After jail escape attempt, a Hillsborough deputy was disciplined. But was she to blame?

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TAMPA — One afternoon in the late summer of 2020, a woman tried to escape the Orient Road Jail by slipping through a ceiling tile and crawling above it. She later fell 20 feet to the floor, injuring herself.

Hillsborough sheriff’s officials would find fault with one of their own. Tonia Ballard, an 18-year Sheriff’s Office veteran, was assigned to the unit where the escape attempt occurred.

Ballard said she didn’t believe she did anything wrong. The Sheriff’s Office said she made mistakes serious enough to merit suspension and demotion.

An independent arbitrator ultimately found in Ballard’s favor, exonerating her and ordering her pre-discipline status restored. But it hasn’t happened. Last month, the fight moved into circuit court, where attorneys for the Sheriff’s Office are seeking to preserve the discipline Ballard received.

“An order came out telling them they were wrong,” said Ballard’s attorney, Paul Sisco. “And they’re wiping their feet with it.”

In a statement, the Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on the pending litigation, but officials said they take seriously the well-being of people in jail.

“It is critical that procedures are followed in order to avoid putting inmates, deputies, or the public at risk,” the statement read. “We have established a culture where employees are treated with the same fairness and respect that we provide to our citizens. Along the same line, we hold our employees accountable when their actions do not live up to the standards that our citizens expect and deserve.”

This all began after the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the temporary closure of Tampa’s courthouse. Ballard was among the deputies who maintain court security. But with most court proceedings moved online amid the pandemic, she and her fellow deputies had little to do. Thus, many were reassigned to the local jails.

Ballard, 49, had previously worked at the jail, but it had been a while — 13 years. In that time, certain things had changed, and Ballard would argue she didn’t receive adequate training on the new procedures.

On Sept. 20, 2020, Ballard was working at a two-story housing unit for female detainees in the Orient Road Jail. While Ballard was stationed at a desk on the first floor, one detained woman, Shelby Hartley, managed to access the ceiling over a second-floor walkway. Hartley moved inside the ceiling and began to crawl, according to court records. She spent more than a half-hour concealed.

Other detainees noticed and began to point to where she was. Several deputies and a supervisor saw the concussion and came to investigate. Ballard noticed, too, and imposed a lockdown, court records state. They could see Hartley’s foot coming through a tile.

Shortly thereafter, Hartley fell to the first floor, injuring herself. She later recovered in a local hospital.

An internal Sheriff’s Office investigation of the escape attempt focused on Ballard. Her lieutenant reviewed security camera footage of her activities in the hours before the incident. She ultimately would be accused of several violations of Sheriff’s Office policies.

They said she had failed to conduct a proper wellness check by walking the second floor. They said she didn’t properly investigate noises she heard from the ceiling and failed to notice broken tiles on the floor. They said she left her radio at her desk instead of taking it with her when she responded to the escape attempt, that she didn’t properly search detainees and that she wrote an incorrect booking number in a log.

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They accused her of negligence, inattention to duty and failing to follow directives. Her superiors sought a five-day suspension.

Ballard appealed the suspension to a complaint review board. The board lowered the recommended discipline to three days. But in the wake of the appeal, the Sheriff’s Office increased Ballard’s discipline to a 15-day suspension, plus the loss of her rank as a master deputy, according to court records.

She appealed again. This time, the matter went outside the Sheriff’s Office, through a process run by the county government. An appointed referee, Fredric R. Dichter, heard her case. The defense theme was that Ballard received inadequate training on jail procedures, having been assigned to the courthouse for many years.

Sheriff’s officials reiterated that she violated policy.

In a written opinion, Dichter found Ballard didn’t intentionally violate policy. He questioned why Ballard wasn’t counseled first and given a chance to correct her mistakes.

“How this occurred and how to prevent it from occurring again is important to know,” he wrote. “What is clear is that nothing (Ballard) did would have prevented the inmate from gaining access to the ceiling. What started as an investigation into the escape turned into an investigation of (Ballard) well beyond the attempted escape.”

Dichter expressed concern that Ballard’s punishment escalated as she appealed to her case. Such action could have a “chilling effect” on an employee’s decision to exercise their rights.

That was last June.

Ballard continues to work at the jail and has been denied a transfer back to the courthouse, her attorney said. He is concerned about possible retaliation against her.

“She won,” Sisco said. “And in the face of a court order, the Sheriff’s Office is just arrogantly ignoring it.”

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