Two Orange County, Florida, sheriff’s deputies have been disciplined for sharing information about Bob Saget’s death before notifying his family.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department report says both deputies admitted sharing the information improperly. The discipline wasn’t specified.
Bob Saget Reportedly Passed Away From Head Trauma Caused by Accidental Blow (ratchetfridaymedia.com)
Saget was on tour when he was discovered dead in a hotel room in Orlando, Florida, on January 9. According to an official autopsy results, the Orange County Chief Medical Examiner’s Office determined Saget, a 65-year-old actor and comedian best known for playing the Dad on the TV sitcom “Full House,” died as a result of “blunt head trauma.” Saget’s family said in a statement that he died from head trauma and that “no drugs or alcohol were involved.”
According to the report, Deputy Emiliano Silva, who had responded to the Ritz Carlton in Florida where Saget’s body was discovered, texted his brother to notify him of Saget’s death. According to the report, Silva’s brother tweeted, “RIP Bob Saget,” but subsequently deleted it after Silva told him to.
According to the report, which cites the sheriff’s department’s director of communications, this tweet incited a massive influx of media questions at a time when officials had yet to notify Saget’s next-of-kin.
According to the report, Silva eventually informed internal investigators in an interview that he “really wasn’t thinking” when he shared information with his brother, but that he “had no ill intent.”
According to the report, before Silva’s brother removed his tweet, another account responded, inquiring how he managed to learn of Saget’s death. That account holder claimed he received similar information from a friend who worked for the department and was positively identified as Deputy Steven Reed.
The investigation found that Reed, who was off-duty at the time, texted the news of Saget’s death to two neighbors who had actually attended one of Saget’s performances. In his own interview, Reed told detectives, “Hindsight, probably shouldn’t have shared it in the way and the manner that I did.”
The report says both deputies broke departmental policy.
Jay Smith of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 93 attended Silva and Reed’s interviews as their representative, according to the internal report.
