Authorities: Case against deputy tied to stolen Tampa drugs

TAMPA -- While Donald Riggans was on duty in a Pasco County patrol car and deputy's uniform last week, he caught a drug-runner carrying $25,000 in cash.

Then he drove to a school parking lot in New Port Richey, according to court records, and divided the proceeds with two others, taking $9,000 for himself.

Riggans was fired Sunday by the Pasco County Sheriff's Office after his arrest on charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute hydrocodone, an addictive painkiller.

Another Pasco deputy, Cpl. Rodney Philon, also was fired after an hourslong standoff with the Pasco SWAT team outside his Wesley Chapel home Sunday morning. He is accused of distributing anabolic steroids.

Both made first appearances in federal court this morning. Instead of their deputy's garb, they wore orange Hillsborough County jail jumpsuits.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Porcelli said the evidence against Riggans is damning, and exists mainly in the form of video and audiotapes. According to a probable cause affidavit, Riggans became involved with two men at the top of a distribution ring of pharmaceutical narcotics. One of the men, Robert "Bob" Caddick, stole the pills from a former Tampa pharmacy called Medipharm Rx where he worked and falsified records to cover up the thefts, records show.

Using a confidential informant, authorities set up a drug buy with a supposed dealer in Miami. Together, Caddick, Riggans and Kevin Massimino concocted a scheme to have a courier come to the Tampa Bay area with cash for the pills. Massimino and the informant would obtain the cash, then Riggans would stop him in his patrol car to scare the courier off.

That scene went down Tuesday, the affidavit says. Massimino and the informant made the buy in the parking lot of Winn-Dixie on SR 52, near the Moon Lake subdivision. They then met Riggans at a nearby school and divided up the money -- only $25,000, not the expected $50,000, the affidavit says.

Philon faces less serious charges, accused in an affidavit of selling an informant 10 pink tablets of the steroid Dianabol from his own stash during a meeting in the parking lot of a SR 54 Publix.

Philon is mentioned in Riggans' affidavit as an "unnamed detention deputy." He discussed the sting on the Miami drug courier with Massimino and an informant while the men worked out at a Bally's Gym in Tampa on Feb. 13. Philon, when told of the plan, said "it sounded good."

But since Philon, as a jail deputy, didn't have a patrol car, they'd need the services of Riggans.

Two federal judges granted Riggans and Philon bail in the amount of $50,000 each and set special conditions for their release, including surrendering their firearms. Philon is expected to be released from Hillsborough's Orient Road jail later today.

-- Molly Moorhead, Times staff writer

Comments

[melissa]

Shady cops...could it be... never!

These steroid poping, "bigger than life" correction types look very effective for what the job may require at times but many are probably brain damaged. Is that good judgement?

[bdiddy]

what a low budget operation. Idiots.

[Jim]

Pasco's finest...at least under White!

[Jim]

The Sheriff's Office is a BUST from top to bottom!

We need PROFESSIONAL law enforcement in this county instead of the good 'ole boys we have today!

[Jim]

The Sheriff's Office is a BUST from top to bottom!

We need PROFESSIONAL law enforcement in this county instead of the good 'ole boys we have today!

[Mike]

Goes to show that cops are no more trustworthy than anybody else. Stop the stupid "war on drugs" and stop big pharmacy from flooding our country with such dangerous crap.

[had it with youse guys]

Good job. Now, if you can just find out who is supplying steroids to the cops that work out at the McMullin Booth Gold's Gym in Clearwater, I'll feel safe again...well, safer.

[Mary]

This story just sickens me no end. After my teenage son was given this drug to try at a party last Summer, and died from taking it, the police never so much as interviewed the boys who gave it to my son. They said because it was only one person's word against another, and there was no actual evidence, that the case was not prosecutable and therefore would not be pursued. The case was ruled an accidental death, and was closed.

As if that is not enough to swallow, now I hear that deputies in the neighboring county are participating in the distribution of this DEADLY AND HIGHLY ADDICTIVE drug, which in fact, is nothing but SYNTHETIC HEROIN.

Disgusting, and unbelievable.

[Allen]

There are alot of dishonest and unethical people out there wearing badges so "KUDOS" to those people (IA) weading them out. This is nothing more than an example of our increasingly amoral society. Bob White IS a good man. I knew his mother, Laverne.

[BigDi]

Look at the requirements to become a cop? A little lax if you ask me? Plus. I know so many people who want that job that are not corrupt, but they got in a little trouble as children for smoking pot. Going off a computer that says you have never been arrested gets you in? I'd rather have the ones who have been arrested in sometimes.
THIS IS TERRIBLE!! Using steroids and harming yourself is freedom of choice in my opinion, but doing what they did is just terrible. My heart goes out to their moms.
I am a bodybuilder and can say you all would probably not like me either, but I would never hurt anyone or break the law. Steroids don't make champions they destroy them. Oh, except for Arnold Schwartzenegger, steroids totally made him where he is. Kind of hypocitical don't you think?
What does steroids have to do with politics anyway? Oh yeah, "pharmacy." Forgot 1 of three dictators is involved... the other 2? Insurance and oil.