn’t the first time he abused the badge.
Officer-worn body camera video captured FLPD Officer John Giga injured and bloodied following a fight in a Fort Lauderdale parking lot lot in the early morning hours of Nov. 24.
It wasn’t until later that investigators realized that the injured man was one of their own, a 16-year veteran with the force.
According to an internal affairs report, FLPD Chief William Schultz recommends that Giga be fired for what happened that night.
“Can you put the bottle down so I can take a pic of you?” an officer is heard asking Giga in the bodycam video.
The footage was included in the internal affairs report. It states that during his shift on Thanksgiving, Giga parked his marked SUV near Blondies Sports Bar on Fort Lauderdale Beach, and at the end of his shift, he’s seen getting out of the vehicle in civilian clothes. Investigators said that for some reason, he never turned off his patrol car.
Inside nearby Hunters Beach Bar, police said, surveillance cameras captured Giga drinking what appeared to be alcohol several times, socializing and hugging an employee.
“While he was doing that, he was engaging in some text messages with a female friend, found himself to be rebuffed,” said Broward County Public Defender Gordon Weekes.
So Giga went home at around 3 a.m., but the internal affairs report states he went back out, still in his patrol car, this time to Capones near downtown Fort Lauderdale, where the female friend with whom he exchanged texts works.
Surveillance video shows Giga walking into the bar on the right side on the frame. The female friend is seen on the left, running away, apparently not wanting to be spotted.
When he leaves, Giga spots some men in parked cars talking. One of those men told police Giga approached them angrily, punched at one of the vehicles and yelled.
The internal affairs report states Giga “was talking about (the) driver … like calling them (N-word), (N-word), (N-word), (N-word), all that, you know, for no reason,” a witness said.
The report further states that the witness said, “I was like, ‘Hey, man, why are you beating on his window like that, man? We’re just trying to have a good time. It’s Thanksgiving, man.'”
“You can see from his body language that he was clearly agitated, and he was using the N-word very profusely,” said Weekes.
When the other men got out of the car, taunting, pushing and shoving turned into a free-for-all. The brawl eventually led to responding officers finding Giga sitting in the parking lot pavement, bruised and banged up.
Interviewed by detectives about the racial slur, Giga said, “That’s not even in my vocabulary. I don’t – I don’t use that. My girlfriend’s Black. There’s no reason that I would ever use that kind of language.”
Giga, who has reprimands and suspensions in his background, initially told detectives he’d broken up a fight, and said later, “Given the nature of my head injuries that night, I could have said I was Jesus.”
The end of the report gives a one-word recommendation: “termination.”
“This officer was offensive, he was demeaning. This is a textbook example of an officer, acting in this community, exactly how we do not want officers to engage folks,” said Weekes.
Weekes said he plans to review cases where Giga was involved.
7News did not immediately hear back from Giga’s attorney or representatives of the police union.
As far as Giga’s potential firing, it is on the desk of the city manager.
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