Jason Frederico Lawsuit: Claims, Recovery, and Case Status

Jason Frederico’s lawsuit against the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office stems from a January 1, 2024 traffic stop in Oldsmar, Florida, in which deputies drew their firearms on him and his 16-year-old daughter after a deputy mistyped their license plate and got a false hit for a stolen vehicle. Filed in September 2024 in Pinellas County Circuit Court, the negligence case remains pending as of 2026.¹

What Happened on New Year’s Day 2024

At about 7:23 p.m., Frederico, 54, was driving with his daughter along Tampa Road when they turned onto Bay Arbor Boulevard and were pulled over. A deputy had entered the plate “NML769” into the FCIC/NCIC database instead of the car’s actual Florida tag, “NMLY69.” The wrong query returned a stolen-vehicle hit out of New Mexico.²

Multiple deputies drew their firearms. Frederico was ordered out, forced to his knees, handcuffed, and placed in the back of a patrol car. His daughter was handcuffed as well. No deputy asked for his license or registration.³ Frederico repeatedly tried to tell deputies that his daughter has epilepsy and is a special-needs child. “You have a gun on her — she’s got epilepsy. What is going on?” he later recalled saying.²

The stop lasted roughly 20 minutes. It ended after a second deputy re-ran the plate and caught the discrepancy. Deputies apologized and called it an “administrative error.”² Body camera audio captured the deputies discussing that the plate had been entered incorrectly, and one deputy told another, “This what I’m talking about, people on this shift not knowing what they’re doing.”⁴ Frederico’s attorney, TJ Grimaldi, has also noted that the Florida plate on the car did not match the New Mexico registration of the supposedly stolen vehicle, a discrepancy deputies could have caught before drawing weapons.³

Frederico and his daughter have both been in therapy since the incident.⁵

The Claims and Where the Case Was Filed

Grimaldi first filed a notice of intent to sue, which Florida law requires before suing a government entity. The formal complaint was filed on September 24, 2024 in the Circuit Court of the Sixth Judicial Circuit in Pinellas County, case number 24-4292-CI, categorized as a negligence action.¹

The plaintiffs are Jason Frederico and Kristy Dzibinski. The only named defendant is Bob Gualtieri in his capacity as Pinellas County Sheriff, not the individual deputies. That reflects Florida Statute § 768.28: negligence suits over acts by government employees within the scope of their duties are brought against the entity or constitutional officer, unless bad faith or willful misconduct is alleged.⁶

The complaint alleges negligence tied to the data-entry error, and Grimaldi has said he plans to add negligent hiring and training claims.² Local reporting has also described the claims as including excessive force.⁵ The suit was filed in state court under negligence, not as a federal civil rights claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

What Frederico Can Recover

Because the defendant is a government entity under Florida’s sovereign immunity waiver, damages are capped. Florida Statute § 768.28 limits recovery to $200,000 per person and $300,000 per incident for all claims combined. Punitive damages are not available against government entities under the statute. If a jury awards more than the caps, plaintiffs can petition the Florida Legislature to authorize payment of the excess through a claims bill, but that legislative action is not guaranteed.⁶

Sheriff’s Office Response

The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office has declined to comment on the substance of the incident or the lawsuit, citing the pending litigation.² When reporters asked about the stop in April 2024, a spokesperson said the sheriff was “aware of the incident from January” but had been “unable to review the documents again.”³ No information about an internal affairs investigation or discipline of the deputies has been made public.

Case Status

As of mid-2026, the case is active and pending in Pinellas County Circuit Court. No rulings, settlement, or trial date have been publicly reported.⁵

1
Trellis Law. Summons Return of Service, Case 24-4292-CI
2
WTSP. Father, Daughter Wrongfully Detained After Deputy Typo
3
FOX 13 News. Pinellas County Father Says Deputies Drew Guns on Him, Teenage Daughter During Wrongful Traffic Stop
4
WSVN. Typo in Traffic Stop Leads to Wrongful Detainment of Father and Daughter in Florida
5
Spectrum Bay News 9. Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office Faces Lawsuit, Accused of Excessive Force and Negligence
6
The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes § 768.28, Waiver of Sovereign Immunity in Tort Actions