Content area
Full Text
Val Butler was a rookie patrol cop working on the ground floor of the Orlando Police Department. Jerry Demings worked as a detective on the second floor. One day, after hearing through the grapevine that he was unhappy with a patrol report she had written, she walked upstairs to his office and gave him a piece of her mind.
"She was a rookie cop. A rookie!" Demings said with disbelief almost a quarter of a century later. "I thought, 'Who on Earth is this person?' "
"I think that's when he fell in love with me," she said.
The romantic sparks flew, but they waited a bit before going on their first date. Marriage followed several years after that.
Now Val Demings, 51, is Orlando's police chief, and Jerry Demings, 49, was sworn in this month as sheriff of Orange County in a rare instance of a married couple leading two law enforcement agencies in overlapping jurisdictions. They have been married for 20 years.
"This is something that is unique," said Fred Wilson, director of operations for the National Sheriffs' Assn. in Alexandria, Va. "It may very well be a first."
Not everyone thinks it's a good idea to have the heads of the two largest local law enforcement agencies in the Orlando area married to each other. What about the potential for conflict of interest and lack of independence? Those issues were raised by Jerry Demings' Republican opponent during the campaign for sheriff last...