Sheriff's Office Honors Excellent Work, Promotes 5

Date Added: November 15, 2019 11:47 am

Laura Williams
Office of Public Affairs & Media Relations

VSO HONORS EXCELLENT WORK OF QUARTERLY AWARD WINNERS
5 deputies also promoted in ceremony

Five quarterly award winners from the Volusia Sheriff’s Office were honored for their excellent work this quarter and five employee promotions were announced Wednesday at the Deputy Saboda Training Center, Daytona Beach.

DEPUTY OF THE QUARTER: Deputy Robert McCabe was honored for regularly exceeding expectations of his supervisors. He regularly stands out as exerting maximum effort in every task. He was especially noted for seven cases in the last quarter in which he went above and beyond duty and did excellent work.

For example, on 5/9/19, Deputy McCabe responded to a domestic disturbance in Deltona. He is credited with doing an outstanding job of investigating an extremely violent DV incident involving kidnapping, false imprisonment, armed burglary and burglary with battery. Through obtaining detailed information and writing an excellent incident report, Deputy McCabe easily secured a warrant from the State Attorney’s Office.

DETECTIVE OF THE QUARTER:  Detective Benjamin Gordon, who currently serves as the senior detective in the Northwest Detectives Unit, is awarded for his outstanding job investigating cases, in which several ended with arrests, and teaching three new detectives assigned to the unit. Detective Gordon has worked closely with outside agencies as well as our Crime Scene Unit and is noted for his work ethic and tenacity to arrest very dangerous criminals.

He was noted especially for his work in two commercial burglary trends, an armed burglary, an armed robbery that all resulted in arrests. In addition, he was the case agent in the case of a missing male who violated an injunction by possessing a firearm. During a dispute with his ex-girlfriend, the male put a gun to his head and threatened to kill himself. Detective Gordon was assigned to the case and soon spoke with the suspect’s family and negotiated a peaceful surrender. The suspect turned himself in and was taken into custody unharmed.

EMPLOYEE OF THE QUARTER: Nancy Lee Strickland, school crossing guard supervisor in District 4, has served at the VSO for nearly 30 years. She supervises 30 school crossing guards in the Deltona district as well as filling in during emergencies as supervisor in two other districts, which each has about 20 guards. She juggles multiple tasks and is an integral part of the office staff at District 4, in addition to going above and beyond for her crossing guards.

TELECOMMUNICATOR OF THE QUARTER: Telecommunicator Marjore McArthur is honored for her selfless attitude and positivity in her work at Central Communications. She always has a wonderful demeanor, despite whatever stressful situation she or others are experiencing in performing their duties in our communications center.  She is well-respected among her peers and she’s an asset to the Communications Center and the Volusia Sheriff’s Office.

VOLUNTEER OF THE QUARTER: Citizen Observer Program (COP) Richard Blanchette is an exemplary volunteer who has especially stepped up the help run the District 3North office as second in command. He has worked tirelessly to make sure the COPs have appropriate supplies, checks the frequency of the program’s house watches, coordinated an on-call list and scheduling and is invaluable in helping the district run smoothly. He’s taken it upon himself to be an integral part of the office.

PROMOTIONS:

--Ben Yisrael, formerly lieutenant, is promoted to Captain and is assigned to Court Services. From 2017 to the present, he has been a lieutenant. He has served as assistant commander of the Investigative Services Section, managing the Major Case Unit, Cold Case Unit, Crime Scene Unit, Child Exploitation Unit, SANE Program, ICE-Brevard-Volusia Child Exploitation Task Force, Career Criminal Unit, North Florida ICAC Task Force.

He’s also served as assistant commander of the Narcotics/Vice Section, managing the Volusia Bureau of Investigations, East Volusia Narcotics Task Force, West Volusia Narcotics Task Force, Deltona Narcotic Enforcement Team, and Task Force Agents assigned to Federal Partners. He currently serves as commander of the SWAT Team. From 2014-2017, he was a sergeant. Duties included: Career Criminal Unit supervisor; Eastside Detective Unit supervisor; District 4 Patrol supervisor; District 2 Patrol supervisor. From 2003-2014, he was a deputy sheriff, Volusia Bureau of Investigation Task Force Agent and served on the East Volusia Narcotics Task Force, District 3 Road Patrol, District 6 Road Patrol and SWAT Team.

--Pat Leahy, formerly sergeant, is promoted to lieutenant and is currently assigned as watch commander. His duties at the Sheriff’s Office have included: School Resource Deputy; Patrol sergeant/ Deltona; Deltona Street Crimes sergeant; Deltona Person Crimes detective sergeant; Eastside Detective Unit detective sergeant; Child Exploitation Unit sergeant; Northwest Detective Unit detective sergeant, hostage negotiator, Critical Incident Stress Debrief team member, sergeant FTO. 

--Kyle McDaniel, formerly sergeant, is promoted to lieutenant and is assigned as watch commander. His duties have included District 3 patrol, District 5 detective; County Wide Crime Suppression Team; Deltona Patrol sergeant; Deltona Detectives sergeant; East Side Detectives Unit sergeant; and a member of our SWAT Team since 2005.

--Jayson Paul, formerly deputy and detective, is promoted to sergeant.  His duties have included deputy, field training officer, traffic homicide investigator and detective.  

--Ryan Lee, former deputy, is promoted to sergeant. He has served as a field training officer.

Congratulations on your outstanding work, everyone!