FORT LAUDERDALE —
A Miramar police officer who was found guilty in December of official misconduct won't have a felony conviction on his record as long as he stays out of trouble with the law for the next two years, a Broward County judge ruled Friday.
Jean Paul Jacobi, 39, faced a maximum of five years in prison after a jury returned a guilty verdict Dec. 19 on charges of official misconduct, falsifying records and criminal mischief. The accusations stemmed from a 2010 incident in which he, Detective Jennifer Conger and two other officers searched the apartment of a suspected drug dealer without a warrant.
Assistant State Attorney David Schulson asked Broward Circuit Judge Raag Singhal to sentence Jacobi to two years behind bars to send a message that official misconduct will not be tolerated.
But Singhal went easy on Jacobi, withholding adjudication and giving him two years' probation. Withholding adjudication keeps the jury's decision from becoming a formal conviction. If Jacobi is asked on a future employment application whether he has ever been convicted of a felony, he can truthfully answer "no."
The judge can sign off on the conviction if Jacobi violates the terms of his probation.
Defense attorney Rhea Grossman said she was pleased with Singhal's decision. "It was the right thing to do," she said.
But Schulson said he was disappointed.
"The message should be sent to the community that there is zero tolerance for violation of the law by public servants," he said. "Maybe it is time for the Legislature to address the issue as to whether the court should even have the discretion to withhold adjudication in cases involving public servants."
Jacobi made no statement to the judge and did not comment after the hearing ended. More than a dozen family members and fellow officers were in court to support Jacobi, who joined the Miramar Police Department in 2003.
He was suspended after his March 2011 arrest.
Conger had also been charged in the case, but Singhal stepped in before the trial ended and acquitted her of all charges but one: trespass. Jurors deadlocked on that charge against both defendants, and prosecutors later announced they would not seek a retrial.
The search at the center of the case took place in an apartment used as a marijuana grow house and rented by Reginald Beldor, a drug suspect arrested after a traffic stop on July 22, 2010. Police began forfeiture proceedings on Beldor's car after his arrest, and the keys ended up with Conger, according to testimony during the weeklong trial.
Jacobi allegedly used a key to gain access to the apartment without a warrant.
Jacobi, found guilty by jurors of a felony, fared better than former Hollywood police officer Dewey Pressley, who was convicted of two misdemeanor counts of falsifying reports and received a 90-day jail sentence. Grossman, who also represented Pressley at his December trial, is appealing that sentence.