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Highlands Today

Benton: 'I'm A Law Enforcement Officer Because I Care'

Jasmina Meyer/Highlands Today

Candidate Sheriff Susan Benton introduced herself at the Highlands County Homeowners Association meeting in Sebring.

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By GARY PINNELL

Highlands Today

Published: October 23, 2008

Who is Susan Benton?

She's lived in Highlands County since 1978, she's worked in highly visible jobs with the county and the sheriff's office. And she's been sheriff nearly four years.

But she grew up in Miami, so few locals realize that at Monsignor Edward Pace High School in Miami, Benton was a jock until she graduated in 1967.

"I played basketball, volleyball and softball," Benton said. "In fact, I was the female athlete of the year."

Sports were a consuming passion. She played second base, and in basketball she was an outside shooter, a forward, and a rover - the player allowed to cross the center line. And when she wasn't in the game, she was a cheerleader. She stayed so busy, she had to wake up at 5 a.m. to finish her homework.

A Catholic, her childhood dream was to be a nun. One summer, she was a telephone operator for Southern Bell. She later coached and taught physical education and Spanish.

But in college, she caught the law enforcement bug, and took her bachelor's degree in the administration of justice.

A Career Begins

Her first law enforcement job was with the Miami-Dade Police Department.

"I don't think I knew enough about it," Benton said, in retrospect. "My first shift out of the academy was 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. I grew up in a Catholic school, so I'd never seen marijuana before. I worked in the migrant labor camps in Homestead. I did a lot of service projects. But those were people of the same beliefs, and my same sense of values."

On the street, she said, "I got it." Working and living outside her safe zone, exposed to deceit and dishonesty along with the best of humanity, Benton realized police work was her calling, that this was the way she should serve her fellow man.

Benton, who attends church on Sundays when she's home, went off the record to describe her personal relationship with God and religion. Back on the record, she recounted how, after her husband Jim Benton died, she was more spiritually awake and aware of who she was.

"I learned so much through the grief process," Benton said. "I'm able to withstand other pain and loss and disappointment."

In fact, that was the turning point in her life and her career, she said. Her younger son (Charles, now 27) graduated from high school in May 1999, then her husband died.

"I thought I was going to be fine. Then I found out I wasn't as tough as I thought I was. I completely re-evaluated who I am. My children (who include an older son, Kelly, 35) were gone. What I had remaining was my career."

The Final Step

In 2003, she was a lieutenant when she learned Sheriff Howie Godwin was going to retire. She had finished a master's degree and a certified public manager program. She had experience in administration, public information, grant writing, narcotics, undercover work, search warrants, and she had developed several projects for the sheriff.

"I said, why shouldn't I go for that? I knew I would have the time and the dedication for it," Benton told herself. Even so, she wrote letters to her deceased husband and to God.

"I said, I'll do whatever you want me to do. Just leave me a note on my kitchen counter in the morning." It sounded funny when she said it, but she wasn't smiling. Like everyone who poses an unanswerable question, she really wanted to know what to do.

Today, Benton, 59, is a constant worker. When she's home, she walks 20 to 30 minutes, two or three times a week.

What's her favorite book or TV show? She smiled.

"I never watch TV. But I guess when I do, I like 'Law & Order.' Or I watch Lifetime. If I read, it's professional journals or leadership management books."

Her passion is for children, working with them through D.A.R.E. and the Children's Advocacy Center, where social workers and police work together on sexual abuse, physical abuse and other crimes against children. Drug Abuse Resistance Education teaches children to allow them to avoid drugs, violence and gangs.

"I believe that people can only change because of a sense of hopefulness," Benton said. But children can't control their environments, and some are without hope.

At the beginning of her four years as sheriff, she met with citizens and asked what they wanted. She's accomplished most of those goals, Benton said. But she's proudest of more than doubling the number of deputies on the road.

And every school resource officer is D.A.R.E. certified, Benton said.

New Goals

In her next administration, if she's re-elected on Nov. 4 in the race against Lake Placid Republican Ron Grimming, she wants to teach kids how to drive more safely.

"There's been an outcry for driving education," Benton said. Several fatal and severe-injury crashes have involved teens.

Secondly, she wants more detectives working cases and solving crimes.

"Those guys are overwhelmed," Benton said. The cases are mostly property crimes involving drug users seeking money to buy more drugs.

Hot Topic

Much has been said and written about Benton since the election cycle started this year. A March evidence inventory showed 31 items missing, including DNA from murder and sexual battery cases.

Benton said her critics, who include letter writers to Highlands Today, have politicized the proposed construction of an $11 million sheriff's office, the evidence inventory, and her run-in with Highlands County Commissioner Barbara Stewart.

One letter to the editor was from former Sebring Mayor Eugene Sauls, who on Oct. 16 credited Benton with making needed changes, raising salaries for deputies, putting a laptop computer in every car, upgrading the 911 system and putting more deputies on the road.

"Nothing new or spectacular, simply what needed to be done," Sauls wrote. But, he added, Benton also bullied Stewart, didn't come clean about missing evidence, blamed the expensive proposed building on the county commission, smeared the man chosen to conduct the inventory - former Palm Beach County Sheriff's Deputy Steve Newell, and spun every story to make herself and her administration look innocent. For those reasons, Sauls endorsed Grimming.

Benton didn't want to speak to Sauls' letter, or her tiff with Stewart.

She characterized most of her critics as former deputies, disappointed job seekers, and retirees who are looking for another job.

Other Opinions

Another commissioner, Guy Maxcy has worked with Benton for the past four years, and she's earned his respect.

Maxcy won't say who he's voting for, but called Benton "a good sheriff. Not a perfect sheriff."

Benton has said she didn't bring up the idea to build a new law enforcement building on George Boulevard, but once the topic was broached, she advocated it. Maxcy, who has toured the current sheriff's department and agrees that a new building is needed, supports her version.

Former Sheriff Howie Godwin, who hired Benton, endorsed her opponent, Mike Brown, four years ago. This time, Godwin said he's staying out of the sheriff's race, and declined to be interviewed.

One of Benton's most ardent supporters is Jimmy Sottile. For 15 years, he's been a bail bondsman with an office across the street from Highlands County courthouse. But when Sottile was a road deputy, it was commonplace for one man to patrol the entire southern half of the county.

"Today, even in outlying areas, out there on (State Road) 70, going toward Okeechobee, you're passing deputies. When I was a deputy, that was almost unheard of." That's important, Sottile said, because seeing police officers is one deterrent to crime.

"And crime prevention is a whole lot cheaper than apprehension, detention and prosecution," Sottile said.

Moreover, deputies are necessary to protect each other, said Sottile. "When your backup is 20 or 30 minutes away, it's terrifying. If you're the deputy responding, there's no such thing as too many police officers."

Consider that statement in this context: Sottile's brother, Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Nick Sottile, was fatally shot Jan. 12, 2007 by a motorist pulled over for reckless driving.

He also credits Benton for putting laptops in patrol cars, which gives deputies Internet access to information about cars, license plates, driver's licenses and criminal histories.

Asked to name Benton's strong and weakest points, Sottile's answer was that Benton's enthusiasm for Highlands County is a double-edged sword. "Her emotions get the best of her. But I don't think you'll ever find anyone else who cares about the county as much as she does."

The proposed sheriff's office, the evidence inventory and the incident with Stewart have jeopardized no one, Sottile said, putting the events in context.

"All of us are playing Monday morning quarterback about what she could have and should have done," Sottile said.

Letter writers have implied she's dishonest, mean spirited, and that she doesn't care about the integrity of the office, Benton said. She admits to being imperfect, but bristles at being called defensive and hot tempered.

"It's okay for a man to be tough and aggressive. I see myself as being passionate about what I do. I'm a fighter," she explained. "Although I might lose my patience. That's one of my worst character flaws."

"I want people to know that I'm a law enforcement officer because I care," Benton said. "I have thoroughly enjoyed and been honored to serve our folks these four years.

"I want them to be able to be safe. That's why I do what I do," Benton said.

She's made sweeping changes, and now she wants to institutionalize those modifications so they'll become the method of doing business in Highlands County.

Gary Pinnell can be reached at gpinnell@highlandstoday.com or 863 386-5828

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