There’s more legal trouble for Evan Cramer, the former St. Lucie County sheriff’s deputy now in jail accused of sexual battery by multiple victims.
“She is having a hard time dealing with this. I mean she has a hard time when she’s out on the road seeing a police officer go by,” said Fort Lauderdale attorney Kenneth Miller.
Miller represents the woman who was the first to come forward in Cramer’s criminal case from January of last year. She’s now suing Cramer in federal court for his actions.
“We are saying that he used his position as a sheriff’s deputy to basically threaten this woman that if she didn't have sex with him that he was going to take her to jail.”
What’s even more significant about this lawsuit, they’re also suing Cramer’s big boss, Sheriff Ken Mascara.
The complaint claims his office knew Cramer had a history of unacceptable behavior and hired him anyway.
“Before Mr. Cramer was hired by the sheriff, he had been a police officer in Sanford, Florida,” said Miller. “He was recommended to be fired by the Sanford Police for multiple things, one of which was he was using his position to try to coerce people to do things.”
In fact, Miller says the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office initially rejected Cramer as a candidate after learning about his history.
“Yet, some how with this knowledge that he was a problem, that he was about to be fired, they turned around and hired him two months later and we don’t have an explanation from him as to why," said Miller.
WPTV-TV may know the answer. NewsChannel 5 has uncovered information that may suggest
Cramer had a personal "in" at the sheriff’s office.
According to documents we found in the criminal case discovery, Cramer’s girlfriend is Emily Dietrich. Her father is Capt. Kevin Dietrich. And according to appraisal documents from the sheriff’s office, we know Dietrich was one of the people who "vouched" for Cramer before he was hired.
The woman who filed the federal lawsuit is seeking money damages. Miller confirmed he is also in the process of filing another federal lawsuit on behalf of another one of Cramer's alleged victims.
The St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office sent us a statement saying, “It is our agency’s policy not to comment on open, pending cases of litigation.”
Cramer is still awaiting trial in his criminal case.
Tuesday Sheriff Mascara released the following statement:
As stated on January 26, 2017, the pre-employment background investigation conducted on Mr. Cramer did reveal the concerns from Sanford Police. Based on information from his employment file from Sanford PD, we rejected his application for employment. Mr. Cramer then asked to be re-considered for a non-paid, Reserve Deputy position, one that requires the same level of training and certification, but is unpaid. We granted this in order to evaluate his performance and over the course of four months as a Reserve Deputy, with stellar performance, we extended an offer for full time employment.
As for the involvement of Captain Kevin Dietrich, his signature does appear on a Field Training and Evaluation Program Basic Reserve Recruit Checklist simply acknowledging his role as the Reserve Deputy Coordinator and completion of the Field Training and Evaluation Program by Mr. Cramer. This formality is only after individual approval by each Field Training Officer and Sergeant that supervised Mr. Cramer’s training program.