Sheriff Johnson Promotes Five Deputies

Date Added: May 03, 2016 4:15 pm

Gary Davidson
Public Information Officer

A new captain, two lieutenants and two sergeants got their new badges and new marching orders from Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson during a promotion ceremony on Tuesday. Topping the list of promotions was Joe Gallagher, a 26½-year veteran with the Sheriff’s Office who was presented with his Captains bars. The others promoted on Tuesday included Corey Piser and Pat Thoman to lieutenant and Matt Ihnken and Eric Powers to sergeant. “You’ve worked hard and you’ve earned this,” Sheriff Johnson told the group at this morning’s promotion ceremony at the Sheriff’s Office’s Deputy Stephen Saboda Training Center in Daytona Beach. “You’re ready for that next step, and I know you’ll do well.”

The 50-year-old Gallagher has spent the bulk of his career with the Sheriff’s Office as a narcotics investigator and supervisor, although he also served in road patrol, the civil section, a stint policing at Daytona Beach International Airport and as an assistant district commander in Deltona since starting with the agency in November 1989. On Saturday, Captain Gallagher will begin his new assignment as the second-in-command, or executive officer, of the agency’s Law Enforcement Services Division. “We’re expecting a lot out of you, and I know we’re going to get it,” Sheriff Johnson told Gallagher.

Meanwhile, the Sheriff’s Office’s two newest lieutenants are primed for their new assignments. Lieutenant Piser, 40, has begun work as one of the agency’s two rotating nighttime watch commanders. She started with the Sheriff’s Office in March 2004. Lieutenant Thoman, 50, the longtime head of the agency’s major case unit, will remain in investigative services where he will oversee the major case, crime scene unit and child exploitation units. Lieutenant Thoman will assume his new duties on Saturday.

At the sergeant’s rank, Powers has been assigned to road patrol and Ihnken will be completing the Sheriff’s Office’s in-house supervisory training program before getting his permanent assignment. Powers is 33-years-old and was hired in August 2006 and Ihnken is 42-years-old and was hired in October 2003.