Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has weighed in on many school board races across the state in hopes to position pro-Family First and Parental Rights in Education-friendly school board candidates. On school board race that Gov. DeSantis did not involve himself in was the Osceola County District 4 school board race, where Wilfred0 “Will” Fonseca is vying for the position.
On paper, Fonseca, or “coach” as he is known, appears to check off all the boxes of a good, viable candidate.
But while Fonseca volunteers his spare to help special needs children and is involved in business management and consulting as occupations, Fonseca has neglected to take his own advice of being “always transparent with the community.”
In a past life, Fonseca was also known as Officer Wilfredo Fonseca of the Kissimmee Police Department, where he worked at for 2 years and 9 months.
But Fonseca is not campaigning on the fact that he was former law enforcement.
Why?
According to public records The Floridian obtained, Fonseca resigned as patrol officer during an internal investigation by the Kissimmee Police Department looking into him potentially violating the city’s rules and regulations following a January 13, 2007 incident involving a damaged patrol vehicle.
Fonseca was also hit with disciplinary action for failing to “complete a task assigned” to him, accusing him of “negligence in performing assigned duties, or departmental SOP, including below standard productivity or workmanship.”
Yes, Fonseca resigned, but it appears that he was going to be fired anyways and has lost his law enforcement certification
Another document, an Affidavit of Termination (Form 61) furnished to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) shows that Fonseca resigned or retired “in lieu of termination.”
The document states that Fonseca’s separation was because of the following:
“Voluntary separation or retirement in lieu of termination for violation of Section 943.13 (4), F.S., or violation of moral character standards defined in Rule 11B-27.0011, F.A.C.”
We reached out to the FDLE for clarification of Fonseca’s reason for separation as listed in his Affidavit of Separation.
“Had he not separated, he would have been terminated,” said a FDLE officer familiar with the form and reason for the separation.
In addition, The Floridian made a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) into Fonseca and any public record regarding the internal investigation and any other disciplinary action.
According to the Records Unit of the City of Kissimmee Police Department, Fonseca “resigned 3/31/2009 during an internal investigation. The Records department also said that all of Fonseca’s documents regarding the investigation were “purged in December 2016.”
Fonseca’s law enforcement certification revoked and is ineligible to serve as a law enforcement officer again.
We requested more information from the Kissimmee Police Department as to who authorized the purge of Fonseca’s file, but no one has responded to our request.
We also reached out to Fonseca via phone, text, and email, but Fonseca had not returned our request for comment for this story.
Days later, we were able to contact Fonseca, where the former police officer confirmed that he was on the Kissimmee police force but resigned.
Fonseca then asked us to send him any other questions we had and to contact him directly again, but he has not responded to our follow-up phone call, nor our written questions.
Here is our original request for comment to Fonseca:
Hey Coach, I hope you are well.
We are writing a story about you in regards to you school board race. Wondering if you can explain your departure from the Kissimmee Police Dept back in 2009. I know you resigned, but under what circumstances? Were you forced to resign or given the option to resign or be dismissed?
Can you explain everything that happened? I have FDLE and KPD documents in hand about the departure, just want to get your take on what happened? Your certification was revoked. How do you feel about that?
Why not campaign that you were a police officer?
Our follow up email after we spoke to him:
I am forwarding you my previous email.
We have documents showing that you were going to be fired after an IA investigation, but you resigned instead.
We reached out to Fonseca’s school board opponent Heather Kahoun, who expressed her disappointment of hearing about how Fonseca conducted himself when he was a police officer with the City of Kissimmee.
“I was disappointed to hear about Mr. Fonseca‘s conduct, those women did not deserve that type of violation,” said Kahoun. “Mr Fonseca is a candidate that has focused efforts on school safety and I can only image Mr. Fonseca did not run on the fact he was an officer because of the severity of his misconduct.”
Kahoun pivoted to her campaign but not before taking a parting shot at Fonseca.
“I don’t believe Mr. Fonseca‘s actions are representative of the great work done by the Kissimmee Police Department. My campaign continues to focus on the work ahead which includes improving academics, improving school safety, increasing parent involvement, and advocating for our teachers and staff,” added Kahoun.
