Cover-Up in Mount Dora? When Felonies Get Buried and Whistleblowers Get Blamed, The Credibility of the Badge Suffers
A Mount Dora PD lieutenant under investigation was quietly paid to resign, cleared in state records, and rehired. Now the captain who reported the truth is under fire.
Just off US 441, which stretches from US 41 in Miami, Florida 939 miles to US 25W in Rocky Top, Tennessee, about 45 minutes north of Orlando - is the City of Mount Dora. It is a unique jewel in Central Florida. When you get there, you know you are not in Orlando anymore. There isn’t another city in Lake County that rivals or replicates the distinctive charm of this beautiful city. It is a premier locations for sidewalk art festivals with rolling hills that end at the shore of a chain of lakes. Mount Dora also served as the set for the 1981 movie Honky-Tonk Freeway starring William Devane and Beau Bridges, where a freeway bypass threatened the town’s economy - and the entire downtown was painted pink. It is located a brief drive from The Villages, a mega development with a footprint in four counties.
Mount Dora Police Department
After serving the community for several decades, Robert Bell became the police chief of the Mount Dora Police Department (MDPD). His administration ended under a cloud with him resigning after about one year. A retired Orange County Sheriff’s Office captain, and previous police chief served briefly. He was followed by another retired Orange County Sheriff’s Office captain who also served briefly and wound up in an adversarial position with city hall. The current chief Michael Gibson is, like his two predecessors, a retired Orange County Sheriff’s Office captain who has been serving the city since 2019 and been chief now for roughly three years. This is the story of two internal affairs investigations with two wildly different outcomes.
The first begins in October 2023 where Mount Dora Lieutenant Barry Strykowski was accused of stealing time by falsifying records and misuse of his city issued vehicle. This included claiming to be in service on extra duty jobs, and invoicing for that time worked, while they planted a GPS on his vehicle which revealed not only that he wasn’t at work but at times beyond geographic range the agency vehicle uses policy permits. Sometimes he was working but double dipping, claiming to fulfil two obligations. But these accusations were not just policy violations, some of the actions, where they developed probable cause, were serious felonies.
Strykowski, while under investigation in April of 2024 and still technically employed by Mount Dora, applies to become a police officer in the nearby Orange County Town of Oakland. On April 17, 2024, Chief Gibson delivers a memo to Strykowski advising him that he is sustained on two violations of policy and that he is going to offer him an opportunity to resign via a city dispute resolution program. In that separation agreement, the city also pays Strykowski $12,418.46 and in section 4 this clause:
The Employer and Employee agree that their entry into this Separation Agreement, with the specific consideration provided and the releases, waivers, and covenants given herein, is not and shall not be construed to be an admission of any wrongdoing or liability on the part of either Party to this Separation Agreement.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) is the peace officer standards and training (POST) agency in Florida, custodian of training records and the database administrator of officers’ status when they separate from their agencies. A frequent topic of reformers is the concern that officers who commit crimes and other official misconduct can move from agency to agency without accountability. FDLE’s database is built to prevent that from happening but it is only as good as the information submitted.
Strykowski’s original separation entry in the FDLE database was ‘Resigned/retired while being investigated for violating agency training center policy’ but was changed by MDPD to ‘Voluntary Separation (not involving misconduct.)
The nine word email
On April 19, 2024, MDPD Captain Victor Uvalle receives a telephone call from an investigator with the Oakland Police Department inquiring about Strykowski’s status as far as internal investigations and discipline. Uvalle was advised in October 2023 that Strykowski was under investigation, but he was not a principle his case. Uvalle goes to see Chief Gibson, and both parties testify that he tells the chief that he has received a phone call from Oakland. Uvalle states in his Internal Affairs interview:
“I saw the Chief. I said Chief Oakland is calling. They want to find out if there's any discipline on Barry Strykowski. He said, no discipline, just like that. No discipline and no pending inquiries. That's what he said. I said, can I write that down? He said, yeah. And then he made those other comments. What's the connection? Or what? You know, what there? That's it. Can I send him that? He said yes.”
Captain Uvalle sends the following email to Oakland Police Department on April 19, 2024:
“No open cases and no discipline on Lt. Barry Strykowski.”
No one cares for a year
No one cares for a year. Nine words. I would have cared but I didn’t know. No one cares that Strykowski is back on the street seven days after he was forced to resign from Mount Dora. No one cares that the FDLE database record is altered. No one cares that Captain Uvalle sent that email with the chief’s guidance to Oakland P.D.
Oakland Police Department promotes Strykowski to sergeant. Mount Dora is glad to be rid of him and Oakland is glad to have him.
In January 2025, a former police officer coworker of mine, who committed the same pattern of crimes as Strykowski, is called in and arrested at police headquarters. He bonds out quickly and retires the same day.
That’s the way it is supposed to happen. It solves everything. But no one cared in Mount Dora or Oakland.
No one cared until April 7, 2025, when the local ABC affiliate acted on the tip. Just 10 days less than a year, the investigative reporting news crew is knocking on the doors of the Town of Oakland and City of Mount Dora demanding records on Strykowski. As a reaction, Gibson suspends and initiates an internal affairs investigation on Captain Victor Uvalle based on the one-line nine word email that he sent to Oakland Police Department, after, admitting under oath discussing it with him on April 19, 2024.
In one sense, this could be considered just a matter of confusion, where one thing was said or another thing was misheard. But here is where it differs and here is where the issue changes. Lt. Barry Strykowski who violated trust, stole, falsified documents, and then blatantly lied on his Oakland Police Department application, only got a page and a half memo detailing where there was criminal probable cause (the chief says sustained but that cannot be since it is not within the scope of discipline) for crimes committed against employers and taxpayers.
Uvalle got an eight-page memorandum for his one-line email that he says - under oath - was approved by the chief. Consider that the only person in this story has no attachment, or truthfully any liability, is Captain Victor Uvalle. Yet, he is sustained on four out of four serious charges leveled by Chief Michael Gibson who lets felons stroll with $12,418.46 that they ought to forfeit and only finds two charges against Strykowski?
No one cared about Uvalle’s email until Gibson feet were in the fire. The reporter asks Gibson when she reads him Uvalle’s email, she says to Gibson “Technically, that’s true” he answers ”Correct,” and Jones continues “because he was never disciplined for stealing time from taxpayers” And Gibson suddenly realizes what just happened and then says “partly correct.” There was some debate about who had records to internal affairs investigations and then separately their logs but that was just deliberate obfuscation.
In full disclosure, I have worked closely with both Michael Gibson and Victor Uvalle. I am sincerely disappointed in Gibson and his deputy chief. The premeditation and the conduct are both examples of the fear of getting caught. Eight-page justification memos on one-line emails are the natural product of detection apprehension.
Especially after you just let a potential second-degree felon clear the FDLE database to get hired by another agency.
I’ve worked closely with four of the five previous chiefs of Mount Dora. In 31 years of working in law enforcement and writing about law enforcement, I have seen this conduct that rips at the integrity of our profession. We must hold onto hope that the next generation, will step up and declare that this weakness and cowardice must end.
We need less of feckless leaders covering their behinds and more leaders who say, if you want to come for my officers or deputies, you will have to come through me. I know they are out there and I can’t wait to support them.
Please keep all of our law enforcement officers in your prayers.
Roland Clee served a major Florida police department as a Community Service Officer for more than 26 years. His career included uniformed patrol, training, media relations, intelligence, criminal investigations, and chief’s staff. He writes the American Peace Officer newsletter, speaks at public safety, recruiting and leadership conferences and helps local governments and public safety agencies through his business, CommandStaffConsulting.com.
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GREAT WORK, BROTHER!
Excellent work Roland! Another stain on the Law Enforcement profession. Thank You for your hard work!