‘I am totally sorry’: Commissioner offers apologies to police after Facebook post sparks anger
By Chad Mills
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LARGO, Florida (WFTS) — An elected leader in Largo is apologizing profusely after writing a recent Facebook post that sparked anger, confusion, and shock across the community.
The post by longtime City Commissioner Michael Smith accuses the Largo Police Department of misconduct.
“I may have a new distrust with Largo PD,” Smith writes in the post, which includes photos of his injuries and no other context or details.
Monday evening, in an interview with ABC Action News, the commissioner apologized multiple times for the now-deleted post, which he said is not true and was posted early Sunday morning after a night he can’t fully remember.
“I’d like to apologize to the police department,” he said. “I made a bad decision. A bad thing happened, and then it compounded on bad decisions.”
“I am totally sorry. I support everything they do,” he continued.
Smith says he suffers from sleep problems, so after he returned home from a Saturday night gala, he took an Ambien pill. Eventually, he took another pill, drove to a Wawa, and acted visibly impaired.
Though Smith says he had consumed a few alcoholic beverages earlier in the evening, he said the Ambien was the reason behind the erratic, embarrassing behavior.
Largo Police Department ultimately responded and took the commissioner into custody under the Marchman Act, a state law that allows for someone to be involuntarily assessed, stabilized, or treated if they are severely impaired due to substance abuse.
“They took me to [Largo Medical Center], and I guess I scraped my head on my own right here on my forehead a little bit,” Smith said of his injuries. “From what I gather, it was my own doing and not the officers’ at all.”
Smith said he wrote the Facebook post when he was still impaired but deleted it and apologized as soon as he wasn’t. He continues to offer apologies to both Largo Police and the public.
“I can only apologize to my citizens and our police department and our fire and anybody I could have harmed — and, thank God, I didn’t,” he said. “This was a bad decision that opened my eyes to—I don’t want this to ever happen again. This was a very, very bad decision of mine.”
Smith said he will talk to his doctor about how he treats his sleep disorder and practice other safeguards to prevent it from happening again.
Largo Police, meanwhile, offered no details except to confirm Smith was taken into custody under the Marchman Act.
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