From: David Chavka Detective Sgt. (retired) February 24,2025
Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Offense MCSO19OFF004661
On June 21,2019 Members of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office removed private property from a private residence in violation of FSS 812.014(b)(4). I was contacted by telephone that morning by Captain Donald Catala who notified me that Deputy Kim Trullender had passed away. Deputy Trullender had been staying with my family since he was displaced after Hurricane Irma on September 10,2017. My Wife Billie, my father and I were in Virginia on that day. My wife Billie made immediate arrangements to return home to take care of home and Kim’s affairs.
Catala called me a second time and asked me about the fresh food in the refrigerator. I told him he could dispose of it and I asked him to remove any of Kim’s personal property from Kim’s patrol vehicle and lock it inside our house when they were finished. I told him that Billie was coming down and she had another set of keys so we could get Kim’s set of keys back later. There was no reason for them to take any other private property out of our residence.
It should be noted that our house is very secure at the end of a private road with 2 camera systems and all impact doors and windows. It should also be noted that I was a Deputy from August 1988 to September 2017, retiring with honors as a Detective Sergeant. I was an FDLE High Liability Instructor trained in Criminal investigations including interview and crime scene investigations by FDLE and FBI. I was an Instructor for the Criminal Justice Institute at Florida Keys College and Field Training Officer, Line supervisor and SWAT team leader. I have known Catala and Sheriff Rick Ramsay for 30+ years. I had known Deputy Kim Trullender for 10 years. I was his first FTO.
Captain Catala agreed to collect any personal property from the patrol vehicle and lock it inside the residence retaining the keys for Billie who was flying home the following day.
A few days later we were contacted by Detective Ken Fricke who worked across the hall from Captain Catala at the Cudjoe Substation. Fricke said that Catala had a beautiful display of firearms on his desk that he took from our house. Fricke said he would be interested in purchasing the RRA LAR15 rifle. This was a huge surprise to us, so Billie contacted Catala directly since she was back in Florida (I was still up north taking care of my father). Catala told Billie that he was on vacation, and she could go to the station and Lt. Coleman would give her the firearms and her house keys.
When Billie called Lt. Coleman, he told her not to come to the station as he would not release the firearms to her. He told her Detective Fricke would bring the keys to her house. Billie called Catala again and this time he said he was going to Italy and that the firearms were so nice that the Sheriff’s office was going to keep them and “add them to their arsenal”. It was at that time I realized things weren’t adding up, so I had Billie contact the Sheriff Ramsey directly hoping to avoid a huge ordeal. The sheriff said he would speak with Catala and find out what the story was. The Sheriff Ramsey called back and said he was going to “add the firearms to the Sheriff’s office arsenal” and as he was saying that he realized something in midsentence. He stopped and said, “No we can’t do that. We already have a budget for firearms.” He said he would get back with us after further investigation.
The next contact from Catala was that he could not return anything without a will. We contacted the Sheriff again and he agreed that the Sheriff’s office has nothing to do with the execution of wills and he would be “looking onto it”. As more time passed, we were getting less, and less information and several members were “unavailable” or just quit returning calls. (Due to family medical conditions, I was unable to continue my investigation until December of 2019)
I obtained a copy of the police report, I noted the following:
~No mention of any property being removed in the narrative of Lead Detective Rosa DiGiovanni other than an insulin pump which would be in compliance of FSS 406.11.1a which allows the medical examiner to bring with the body anything that could help determine the cause of death.
~No mention of Captain Catala even being at the crime scene or calling me. The first property receipt #164387 dated 6-21-19 has no signature of record for chain of custody although Detective Malone stated in her narrative that she received the property from DiGiovanni. There are extra lines drawn in the official property receipt which is out of policy and procedures.
~Nothing on this receipt other than item #1 has anything to do with the cause of death and should not have been removed from a secure private residence. You will see the words “for safe keeping” throughout the reports however nothing in our policy or procedures or the Florida State Statutes exists.
~Date changed on the bottom line of chain of custody from 6-21-19 to 6-25-19.
~The narrative also stated that a crime scene log was entered, however when I requested the log and I was told there was “None”.
~I was also denied body-worn camera video that I requested, and I was forced to pay for someone to redact the useless video I was given so that I would not see anything sensitive inside my own home.
~Although we were in daily contact with the sheriff’s office from June 21-24 nothing about firearms or ammunition was documented until June 24 when Lt. Coleman ordered Detective Fricke to place the firearms from Catala’s office in the Property Department on receipt #172553.
~The ammunition listed as 39 rounds of .45 caliber. When I left the residence a few days earlier we had 2 milk crates full of ammunition including 45.40 and .223 caliber 9mm and 12 gauge. This is all now missing and undocumented.
~There were several firearms left inside the residence as well as my ballistic shield.
~My wife’s iPad was also missing and when she asked Catala about it, he said he had been driving Deputy Trullender’s patrol vehicle and there was no iPad found in there. A few days later the iPad mysteriously appeared on my father’s bed. ~When Detective Fricke first contacted us about the firearms on Catala’s desk he stated there were 5 handguns and a rifle. Only 2 handguns and the rifle were entered into Property. It should be noted that the sub-station is not a secure location especially when so many have access including several members of the sheriff’s office having 24-hour access and the same building house Monroe County Fire and Rescue.
All of this information was given to the Sheriff in writing. We heard nothing for about 5 months until Sheriff Ramsey stated, “We don’t know how we are going to resolve this since Catala no longer works for the agency.”
I felt it necessary to report this to FDLE when the Sheriff allowed Catala to retire early and only demoted both detectives DiGiovanni and Malone to airport security. He had Catala’s friend and mentee provide a fictional Internal Affairs report that is full of lies. I personally interviewed Coleman in February 2021. He did not direct the firearms to be placed in Trullender’s patrol vehicle, removed from Big Pine and taken to the Cudjoe Key sub-station.
I was never contacted by the investigator. It took almost three years for the internal investigation (See TFO-2021-006). The FDLE Agent that I contacted is Yunier Galvez, a former detective with the Sheriff’s Dept. He led me to believe FDLE were investigating, however after months of no response I asked to speak to his supervisor who said, “I’m not going to tell Ramsay how to run his shop.”
It’s unacceptable to allow theft and corruption to go unchecked. There is no worse corruption than a cop. I gave the Sheriff every opportunity to correct this situation, and he chose to believe that his Captain and detectives did nothing wrong — although he either got rid of them or demoted them.
The fact is the remote Big Pine Key property is a private residence. It was a very safe and sound residence for the previous 15 years that I owned it with no prior instance of thefts or burglaries. It is secured with hurricane shutters and/or impact doors and windows and motion detection cameras at the end of a private road which is also monitored with security cameras by our only neighbor. The private property in the home belonged to my father, my wife and I, and Kim Trullender. There is no way that anyone from the Sheriff’s office could determine on that day what property belonged to who, or if Kim had a will. I specifically told Captain Catala that everything would remain safe and secure locked inside. So the taking of private property – undocumented – including that which is not pertinent to the death investigation, with no chain of custody, should be considered a violation of Florida State Statutes and US codes. I have much more history and context regarding this case, going back nearly 35 years.
Respectfully yours,
David Chavka
305-797-1218
dchavka1@hotmail.com
PO Box 430114 Big Pine Key, Fl. 33043