BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Caleb Young, a civilian employee of the Gainesville Police Department (GPD), has resigned following an Internal Affairs investigation that recommended his dismissal after finding that he had violated department policy by having an affair with a subordinate, getting her pregnant, and then demanding that she get an abortion.

The allegations

In June 2022, a GPD officer reported second-hand information that Young had an affair with one of his subordinates, she became pregnant, and he threatened to fire her if she refused to get an abortion. At the time, the woman was no longer employed at GPD, and when a GPD Lieutenant called to ask her about the allegation, the woman denied any wrongdoing by Young.

In August 2023, the woman called the Lieutenant back and said she had not previously told the Lieutenant the truth because she was afraid for her safety and the safety of her unborn child, but now, after the birth of the baby, she was willing to cooperate.

The woman said she was hired as a part-time Interrupter in March 2022, and her supervisor was Young, who was the Program Coordinator assigned to Community Relations. She had previously met Young in September 2020 when she took a class at his company, Legacy Security Firm, to get her concealed carry permit. She said she and Young started a sexual relationship in October 2020 and that they were involved in a serious and sexual relationship until May 2022. She said Young had suggested that she apply for the Interrupters job.

The woman said she became pregnant in March 2022 and told Young on April 2, 2022. She said Young was not happy about the pregnancy and told her she needed to get an abortion or she would have to quit her job as an Interrupter. She said “everyone at GPD” knew about her relationship with Young, but they did not openly acknowledge it. She said she did not know Young was married when they first started dating, but she learned about his marriage during their relationship.

She said she refused to get an abortion and initially refused to resign, but after Young made the comment, “You can go missing,” she felt threatened and decided to resign. On April 5, she hand-wrote a letter of resignation and called Young so she could give it to him; she said Young told her to meet him in the parking lot at the Institute of Public Safety, where she noticed a GPD officer watching them from the balcony of a building. The woman said Young said her letter was not professional, crumpled it up, and gave her advice on writing a better one; she submitted a second letter of resignation on May 4, stating that her last day of work would be May 30, but Young only allowed her to finish the pay period.

The woman said her relationship with Young ended in May 2022, but Young continued to push her to have an abortion. The baby, a girl, was born in December 2022, and she said Young named their daughter.

The woman said that when the Lieutenant called her in June 2022, she was with Young, and he insisted on listening to the conversation and told her what to say.

She said she requested that Young take a paternity test, and after “months of dodging” the test, he submitted DNA, but the test indicated that he is not the father of the baby. The woman said she believes that Young somehow manipulated the paternity test.

The woman gave Internal Affairs access to her phone as part of the investigation.

Investigation

The investigation found that the woman’s employment ended on May 10, 2022, with a note stating that she “SUBMITTED A LETTER OF RESIGNATION EFFECTIVE MAY 31, 2022 BUT HER SUPERVISOR CHOSE TO END HER EMPLOYMENT EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.” Young is listed as her supervisor in the system.

The investigator reported that photos, videos, and text messages were found on the woman’s phone, indicating that she and Young were involved in a sexual relationship from October 2020 until May 2022. There are also reportedly text messages referring to the woman getting an abortion and quitting her job at GPD. According to the report, the two shared “texts, photos, and video with each other, but also communicating like a couple about their days, their work, church, and their children.”

According to the report, the woman sent a text to Young on April 7, telling him she decided to keep the child and telling him to “do you self a favor and sign your rights over.” On May 4, she texted Young that he was “making it a hostile environment for me to even come back up to GPD” because she felt he wanted to “terminate [her] tomorrow.”

In October 2022, according to the report, Young asked for a key to her residence, saying, “My baby gone be there.” Later that month, the woman asked Young to spell the baby’s name, and Young said he needed to figure out how he wanted to spell it. After the baby was born, the woman sent Young a text asking how to pronounce the baby’s name, and Young sent her an audio recording, pronouncing the name.

In December 2022, the woman reportedly sent Young pictures and videos of the baby with the message, “Congratulations You Are Now A Girls Dad.” The texts stopped abruptly in May 2023 and resumed in August, when the woman reportedly accused Young of manipulating the paternity test and Young asked her to leave him alone.

In another text, according to the report, Young told the woman he was deep in thought, and when she asked him what he was thinking about, he replied, “How much ion [I don’t] like white people.” The woman changed the subject, and there was reportedly no further discussion.

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One officer who was interviewed said he warned the woman not to work with Young; he said he “did not trust Young because of several incidents that happened at Reichert House when he worked there with him.” He said that when he learned Young wanted her to get an abortion and was threatening her job, he encouraged her to report what was happening and said she did not want to resign.

The officer that the woman saw on the balcony reportedly did not remember seeing Young at the Institute for Public Safety at first, but he later recalled that Young had taught a concealed firearms class on April 5, 2022, and had stepped out to the parking lot during the class. He said he recalled going onto the balcony during a break.

Young’s supervisor reportedly said he had nothing to do with the woman’s resignation and did not know she was listed as “TERMINATED” in the City’s system. He said Young would only have the authority to recommend termination of an employee; the supervisor would have had to get involved to actually terminate the employee, but he said he was not involved.

A Personnel Clerk reportedly told the investigator she had sent an email to Young, explaining how to terminate an employee in the City’s system; although she did not remember a conversation with Young, she said she must have spoken with him about the woman because otherwise she would not have known to send him the information. She said Young entered the termination record and added, “Caleb Young: Originally I received letter of resignation on 05/04/2022. However, at the request of [the woman] her last day be on Friday May 9, 2022.”

Interview of Young

Young was reportedly interviewed while he was on paid administrative suspension following a sworn complaint charging him with assault and battery on a law enforcement officer. Young reportedly wanted to have an attorney present for the interview, but the investigator said he did not have the right to have an attorney present because it was an administrative interview, not a criminal interview. Young came to GPD for the interview and again asked for an attorney or witness after the first question; he did not accept the first witness that was offered and said he believed he was entitled to a representative. However, his current position is not represented by a union; he eventually agreed to the interview, reportedly saying he would “get in trouble” if he did not. The investigator noted that as an employee of GPD, Young was required to answer the questions truthfully.

Young reportedly said he “thinks” he was the woman’s supervisor at GPD and that he could not remember if their relationship was sexual before she worked for GPD. He reportedly confirmed that he and the woman had a sexual relationship while she was a GPD employee; he said he did not know she was pregnant while she was employed at GPD or at the time of her resignation. He said he heard rumors that the baby was his after he found out she was pregnant.

Young reportedly said he never told the woman to have an abortion or resign from GPD and said he never suggested that she resign from GPD; he said it was the opposite, that he wanted to expand her role. When asked if he suggested she have an abortion, he reportedly said he told her he didn’t want any kids.

Young reportedly said the woman provided him with a letter of resignation, but he encouraged her to stay, then she gave him a second letter of resignation “a few months later.” He said she did not tell him why she wanted to resign, saying it was a personal matter.

When asked why the City’s system shows the woman as “terminated,” Young reportedly said he does not have the power to terminate an employee and did not make a recommendation to terminate the woman; he also said he did not ask his supervisor to handle the resignation. When the investigator showed Young the entry stating that the woman’s supervisor had chosen to end her employment immediately, the investigator wrote that Young “thought for a minute and then said he thought he remembered that [the woman] wanted to be paid for the remainder of the month, but did not plan on coming to work. Young said he was not going to do that, so that is why [the City’s system] says she was terminated.”

Young showed the investigator the paternity test results on his phone, and they reportedly showed 0% chance that he was the baby’s father. He reportedly said he had not had any contact with the woman since receiving the test results in August 2023 and said he did not know the baby’s name until someone else told him. When the investigator followed up, asking him to confirm that he did not name the baby, Young reportedly confirmed that he did not name the baby.

Young reportedly played a recording of the woman’s call with the Lieutenant for the investigator, saying he had been sitting with the woman when she denied having any issues with Young.

Conclusion

The investigator concluded that Young and the woman had a sexual relationship before and during the woman’s employment with GPD, when Young was her supervisor, and that Young never disclosed the relationship to anyone at GPD. The woman became pregnant, and the investigator wrote, “While Young denied that he forced [the woman] to resign or have an abortion, there are multiple texts from [the woman] during this time frame to both Young and others that refer to being forced to resign or have an abortion.” The investigator also concluded that Young terminated the woman before her desired resignation date and that the woman’s explanation of her resignation “is supported by text messages and conversations while Young’s explanation is not supported by what is documented in [the City’s systems].”

The investigator also concluded that the woman’s allegations are supported by the data recovered from her phone and testimony provided by witnesses, while Young’s statements “are either not supported by any evidence or are in contradiction to the evidence in this investigation.” One of the examples provided was that Young claimed to not know the baby’s name, while the woman’s phone had text messages showing that Young had chosen the name and had even sent her an audio message telling her how to pronounce the name.

The allegation in this investigation was that Young violated a City rule that prohibits “Immoral, unlawful, or improper conduct or indecency, whether on or off the job which would tend to affect the employee’s relationship to his/her job, fellow workers’ reputations or goodwill in the community,” and the investigator concluded that the allegation was “SUSTAINED.” The report notes that the recommended discipline consisted of “Written Instruction and Cautioning in the form of an Employee Notice and Dismissal.” Young was reportedly allowed to resign from GPD.

According to City records, Young made $29.41 per hour, or $61,172.80 per year.

The report was completed on October 12, 2023, and signed by multiple members of the command staff, including Chief Inspector Jaime Kurnick, Assistant Chief Nelson Moya, and Chief Lonnie Scott, on October 18.