ORLANDO, Fla. — An Orange County deputy who was criticized for the way he handled an August tip about Caylee Marie Anthony's remains was previously accused of failing to properly investigate incidents, a report released Tuesday shows.
Deputy Sheriff Richard Cain was accused of failing to properly investigate a threatening telephone call in March 2007, but that allegation was deemed unfounded, the sheriff's report showed. The outcome of a similar complaint against him in December 2006 was not available Tuesday.
The Sheriff's Office is conducting an internal investigation into what happened in August after a meter reader reported something suspicious in woods near the home Caylee shared with her mother and grandparents.
Cain's background, which was requested by several media organizations, was released on the same day Orange County meter reader Roy Kronk criticized deputies during an interview on national television.
Kronk said on ABC's Good Morning America that deputies were uninterested in following up on tips of a bag he found in August in woods near the home of the missing toddler's grandparents. He ended up making four reports — three in August and one in December — before investigators recovered the bones last month.
Kronk made reports Aug. 11, 12 and 13, less than a month after the girl's grandmother had reported her missing from the Chickasaw Oaks subdivision.
A deputy who responded poked around the water with a metal stick and then "swept his head back and forth and said, 'I don't see anything,' and pretty much, that was it," Kronk said.
Kronk didn't name the deputy. But an official with the Sheriff's Office said Cain was the only deputy to respond in August when Kronk was at the site. Cain went there Aug. 13.
"I guess the deputy didn't want to go into the water to look at the bag," Kronk said. "The cop was like . . . I would say, he was kind of rude to me."
Kronk returned to the woods off Suburban Drive and found Caylee's bones Dec. 11, ending months of searching for a little girl who would have turned 3 in August.
The girl's mother, Casey Anthony, has been charged with murder in her daughter's death and is being held without bail at the Orange County Jail.
Capt. Angelo Nieves, a Sheriff's Office spokesman, said Kronk is entitled to his opinion.
"We will allow the [internal] investigation to speak for itself when it is concluded," Nieves said.
The Sheriff's Office released two pages of information about Cain on Tuesday. They showed he was hired in June 2006 but offered few details about allegations made against him in the past.
The pages showed he was exonerated for an unspecified "use of force" issue in February 2007. Officials said a complaint about loitering after a call for service and failing to offer proper identification in January 2008 was deemed unfounded.
Tuesday was Kronk's first public appearance since last month, when he made a brief statement after Caylee's remains were identified.
He also told ABC host Robin Roberts about a brush with the law in the 1990s.
He was accused of kidnapping a former girlfriend but was never charged, according to David Evans, Kronk's attorney. A grand jury reviewed the case and decided there wasn't enough evidence to support the allegations.
"It was sealed, expunged from my record, and the only reason I came forward with it is because I have nothing to hide," Kronk said on TV.
Investigators with the Orange County Sheriff's Office said they don't think Kronk was involved with Caylee's death.
The network said it did not pay Kronk for his interview, but it acknowledged it paid Kronk to "license" a photo. A photo that aired during the interview showed a snake.
Kronk's lawyer and an ABC spokeswoman would not disclose what Kronk was paid for the photo.
Evans said it is not uncommon for national networks to pay $10,000 to $20,000 for photos.
Meanwhile, the Orlando Sentinel learned that Kronk owes about $10,000 in back child support to his ex-wife in Maryland. The two divorced in 1991, and she began seeking payment since 1996, according to court records. Their son is now 25.
Evans said he knew that his client owed child support but did not know why Kronk had not paid it or whether he was going to use this money to pay off the debt.
"Ultimately, it will be up to him," Evans said. "He's working to find a way to [pay] it."