News and Investigations

News & Investigations

News Releases and Public Information

Welcome to the Polk County Sheriff's Office News Room, where the Public Information Officers (PIO's) post all of the information that they release to the news media. PIO's act as liaisons between news media organizations and the Sheriff's Office. The PIO's routinely release timely and accurate information and Crime Stoppers bulletins, and respond to routine and "breaking news" media inquiries. News releases and Crime Stoppers information can be found on this page.

PCSO's full-time Public Information Officers are Carrie Horstman, Brian Bruchey, and Julianna Rivera. The Public Information Officers can be reached by sending an e-mail collectively at PIOs@polksheriff.org.

The recent news releases sent out by the PIOs can be found here, and archived releases (older than 2017) can be found here.

Aug 15, 2025

Two arrested following false hit & run story

Media Contact: Brian Bruchey, PIO

Two people were arrested by the Polk County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday, August 12, 2025, after they reported a hit and run crash that never occurred.

PCSO deputies responded to a residence on Savannah Avenue in Lakeland that day after the crash was reported.

29-year old Rafaela Collo told deputies that she was driving her boyfriend Dwayne when their vehicle was hit at the intersection of US 98 South and Winter Lake Road. Collo even provided a tag number of the "suspect" vehicle that damaged her vehicle then fled.

Deputies located the "suspect" vehicle, and found that it had no damage. The driver of that vehicle said that he was involved in a verbal argument with another driver, but there was no crash.

As the investigation continued, deputies determined that Rafaela wasn't even the driver at the time of the argument... Dwayne was. And Dwayne lied to deputies about his name. Dwayne is actually 35-year old Laron Wallace. The reason he lied about his identity was that he is on probation for Violation of a Domestic Violence Injunction, and he didn't want to get into trouble.

Close examination of the damage on the couple's vehicle was determined to have been old, not recent.

Rafaela and Laron were and taken to jail. Rafaela was charged with False Report to LEO. Laron was charged with False Report to LEO, False ID to LEO, and Violation of Probation.