Judges: LINDA M. RIGOT
Agency: Department of Education
Latest Update: Jul. 11, 1983
Summary: Dismissal from employment and permanent revocation of teaching certificate where teacher repeatedly engaged in sex with minor students.
82-1604STATE OF FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATION
EDUCATION PRACTICES COMMISSION, ) DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, )
)
Petitioner, )
)
vs. ) CASE NO. 82-1604
)
OTIS FELLS, )
)
Respondent. )
) SCHOOL BOARD OF DADE COUNTY, )
)
Petitioner, )
)
vs. ) CASE NO. 82-2742
)
OTIS J. FELLS, )
)
Respondent. )
)
RECOMMENDED ORDER
Pursuant to notice, these causes were heard by Linda M. Rigot, the assigned Hearing Officer of the Division of Administrative Hearings, on February 24, 1983, in Miami, Florida.
Petitioner Education Practices Commission, Department of Education, was represented by Craig R. Wilson, Esquire, West Palm Beach, Florida; Petitioner School Board of Dade County was represented by Jose Martinez, Esquire, Coral Gables, Florida; and Respondent Otis J. Fells did not appear and was not represented.
On May 20, 1982, Ralph D. Turlington as Commissioner of Education filed an Administrative Complaint against Respondent seeking to revoke, suspend or impose other administrative sanctions against Respondent's teacher's certificate, and on December 8, 1982, the School Board of Dade County filed a Notice of Charges against Respondent seeking his dismissal from his employment as a teacher.
Respondent timely requested a formal hearing on the charges contained in both the Administrative Complaint and in the Notice of Charges. The Notice of Charges filed by the School Board of Dade County was amended on January 27, 1983. On December 14, 1982, these causes were consolidated. Accordingly, the issues for determination herein are whether Respondent is guilty of the charges contained in the Administrative Complaint and Amended Notice of Charges and, if so, what disciplinary action should be taken, if any.
Petitioners presented the testimony of Duane Busse, Desmond Patrick Gray, Jr., Sharon Colbert, Belinda Yvette Morris, Frederick Bertani and Paulette Brown. Petitioners also presented the deposition testimony of Respondent Otis
Fells, Thelma Geiger, Evelyn Rebecca May, James C. Roberts, A. Perry Geiger,
Craig Marsch and Marilyn Bonita Grimmage. Additionally, Petitioners' Exhibits numbered 1 through 22 were admitted in evidence, and the Amended Notice of Charges and the attached return receipt showing that same was properly served upon the Respondent by certified mail was admitted in evidence as Exhibit numbered 1 on behalf of the School Board of Dade County only.
At the conclusion of the hearing, the motion to amend paragraph 33 of the Administrative Complaint to conform with the evidence was granted, and the motion to amend paragraph 3 of the Amended Notice of Charges to conform with the evidence was also granted.
Only the Petitioner Education Practices Commission, Department of Education, submitted post hearing findings of fact in the form of a proposed recommended order. To the extent that the proposed findings of fact have not been adopted in this Recommended Order, they have been rejected as not having been supported by the evidence, as having been irrelevant to the issues under consideration herein, or as constituting unsupported argument of counsel or conclusions of law.
FINDINGS OF FACT
At all times material hereto, Respondent is the holder of a teacher's certificate duly issued by the Department of Education for the State of Florida. Such certificate bears number 282363 and is a Rank 2 certificate, expiring on June 30, 1986.
On or about August 11, 1970, Respondent caused to be filed with the Department of Education for the State of Florida his application for issuance of a teaching certificate.
Respondent, under oath, stated within that application that he had never been arrested or involved in a criminal offense other than a minor traffic violation.
Respondent had been arrested by the Fort Lauderdale Police Department on or about July 1, 1965, for the offense of petit larceny (shoplifting). As a result of that arrest, Respondent was adjudicated and fined $125, and his sentence of 15 days of incarceration was suspended.
On or about September 2, 1969, Respondent was again arrested by the Fort Lauderdale Police Department for the offense of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and violation of the curfew laws. Respondent pled nolo contendere to the first charge, and adjudication was withheld. The second charge was nolle prossed.
As a result of filing that application with the Department of Education, Respondent was issued a teaching certificate for the academic school year 1970-1971.
On or about May 1, 1973, Respondent caused to be filed with the Department of Education for the State of Florida his application for the issuance of a full-time teaching certificate under the Department of Education Number 282363 with a preference in physical education.
Respondent, under oath, stated within that application that he had never been arrested or involved in a criminal offense other than a minor traffic
violation. Accordingly, Respondent did not reveal the prior two arrests by the Fort Lauderdale Police Department set forth above.
As a result of filing that application, Respondent was issued a teaching certificate as a full-time instructor under Department of Education Number 282363, certificate type 04.
In September 1976, Respondent caused to be filed with the Department of Education for the State of Florida his application for the issuance of a teaching certificate under Department of Education Number 282363.
Respondent, under oath, stated within that application that he had never been arrested or involved in a criminal offense other than a minor traffic violation.
Accordingly, Respondent did not reveal the prior two arrests by the Fort Lauderdale Police Department set forth above.
On or about October 3, 1973, Respondent was arrested in Duval County, Florida. Subsequent thereto, an Amended Information was filed against Respondent charging him with breaking and entering the dwelling house of another with the intent to commit a misdemeanor therein, to wit: assault and battery, and also charging him with committing assault and battery on Evelyn Rebecca May.
On December 10, 1973, Respondent entered a plea of guilty to the offense of trespassing with malice. Adjudication was withheld, and Respondent was placed on probation for one year.
As a result of filing that application, Respondent was issued a teaching certificate under Department of Education Number 282363, Rank 2, Type 2.
On or about May 30, 1979, Respondent caused to be filed with the Department of Education for the State of Florida his application for the issuance of a duplicate teaching certificate.
Respondent, under oath, stated in that application that he had never been convicted or had adjudication withheld in a criminal offense other than a minor traffic violation and that there were no criminal charges pending against him other than minor traffic violations.
Accordingly, Respondent did not reveal the prior two arrests by the Fort Lauderdale Police Department set forth above. Respondent also thereby failed to disclose his arrest in Duval County, his plea of guilty to the offense of trespassing with malice, and the withholding of adjudication and placing him on probation as a result of that arrest and guilty plea.
Respondent, while attending a high school basketball championship play-off in Lakeland, Florida, was arrested on or about March 10, 1979, for the offense of "scalping." As a result of that arrest, Respondent was formally charged with violation of Section 817.36, Florida Statutes, in the County Court of Polk County, State of Florida, case number MO79-000450-LD. Subsequent to the filing of those formal charges, Respondent tendered a plea of nolo contendere and had court costs assessed against him in the amount of $112.
As a result of filing the application for the issuance of a duplicate certificate, Respondent having previously stated that he had lost his original
certificate, the Department of Education issued a duplicate certificate under Department of Education Number 282363, Rank 2, Type 2.
On or about May 27, 1970, Respondent filed an application for employment with the Duval County School Board. That application failed to disclose his arrests by the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. Rather, Respondent specifically denied that he had been arrested for any offense other than minor traffic violations.
Between September 1971 and September 1973, Respondent was employed by the Duval County School Board at Sandalwood Junior-Senior High School.
On or about September 4, 1973, Respondent filed an application for employment with the Nassau County School Board. That application failed to disclose his arrests by the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. Rather, Respondent specifically denied that he had been arrested for any offense other than minor traffic violations.
During the academic year of 1973-1974, Respondent was employed by the Nassau County School Board at West Nassau Senior High School.
During the 1973-1974 school year, Marilyn B. Grimmage was a student at West Nassau High School where Respondent was then a physical education teacher. Grimmage was 15 years of age. She and Respondent began to date. After a period of two to three months, they engaged in several acts of sexual intercourse. While there were no acts of sexual intercourse committed on the school grounds, there were times when Grimmage and the Respondent would sneak off to private areas of the school and kiss.
Grimmage and Respondent engaged in sexual intercourse on three occasions: two of the occasions occurred at the residence belonging to a friend of the Respondent, and one occasion occurred in a wooded area.
Grimmage knew that Respondent was married at the time and believed that their relationship was common knowledge at the school.
While Respondent was employed at the West Nassau Senior High School, he made contact with Belinda Yvette Morris, who was 15 years of age and attending a junior high school within the Nassau County public school system. Contrary to the allegations of paragraph 33 of Count VII, Morris was not then attending West Nassau High School, but rather went there daily in order to practice for cheerleading.
Respondent engaged in sexual intercourse with Morris. He was married at the time.
Respondent made a second attempt to engage in sexual intercourse with Morris following a basketball game when Morris was on her way home with other students. At Respondent's request, she entered his automobile and drove with him to an isolated area. He gave her a necklace and then made physical advances toward her in attempt to consummate sexual intercourse. His advances were rebuffed, and Respondent drove her to a location near her home and let her out of the automobile.
On or about June 23, 1975, Respondent filed an application for employment with the Dade County School Board. That application failed to disclose his arrests by the Fort Lauderdale Police Department and also failed to
disclose his arrest in Duval County, his plea of guilty to the offense of trespassing with malice, and the withholding of adjudication and placing him on probation as a result of that arrest and guilty plea. Rather, Respondent specifically denied that he had been arrested for any offense other than minor traffic violations.
On that application for employment with the Dade County School Board, Respondent also failed to note that he had been previously employed with the Duval County School Board and with the Nassau County School Board. Rather, Respondent stated that he had been a professional basketball player for a period of years which would roughly correspond to the period of time he was employed with the Duval County School Board, and he further stated that he had been employed during that time period by a non-public school employer, the Jacksonville Marine Institute. On that application, Respondent also denied that he had ever been a member of the Florida Retirement System.
As a result of filing that application, Respondent was employed by the Dade County School Board between September 1978 and October 1981 at American Senior High School.
Sharon Colbert met Respondent when she was 15 years of age and a student at American Senior High School in Dade County, Florida, where Respondent was employed as a physical education teacher. Respondent was also the head coach for the varsity basketball team, and he approached Colbert and asked her to be on the "stat team," which consisted of students who would work with him and assist in keeping statistics for the basketball team. Colbert replied she could not afford to purchase the uniforms, and Respondent purchased her uniforms for her.
One evening during the 1980-1981 school year, while Colbert was a member of the stat team, she accompanied Respondent and some of his basketball players to scout a game that was being conducted at Miami-Dade Community College. After the game, Respondent dropped off the other students and invited Colbert to the home of a friend of his for something to eat before he took her home.
When Colbert and Respondent arrived at his friend's home, Respondent and his friend began "snorting coke." After his friend left, Respondent forcibly took Colbert into a bedroom, where he performed sexual intercourse.
As a result of that sexual intercourse, Colbert contracted the "crabs." When she confronted Respondent about her predicament, he said he would assist her by taking her to the doctor. However, he instead took her to another residence and forcibly engaged in sexual intercourse with her. He then took her to a convenience store, where he obtained some pills and ointment for her to use to eradicate her crabs.
In September 1981, while Respondent was teaching at American Senior High School, he approached Paulette Brown, who was then 15 years of age and a student at that school. Respondent asked Brown to remain after school to discuss her interest in becoming a member of the "stat team." After receiving permission from her father to remain after school, Brown went to the coach's office and waited while Respondent completed some last-minute errands. After Respondent returned to the coach's office, he asked Brown about her boyfriends and then told her he wanted to show her "his layout."
Respondent took Brown through the boys' locker room to an equipment room. When they were inside the equipment room, Respondent closed the door and persuaded Brown to remove her clothing. He then engaged in sexual intercourse with Brown.
Frederick Bertani and Desmond Patrick Gray, Jr., offered expert opinion that Respondent's effectiveness as an employee of a school board has been not only diminished but severely impaired, not only within Dade County but within the entire profession itself.
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
The Division of Administrative Hearings has jurisdiction over the subject matter hereof and the parties hereto. Section 120.57(1), Florida Statutes (1981).
Section 231.28(1), Florida Statutes (1981), authorizes the Education Practices Commission to revoke permanently the teaching certificate of any person who obtained the teaching certificate by fraudulent means; has proved to be incompetent to teach or to perform his duties as an employee of the public school system or to teach in a private school; has been guilty of gross immorality or an act involving moral turpitude; has been convicted of a misdemeanor, felony, or any other criminal charge, other than a minor traffic violation; or has been found guilty of personal conduct which seriously reduces his effectiveness as an employee of the school board.
Section 231.36(6), Florida Statutes (1981), provides that any member of the instructional staff in any district school system may be dismissed at any time during the school year provided that the charges against him be based on immorality, misconduct in office, incompetency, willful neglect of duty, or conviction of any crime involving moral turpitude.
Petitioners have clearly proven by competent substantial evidence that Respondent is guilty of the allegations contained in both the Administrative Complaint and the Amended Notice of Charges filed herein and that Respondent has violated each and every statutory provision set forth above. Respondent's several arrests and convictions on criminal charges involving moral turpitude, his repeated fraudulent applications for licensure filed with the Department of Education and his repeated fraudulent applications for employment filed with the various school boards, and Respondent's repeated use of his position as a teacher to engage in sexual intercourse with minor female students have revealed Respondent to be so grossly immoral as to require termination of his employment with the School Board of Dade County and the permanent revocation of his teaching certificate.
The undersigned is not unmindful of the conflicting findings of fact previously made by her as to the allegations of sexual misconduct with Paulette Brown as set forth in the Recommended Order entered July 16, 1982, in the Division of Administrative Hearings Case No. 81-2518, styled School Board of Dade County, Petitioner, vs. Otis J. Fells, Respondent, adopted in the Final Order of the School Board of Dade County, Florida, on August 25, 1982. It should be noted, however, that the testimony in this case is uncontroverted and is further buttressed by the testimony of Frederick Bertani, which testimony added facts which were not part of the record upon which the previous Recommended Order and Final Order were based.
RECOMMENDATION
Based on the foregoing Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, it is RECOMMENDED that a Final Order be entered in Case No. 82-1604 finding
Respondent Otis Fells guilty of the allegations contained within the Administrative Complaint and permanently revoking his teaching certificate number 282363; and it is further
RECOMMENDED that a Final Order be entered in Case No. 82-2742 finding Respondent Otis J. Fells guilty of the allegations contained within the Amended Notice of Charges and dismissing the Respondent from his employment with the School Board of Dade County and denying any claim he may have for back pay.
DONE and RECOMMENDED this 7th day of June, 1983, in Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida.
LINDA M. RIGOT, Hearing Officer Division of Administrative Hearings The Oakland Building
2009 Apalachee Parkway
Tallahassee, Florida 32301
(904) 488-9675
Filed with the Clerk of the Division of Administrative Hearings this 7th day of June, 1983.
COPIES FURNISHED:
Craig R. Wilson, Esquire
315 Third Street
West Palm Beach, Florida 3340l
Jose Martinez, Esquire
201 Alhambra Circle, Suite 1200
Coral Gables, Florida 33134
Mr. Otis J. Fells
1216 Walsh Avenue, Apt. 25-A Coral Gables, Florida 33146
Phyllis O. Douglas, Esquire Assistant Board Attorney Dade County Public Schools Lindsey Hopkins Building, Suite 200
1410 NE Second Avenue Miami, Florida 33132
Donald L. Griesheimer, Executive Director
Education Practices Commission Department of Education
125 Knott Building Tallahassee, Florida 32301
================================================================= AGENCY FINAL ORDER (SHCOOL BOARD)
================================================================= THE SCHOOL BOARD OF DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA
EDUCATION PRACTICES COMMISSION, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION,
Petitioner,
vs. CASE NO. 82-1604
OTIS FELLS,
Respondent.
/ SCHOOL BOARD OF DADE COUNTY,
Petitioner,
vs. CASE NO. 82-2742
OTIS J. FELLS,
Respondent.
/
FINAL ORDER
OF THE SCHOOL BOARD OF DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA
THIS CAUSE came on for hearing before The School Board of Dade County, Florida, at its regular meeting on July 6, 1983, upon the Hearing officer's recommended order, recommending that Otis J. Fells be dismissed from his position with the Dade County school system and forfeit all back pay, and the Board being advised in the premises, it is thereupon
ORDERED by The School Board of Dade County, Florida, that:
The Hearing officer's recommended order, attached hereto, be and the same hereby is adopted as the final order of the School Board; and
Otis J. Fells be and is hereby dis missed from his employment with The School Board of Dade County, Florida, and Otis J. Fells shall receive no com pensation from The School Board of Dade
County, Florida, from September 22, 1982. DONE AND ORDERED this 6th day of July, 1983.
THE SCHOOL BOARD OF DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA
BADDOCK, Chairman
================================================================= AGENCY FINAL ORDER (EPC)
=================================================================
BEFORE THE EDUCATION PRACTICES COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA
RALPH D. TURLINGTON, as
Commissioner of Education.
Petitioner,
vs DOAH CASE NOS. 82-1604
82-2742
OTIS J. FELLS,
Respondent.
/
FINAL ORDER
Respondent, OTIS J. FELLS, holds Florida teaching certificate number 282363. Petitioner filed an Administrative Complaint seeking suspension, revocation, or other disciplinary action against the certificate.
Respondent requested a formal hearing and one was held before the Division of Administrative Hearings. A Recommended Order has been forwarded to the panel pursuant to Section 120.57(1), Florida Statutes; it is attached to and made a part of this Order.
A panel of the Education Practices Commission met on August 2, 1983 in Tallahassee, Florida to take final agency action. The Petitioner was represented by Craig R. Wilson. The Respondent was not present or represented.
The panel adopts the Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Recommendation of the Recommended Order. The Respondent's certificate is hereby PERMANENTLY REVOKED.
DONE AND ORDERED this, 8th day of August, 1983.
Carolyn Wilson, Presiding Officer
COPIES FURNISHED TO:
Marlene Greenfield
Professional Practices Services
Arthur Wallberg
Attorney General's Office
Judith Brechner General Counsel
Craig R. Wilson, Esquire
Jose Martinez, Esquire Executive Director
Phyllis O. Douglas, Esquire
Dr. Leonard Britton, Supt. Dade County Schools
I HEREBY CERTIFY that a copy of the foregoing order in the matter of RDT v.
Otis J. Fells was mailed to Otis J. Fells, 1216 Walsh Avenue, Apt. 25-A, Coral Gables, Florida 33146, this 11th day of August, 1983, by U.S. Mail.
DONALD L. GRIESHEIMER
Executive Director
Docket for Case No: 82-001604
Orders for Case No: 82-001604
| Issue Date |
Document |
Summary |
|
Jul. 06, 1983 |
Agency Final Order
|
|
|
Jun. 07, 1983 |
Recommended Order
|
Dismissal from employment and permanent revocation of teaching certificate where teacher repeatedly engaged in sex with minor students.
|
