The Citrus County community is reacting with outrage after the wife of a critically injured deputy penned a letter harshly critical of Sheriff Mike Prendergast.
Michelle Lahera said Prendergast and an unnamed high-ranking official coldly cut her husband's employment status months after Andy Lahera was struck by a vehicle while directing traffic following the May 2023 Lecanto High School graduation ceremony.
Citizens were stunned to learn Prendergast intended to terminate Lahera, a beloved school resource officer whose accident sparked an outpouring of community support that raised tens of thousands of dollars for the family.
"This really shocked me," one comment on the Just Wright Citrus blog reads. "The Citrus County Sheriff's Office (CCSO) abandoning Andy. So much for the brotherhood of law enforcement."
In a statement, Prendergast called Lahera a "dear friend."
Lahera, a 15-year CCSO veteran, was working the Lecanto High School commencement exercises when a supervisor ordered that a side gate be opened to allow more traffic to leave the Roger Weaver Educational Complex.
A woman's car struck Lahera as he directed traffic. He has been fighting for his life ever since; the driver was not charged.
Mrs. Lahera said Sheriff's administrators told her that if Andy couldn't return to work within six months of the accident, his employment would be terminated.
"It took me a minute to process what the official was saying and I'm sure they could see that by the look on my face," she wrote.
"So then I say, 'Are you telling me Andy will no longer be employed?' The response was yes. It was literally as if someone took a knife and shoved it right through my heart. My husband who has dedicated 15 loyal years to the Sheriff's Office, who was literally still fighting for his life, due to no fault of his own, but simply because he was doing his job, and they tell me they will be 'separating' from him?"
She said Prendergast and an unnamed top official stopped their interest in Andy once realizing he wasn't returning to work.
"Back then, the official and the Sheriff would drive to Tampa together (to see Andy) every time they came down, every so often, spend about an hour or so, and then leave," she wrote. "But once they realized that Andy wasn't going to just come out of it like we were hoping, that is they started becoming more distant with us."
The issue is insurance as he continues receiving long-term acute therapy. A county official said it costs the Sheriff's Office about $8,000 a year for Lahera's health insurance.
In September 2023, four months after Andy's accident, the Sheriff's Office notified Mrs. Lahera that it would push the termination date to August. Several Facebook comments noted that timing coincides with the Primary, where two-term Prendergast faces three Republican challengers.
Mrs. Lahera hasn't spoken with Prendergast since January. "He has cut all ties from us," she wrote.
Prendergast's statement contradicted her account.
"The Citrus County Sheriff's Office has remained unwaveringly committed to assisting Mrs. Lahera during this very difficult journey. It remains our steadfast desire that Andy makes a full and complete recovery so that our colleague and a dear friend can return to his community and continue to serve as a School Resource Deputy."
Mrs. Lahera asked the community to keep her husband in its thoughts.
"I hope you now understand why I continuously ask that Andy not be forgotten, because it seems as though he already has been by the very people who caused this," she wrote.
"It's as if he never existed."
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