Fire chief investigating racy photos
SPRING HILL –
There were 36 photographs showing heavy drinking, provocative poses and sexual innuendo at two private parties.
Fire Chief Mike Rampino said he only cares about two of the photographs – one including a Spring Hill firefighter and a backup ambulance parked in front of the house where at least one of the parties took place.
None of the photos was taken inside a fire station, he said.
“We’re taking it as seriously as any investigation,” said Rampino.
Rob Rogoski, a Ridge Manor resident, brought the photos to the attention of both the chief and the board of fire commissioners during a public meeting Wednesday.
Rogoski said his motivation was to shed light on an agency that he thinks doesn’t deserve more tax money. Later during the same meeting, fire commissioners approved the tentative budget along with a tax increase.
“I cannot stand it when county government asks for more money when it can’t manage what it already has,” said Rogoski.
Rogoski runs a local news website, where he posted the photographs. He said he took them off a Facebook page of another Spring Hill firefighter, Nick Babino. Babino is not in any of the photos.
The images consisted mostly of young women consuming alcoholic drinks and otherwise cavorting with one another at a house near Spring Hill Fire Station 3, located at the corner of Spring Hill Drive and Whitewood Avenue.
One of the women in the photos is shown standing in her yard. In the background is the Spring Hill ambulance.
Rampino said he did not know a date or time of when the photo was taken, so he has no way of knowing who parked it in front of the house.
“It could be as many as 60 people who are allowed to drive that vehicle,” he said.
Rampino is looking into one more photograph – an image of firefighter Ray Elliot with his arm draped around a woman, who is the sister-in-law of the man who brought the photos to the chief’s attention.
Rogoski’s brother, Jason Rogoski, was arrested in July on charges of domestic battery and false imprisonment. He is accused of attacking his wife, the same woman posing with Elliot in one of the photos.
Rogoski said the matter involving his bother had nothing to do with his decision to turn in the photos to the chief and the fire board.
“Those photos don’t help him out in any way,” he said of his brother’s criminal case.
Rogoski stunned audience members Wednesday, most of whom were in attendance to discuss the fire district’s budget.
Rampino said he had no knowledge of the photos until they were presented at the meeting.
He assigned Assistant Chief Bill Davies to investigate further.
In one of the more provocative images, which featured three women, one of them is leaning forward while the other two are holding onto her from behind. Also shown in that photo is the front end of a red car.
It was posted on Babino’s Facebook page. Another firefighter, Jason Haas, published a comment under the photo, referring to the blonde woman who was leaning against it with her chest.
Haas stated, “Nice car Nick … How come you never put that cover on it when I’m there? lol.”
The photo was taken behind the Spring Hill fire station along Spring Hill Drive and Whitewood Avenue.
As for the photo of Elliot and his sister-in-law, Rogoski said, “I think (Elliot) should explain what he was doing at that house.”
Rogoski said he did not know for certain whether Elliot was on duty when the photo was taken.
Fire Commissioner Rob Giammarco called the news of the photos “a bombshell” and made a motion to report it to the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office. The motion was voted down 3-1.
Rogoski said he agreed with the board’s vote.
“I think they voted correctly on it,” he said. “It doesn’t appear as if anything criminal was done.”
The latest controversy is one of a long line involving Spring Hill Fire Rescue.
During the same meeting, resident Patrick Clements, who is related to Giammarco by marriage, told the fire board that a firefighter made an obscene gesture when he saw him at a voting precinct during the Aug. 24 primary elections.
On Aug. 18, a Spring Hill fire engine damaged a house along Raleigh Street. The vehicle, which weighed more than 5 tons, was driven by firefighter Christopher J. Bozek, who had suffered a medical emergency while practicing hydrant maneuvers less than 100 yards from the nearest station, Rampino said.
In 2002, Bozek, 29, was convicted in Pasco County on a DUI charge, according to court records.
Former fire commissioner George Biro was employed with Spring Hill Fire Rescue for 23 years. His record while an employee included nearly 20 complaints, including a sexual harassment allegation filed by a female paramedic. He retired a captain in 1998.
Biro lost his fire commission seat in 2008 after serving one term. He is one of six candidates running this year.
In June 2002, three Spring Hill firefighters – John Ferriero, Edward Falk and Tom White – were investigated by the State Attorney’s Office after a woman accused them of raping her at a convention in Altamonte Springs.
Those charges were dropped due to “insufficient evidence.”
Ferriero, at the time, was the union president. He is now a captain with the district.
In 1994, Ferriero was fired from a teaching job at the Florida State Fire College in Ocala after state investigators learned he had made sexual advances toward female students inside a dorm room, according to news reports.
Ferriero wasn’t the only one accused and subsequently punished for the Ocala incident. The other was Rampino, who was a captain at the time.
Reporter Tony Holt can be reached at 352-544-5283 or [email protected].
