Florida deputies shared news of Bob Saget's death before officials notified his family, report says
FILE - Actor Bob Saget leaves the "AOL Build" taping at the AOL Studios on September 18, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Ray Tamarra/GC Images)
ORLANDO, Fla. - Two Florida sheriff's deputies have been disciplined after an investigation found they shared news of actor and comedian Bob Saget's death with family or friends before law enforcement had notified Saget's family, according to an investigative report.
Saget, 65, died on Jan. 9, 2022, after he was found unresponsive in his room at The Ritz-Carlton hotel in Orlando, where he was staying while performing comedy shows in the area. The medical examiner said Saget died after he fell and hit his dead.
According to the investigative report, in the hours after Saget was found unresponsive and law enforcement was conducting its investigation, Orange County deputy Emiliano Silva, who was among the first to respond to the hotel, apparently sent a text message to his brother about Saget's death, who in turn shared the news in a since-deleted tweet.
The deputy did not know his brother shared the news on Twitter until he was shown a screenshot forty minutes later, the report said. He was upset and asked his brother to delete the tweet. However, by that time, other media outlets began to inquire about Saget's reported death, the report said.
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A second deputy, identified as Steven Reed, was not on duty or part of the investigation at the hotel, but was informed of Saget's death by another Orange County deputy. Reed then shared the news via text messages with two of his neighbors, who had reportedly attended one of Saget's shows days before his death, the report said.
In both cases, Saget's death had not been confirmed to his family.
Both deputies were found to have violated the department's dissemination of information directive and reached disciplinary agreements through the "Discipline Dispute Resolution Process." The report does not list what the specific disciplinary actions were.