Veteran Florida Keys deputy accused of illegally running background checks for Ocean Reef resort

A veteran Monroe County sheriff’s deputy turned himself in Tuesday on charges that he illegally accessed the Florida driver’s license database, as well as another state crime database, to conduct thousands of background checks for security personnel at an exclusive gated community in Key Largo, according to his arrest report.

Specifically, Lt. Thomas Kiffney is accused of running people’s names through the state Driver and Vehicle Information Database — or DAVID — in connection with his full-time job at Ocean Reef resort, an ultra-wealthy enclave located at the northern end of Key Largo, his warrant states.

At the time, Kiffney had retired from his full-time job as a deputy, but was still on the department as a reserve officer, which gave him access to law enforcement databases.

Along with the DAVID system, Kiffney is also accused of illegally accessing the Florida Department of Law Enforcement-maintained Florida Crime Information Center, or FCIC, as many as 1,368 times over a two-year period, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office arrest warrant obtained by the Miami Herald.

He was arrested on 30 counts of accessing a computer electronic device without authorization, according to the warrant, which states he accessed DAVID 2,923 times between January 2018 and April 17, 2020.

Ocean Reef fired Kiffney earlier this year.

A source familiar with the investigation said the majority of the background searches Kiffney is accused of conducting were for visiting dayworkers and vendors to resort.

Kiffney, 53, retired from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office in 2018, but signed back on as a reserve deputy in January. The same month, he was hired to command Ocean Reef’s security staff.

As a reserve deputy, he still had access to the DAVID system, sources said. However, it is only legal to access the system for law enforcement purposes — not for the benefit of a private client such as Ocean Reef to check on the backgrounds of visitors.

Kiffney is well known not only as a law enforcement officer in the Keys community, but also as the owner of a firearms and indoor gun range on the Overseas Highway in Key Largo.

Kiffney’s lawyer, John Jabro, said Tuesday afternoon that he just received a copy of the warrant, but at first glance, he said it does not appear his client broke the law.

“I don’t think there’s any violation of the law here,” Jabro said. “I don’t know what’s motivating this.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, Kiffney was being held in county jail on a $75,000 bond.

Monroe County State Attorney Dennis Ward also declined to comment.

The sheriff’s office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement began investigating the case in April, according to the warrant. According to a sheriff’s office press release issued Tuesday afternoon, Sheriff Rick Ramsay ordered the investigation after Ocean Reef came to him with concerns that Kiffney could be illegally using the datatbases for his background checks.

“Though I am saddened to see a law enforcement officer end their career this way, I will always work to hold those who break the law accountable, especially when it means policing our own,” Ramsay said in a statement.

Ocean Reef did not immediately return a request for comment.

Kiffney served full time at the sheriff’s office from April 1992 to January 2018. His salary when he retired was $93,562.27, according to the sheriff’s office.

He signed back on as a reserve deputy in January. That job ended June 13, according to the sheriff’s office.

According to the warrant, the Ocean Reef Community Association, which runs Ocean Reef, hired Kiffney as its public safety security commander in January 2018. He soon found out that the association was looking for a company to conduct background checks on people who enter Ocean Reef, the report states.

Kiffney told his bosses he knew of one called Background Executive BG, LLC, owned by a man named Travis Phillips.

ORCA staff soon discovered Kiffney’s name was also on Background Executive BG’s articles of incorporation filed in May 2018. Kiffney told his bosses that was an oversight by his accountant, and he removed his name and filed a resignation letter from the limited liability company. Phillips was then listed as the main contact person, according to the warrant.

Sheriff’s office Detective Bernardo Barrios wrote in the report that “It should be noted” that KIffney and Phillips shared the same residential address in Homestead, and one of Phillips’ cars was listed to a residential address in Springfield, Tennessee, where Kiffney also owns a home.

The sheriff’s office discovered that from May 2018 to March 2020, Kiffney used his department-issued laptop to access DAVID and FCIC for Background Executive BG, Barrios wrote.

“Kiffney was misusing the law enforcement databases, DAVID/FCIC, to perform local checks when individuals would enter Ocean Reef to obtain a driver’s license inquiry and or wanted person checks,” Barrios stated. “The information would then be provided to E/B, the background company that provided a service to Ocean Reef.”

This went on for about two years, according to the warrant, before ORCA fired Kiffney “for his actions” in March.

Soon after, the sheriff’s office told him he was under investigation and he resigned from the department in June.

Speaking to deputies, Phillips denied to detectives that he knew Kiffney was running background checks on people linked to Background Executive BG. He said he met Kiffney about five years ago, and that Kiffney helped him get his business started.

Phillips, who could not be immediately reached for comment, generated 23 invoices from Ocean Reef from May 2018 to March 2020 totaling $131,916, according to the warrant.

Miami Herald staff writer Chuck Rabin contributed to this report.

This story was originally published July 14, 2020 at 10:57 AM.