April 25, 1998|By Pedro Ruz Gutierrez of The Sentinel Staff
The family of a motorcyclist killed last year by a driver who was fleeing from an Orange County deputy sheriff filed a wrongful-death lawsuit Friday against the Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff Kevin Beary was named in the suit filed by the family of Eddie Pepin in U.S. District Court. Also named was former Deputy Michael Piwowarski, who lost his job last summer after an agency investigation found he lied about pursuing a teen driver who caused the death of Pepin, 49.

Joseph Bryant, 16, fled after running a stop sign and hitting Pepin's motorbike at Lee Road and North Orange Blossom Trail on March 30, 1997. Sheriff's investigators concluded that the deputy continued to follow Bryant even after he told dispatchers and a supervisor that he had ended it.

In the suit, relatives of Pepin allege Piwowarski displayed negligence, disregard and carelessness by not following sheriff's rules on traffic pursuits. Those rules prohibit chases in cases involving misdemeanors or traffic violations.

Orlando attorney Raymond Bodiford, who represents Bryant's family, accuses Beary of keeping Piwowarski on the job long after it should have been obvious that he posed a threat to public safety.

Examples of his misconduct include a 1994 written reprimand for failing to notify his supervisor of an incomplete grand-theft report, according to documents filed in federal court. He also received a 20-hour suspension without pay after frisking female suspects in the absence of other deputies.

The suit further states that Piwowarski was not disciplined in two physical and oral abuse cases, and that superiors also failed to punish him for divulging information about another deputy's internal investigation.

Piwowarski was fired for lying, falsifying records and violating the sheriff's pursuit policy, said Deputy Miguel Pagan.

Pagan, a sheriff's spokesman, declined to comment Friday on the lawsuit, saying the agency does not comment about legal actions against it.

The internal affairs investigation that resulted in Piwowarski's dismissal was the 18th complaint or inquiry filed against Piwowarski since he became a deputy in 1992, Pagan said.