FMPD officer facing charges after not reporting mother driving with drugs and her young child

A Fort Myers police officer is facing charges after stopping a woman who had drugs in her car with a little girl and not reporting it. Weeks later, that girl died in a car crash.

Investigators say Officer Tyler Williams did not report child abuse in January and now, he says there wasn’t enough proof to charge the woman in the car.

The child, Serenity Rose Robinson, died in a crash Feb. 17 on Martin Luther King Boulevard. She was not strapped in the car and her mom was high on drugs.

The judge decided to hold off on ruling whether to dismiss the charges. There’s a lot for him to review, including testimony from Williams, his body camera video and audio. But what is not part of the case but impossible to ignore is the fact that a little girl died in a violent crash just a month after prosecutors say Williams failed to protect her.

Williams’ body camera was rolling and recording during a traffic stop in January.

“Beautiful little girl and she does not deserve that,” he’s heard saying to Serenity’s mother, Leslie Zeagler. What she does not deserve, in Williams’ opinion? Her mother and a friend driving with meth, heroin and needles in the car.

Despite Williams’ discovery, the prosecutor accused the Fort Myers officer of failing to protect Serenity. He failed to call the Department of Children and Families, as the law requires.

“You were feeling gracious for some reason and were going to give them a freebie, correct?” asked prosecutor Deborah Cunningham.

“Yes, ma’am. Based on past experiences with DCF, I get the same answer every time…that it doesn’t justify an investigation to them and they’re not going to be looking into it any further,” Williams said in response.

No call, no paperwork and no investigation. A month later, with Zeagler driving high, she crashed her car. Serenity Rose died.

Her mother, crash investigators say in their report, failed to strap her into her car seat. Williams and his attorney argued there was no proof of any of that.

“Did anything or any signs during the stop give you reasonable cause to suspect that she was abused, abandoned or neglected,” asked Williams’ attorney, Timothy Culhane.

“Not a single one,” Williams responded.

Back to the first traffic stop, which lasted 30 minutes. Not once did Zeagler or Williams check on a sleeping Serenity Rose.

“You did not call DCF on the morning of Jan. 18, 2020, in reference to your contact with Leslie Zeagler and her child, Serenity Robinson, correct?” Cunningham inquired.

“Yes, ma’am, I did not call. I did not feel that there was a need to call DCF,” Williams said.

Williams ended the traffic stop with some advice for Zeagler: Stop using and take better care of the little girl.

Williams is on unpaid leave from FMPD.

All of this – the traffic stop, the fact that DCF was not called and no arrests were made in January – came to light because of Serenity’s father. He was in jail on unrelated charges at the time of her death.

He spoke to Williams on a recorded line. They spoke about Serenity and the night of the traffic stop. The next day, FMPD placed Williams on leave.

“You told Mr. Robinson during the course of that phone conversation that DCF was in fact called and it was in their hands. Is that correct?” Cunningham asked Williams.

“That is correct, due to it being 30 days later and I, honestly at that point in time, could not recall if I did or not make a two-minute phone call to DCF to be told that it’s not worth them looking into,” he responded.

The call was recorded because Randy Robinson was in jail. Williams claims even if he did call DCF, it would not have mattered and they would not have done anything. The prosecutor called that a lie, saying it was a consciousness of guilt.