EXCLUSIVE: Attorney Arrested But Charges Dropped After BocaNewsNow.com Asks Questions. Where’s The Bodycam?
BY: ANDREW COLTON | Editor and Publisher
BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2024 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Office is stalling a request from BocaNewsNow.com to view Bodycam video of an arrest that may show police misconduct on the part of officers patrolling Lake Boca during this year’s Boca Bash.
BocaNewsNow.com made the request for Bodycam video regarding the arrest of Boca Raton Attorney Zach Chikovsky just days after the April 28th arrest. But FWC slowed a response, demanding payment several days ago of $150 for processing. While an extraordinary fee for public records under Florida Statute 119, BocaNewsNow.com paid the fee — only to later be told that it’s low on the list of requests to be processed.
“We have 44 public records request that have paid and are in the process of getting redacted,” wrote FWC’s Travis Hooker in an email to BocaNewsNow.com. A subsequent email to FWC, and its media relations office explaining that the request is to potentially disprove allegations of police misconduct went unanswered.
Attorney Zach Chikovsky was arrested during Boca Bash and charged with Boating Under the Influence and possession of a substance police claimed to be cocaine. But as we first reported, Chikovsky told officers that the white substance around his nose at the time of the boat stop was suntan lotion. FWC officers didn’t believe him and placed him under arrest. Chikovsky, hours after his release, obtained an independent blood test that revealed no substance in his system. Charges were dropped. But in a seemingly punitive response, Chikovsky was re-charged on May 20th with “operating a vessel with expired registration.” Although the citation was just issued, the date of infraction is listed as April 28th, the day he was apparently wrongly arrested for BUI and drug possession.
Bodycam video is uploaded to a server after each officer’s shift. That server logs the video by time of arrest, officer involved, and provides a transcription of the interaction. Retrieval should take minutes. It’s unclear why the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is stalling the release of video that should take just moments to produce — and could exonerate its officers. It’s also unclear if the extraordinarily high fee was used as a deterrent to BocaNewsNow.com for pursuing our request.
If you have interaction with FWC officers, we encourage another party on your vessel to respectfully videotape the interaction on a phone or other device and send it to us via our NewsTip menu above, text to 561-576-NEWS, or email news(at)BocaNewsNow.com.
Ok very much looking forward to your follow up article once the body camera comes out. Going to be very embarrassing for this attorney if he did in fact have cocaine on him.