Action News Jax investigates employee file of JSO officer facing felony charges

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Action News Jax investigates a JSO officer accused of sending explicit images of himself to a teenage boy.

We first told you about Officer Alejandro Carmona-Fonseca last week.

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On Monday, we uncovered more than two dozen complaints filed against Carmona-Fonseca.

Action News Jax’s Courtney Cole spent the day looking through more than 200 pages that reveal even more about his behavior on the job.

“Willingness to confront criminals,” “Exemplifying the sheriff’s office core values,” and “displaying discipline and teamwork.”

These are just some of the ways Carmona-Fonseca is described in the 10 letters of commendation in his JSO HR file.

The commendation letters range from the year 2008 to 2020.

Cole took his file to Dale Carson, our Action New Jax Law And Safety Expert, for her to put this into context for you.

Carson has several years of experience in law enforcement as a Miami-Dade police officer and as a special agent of the FBI. Carson also runs a criminal defense law firm.

“It is the kind of excellent police work that we get paid to do, and the fact that there are commendations for that behavior seems disingenuous,” Carson explained to Action News Jax.

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The commendations also stand in stark contrast to Carmona-Fonseca’s administrative history we showed you on Monday — which included a total of 28 complaints between 2008 and 2021. More than half of them were substantiated.

Action News Jax’s Courtney Cole asked Carson why complaints wouldn’t be found in the officer’s HR file.

“They are two different groups. You have the internal affairs unit, which investigates bad behavior, and human resources, who simply compiles records,” Carson explained.

“And unless they’re communicating with one another, then, of course, you have this disparity in views,” Carson said.

Complaints against Carmona-Fonseca ranged included ”bias-based performance,” “rudeness,” “unbecoming conduct” and violations of JSO’s body-worn camera policy.

We were also able to get a hold of two of the officer’s evaluations. Both included comments about disciplinary action for a body-worn camera violation, but Carson said the language used on the form is even more telling — for a different reason.

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“It’s almost just, the evaluators are just checking a block. They’re not doing anything to address the underlying problem, which is this officer’s inability to get along with other individuals, citizens primarily.”

Carmona-Fonseca did not resign, and right now he remains on leave without pay.

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