ORLANDO, Fla. — A grand jury found a “culture of cover-up” in the internal investigation of a Kissimmee cop later indicted for excessively beating a man in 2023, implicating the now-former police chief and others of trying to protect the officer.

The 34-page report, released Thursday by the Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office, offers a clearer window into what led to Kissimmee Police Department Chief Betty Holland’s resignation earlier this week, when news first surfaced of the jury’s findings. And it shows an extraordinary failure of police procedure from the bottom of the department to the very top, one that threatened the safety of Kissimmee’s residents.

The full grand jury report, containing pages of previously unpublicized details, accuses Holland of blocking attempts at a criminal investigation into Officer Andrew Baseggio, who received a mere eight-hour suspension for kneeing 44-year-old Sean Kastner in the face and using his Taser on him seven times despite facing no resistance from the man. The incident happened at Kastner’s home April 22, 2023.

Officers at the scene — including Darrius Benjamin, who later resigned in a separate incident involving excessive force — did not intervene in the beating nor did they report it. They later told investigators, however, that they believed it was excessive.

Grand jurors further accused members of KPD’s internal affairs of downplaying the incident the day it happened. Cpl. Takeya Close, according to its report, determined the use of force was “objectively reasonable” and cited body-worn camera footage to say Kastner kicked at officers — an action the investigation concluded was “never visible … until after the use of force.”

Holland improperly tipped Baseggio to the progress of outside investigations into the incident on three separate occasions, allowing him to seek to undermine them.

“The investigation was compromised from the very beginning because Officer Baseggio was able to have access to knowing that the investigation was going on, and then began to tamper with witnesses along during that time,” State Attorney Andrew Bain told reporters on the steps of the Osceola County Courthouse. “So we went back and reinterviewed a lot of those witnesses who were inside of that investigation and it turned out that many of the things they said were falsified.”

Additionally, the grand jury found there may be a pattern of not reporting other disciplinary cases, including those involving excessive uses of force, to Florida’s Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission.

It cited “evidence Chief Holland was made aware of these prior failures to report and … had taken no action to bring her Department into compliance with Florida Law.”

Makings of an attempted cover-up

The criminal investigation into Baseggio and the revelation of an attempted departmentwide cover-up began after a report last October by WFTV revealed the officer’s meager punishment for beating Kastner.

The arrest, grand jurors found, left Kastner with a nasal bone fracture and a lacerated eyebrow. The 44-year-old later accepted a plea deal for resisting arrest without violence, even though prosecutors under now-suspended State Attorney Monique Worrell “did not review the body-worn camera footage, but instead relied on the accuracy of the written police reports,” according to the grand jury report.

Prosecutors later found that details alleged in Baseggio’s arrest reports were false, including that Kastner was seen carrying a wrench outside his home and that he spread oil on himself prior to the confrontation to make him harder to subdue. Neither suggestion was supported by other officers or body camera video.

Those discrepancies were not flagged to higher-ups, nor did officers who witnessed the beating — Benjamin and Officer Jonathan Fernandez — intervene or report it. Instead, video showed Fernandez, who later was promoted to detective, “grinning if not laughing about Baseggio’s use of force following the incident.”

Even when some officers on scene later described the beating as excessive, Baseggio was only disciplined for violating a general policy regarding “obedience to policies and procedures” — not one governing proper uses of force.

Holland later declined to investigate the matter criminally, after a meeting with Deputy Chief Wilson Muñoz and former Deputy Chief Camille Alicea determined — without consulting prosecutors — that one wasn’t needed.

Following WFTV’s report about the department’s internal findings, the State Attorney’s Office intervened.

But even then, Baseggio was not relieved of duty. Rather, the grand jury found, Holland admitted to warning Baseggio to consider hiring a lawyer ahead of the FDLE investigation. She then instructed a lieutenant to show him a copy of the findings, though she falsely told investigators the lieutenant called her first about the matter when phone records revealed it was the other way around.

Holland later warned Baseggio of a coming State Attorney’s Office investigation, the report added.

“Chief Holland acknowledged it would be inappropriate for an investigator to notify the target of a criminal investigation that the investigation was underway,” the report said, “and she admitted there was no ‘exception’ for the investigation of a law enforcement officer.”

‘Upholding the highest standards’

On Monday, the City of Kissimmee appointed Maj. Robert Anzueto of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office to replace Holland as interim chief. Part of his task is to conduct formal investigations into a group of 11 current and former officers named by the State Attorney’s Office as having credibility concerns following Baseggio’s indictment.

Among the 11 are Holland and Baseggio, along with former Deputy Chief Camille Alicea, whose credibility was called into question after a letter from the State Attorney’s Office flagged her comments related to the investigation. Officially, Alicea’s resignation in September, which was reported by the Sentinel, was due to a remark about a corporal seeking promotion that was deemed homophobic.

One officer, Milagros Sanchez, was named after admitting to lying to investigators while texts showed she instructed another officer not to cooperate, which the letter said “may constitute criminal conduct.” Officer Moises Diaz was also named for providing “inconsistent” testimony and “deliberately” locking his agency-issued phone to deny access to it by prosecutors.

Ahead of a Thursday press briefing, Kissimmee city manager Mike Steigerwald sent a letter to Bain explaining the steps taken to rectify the issues addressed by the grand jury. Steigerwald promised expanded training for officers while revising policies on responding to excessive force allegations and reporting violations to the state attorney.

He further detailed a restructuring of KPD’s internal affairs division, including creating a management position.

Speaking to reporters, Steigerwald declined to directly address what happened to Kastner, as his family “filed a lawsuit against the city.” Court records that could confirm that lawsuit was filed were not immediately available.

In his first comments to reporters, Anzueto said KPD officers are eager to put the controversy to rest, adding they “deserve strong, principled leadership that not only supports them in their mission but also guides them in upholding the highest standards of our profession.”

“I support them 100% that are out there doing the right things,” he said. “Do we have some who might not be doing the right things? We’re going to learn that in the investigation from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.”

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