BSO Deputy Fights for Job After Lewd Joyride

A Broward County Sheriff’s Deputy is fighting to get his job back after he went on a joyride with friends in his police car on Las Olas Boulevard in Ft. Lauderdale last August.

A police officer pulled over Deputy Rodrigo Mello's BSO cruiser thinking it was stolen, but it wasn’t. They found Deputy Mello, 33, behind the wheel and two of his friends drunk inside the car, according to police documents obtained by NBC 6.

One of his friends took over the PA system and started yelling in the speaker causing numerous people to call 911.

Dispatcher: "Can you tell me what they were yelling?"
Caller: "One thing was something about 'Put your vaginas back inside' and one of them was 'How are your hot dogs?'"

Documents show Mello was not on-duty and wasn't in uniform, but he was in a marked car. The deputy was fired back in January and has been fighting to get his job back.

Police union president Jeff Marano said the County made a mistake by firing him.
"He admitted what he did was wrong and not very intelligent, to say the least, but a lot of times we do silly things to relieve the stress of our jobs," said Marano.

An arbitrator hasn't been assigned to the case yet.

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