A Florida Highway Patrol trooper who FDLE says repeatedly shared restricted law-enforcement information with private individuals is now facing three felony charges.
Alain Fernandez, a 15-year Florida Highway Patrol trooper assigned to Troop L in Fort Pierce, was arrested Sept. 9 in St. Lucie County on three third-degree felony counts of offenses against computer users.
The case involves years of access to restricted law-enforcement databases, confidential driver information shared with private individuals, and questions about what agencies did once that access came under scrutiny. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis weighed in Monday on X, calling the conduct “unacceptable and a clear abuse of power.”
It started with police in Alabama trying to figure out why an unfamiliar black Dodge Charger looked like it was engaged in police work.
September 2025: Fake Out
A black Dodge Charger sat along Meighan Boulevard in Attalla with a wraparound push bar, visible police-style lights, and a driver who appeared to be running radar.
Chief Investigator Jacob Bradley was not aware of any local police department using a car like it. Chief Deputy Kevan Carter had also noticed the Charger sitting in the median near Hastings Park on West Meighan Boulevard and thought it was operating like a law-enforcement vehicle, so he checked with neighboring Gadsden Police, which had no officer in a black Charger in the area.
When officers turned back toward it, the Charger pulled from the median and accelerated toward Attalla.
Capt. Matthew Stokes was near Fifth Avenue North and the Interstate 59 northbound entrance ramp when the car entered the city. His radar showed 107 mph in a posted 35 mph zone as the Charger passed the Motel 6.
He activated the blue lights and siren on his patrol Tahoe. The Charger kept going, moved through the opposing lane, and swerved around multiple vehicles before taking I-59 northbound.
Around mile marker 184, Stokes regained sight of it while traveling approximately 130 mph. Near mile marker 185, the Charger moved onto the right shoulder, nearly causing a collision before officers conducted a felony stop.
Nathan Michael Novotny was behind the wheel wearing a fully equipped duty belt, and officers recovered a black 9mm Glock 43X from his waistband with a Streamlight TLR-6 weapon light, magazine, and 15 rounds.
The car was a black 2017 Dodge Charger with a factory police package, all-wheel drive, a 370-horsepower 5.7-liter V8 and steel wheels, sold exclusively for law-enforcement fleet use.
Its equipment included working emergency lights and sirens, two in-car police radios, a Motorola APX6000 handheld radio, front-and-rear radar, two dashboard-camera systems, a stop-stick deployment device, additional siren equipment, a Dell Latitude 14 Rugged laptop, a 64GB MicroSD dash camera and a Panasonic dual-hard-drive network recorder.
Huff Wrecker took the Charger back to the Attalla Police Department, where officers obtained warrants for the car and Novotny’s iPhone.
After the vehicle warrant was executed, the Charger’s cameras did not show Novotny pulling over another motorist, but they did capture several instances of him activating the lights and sirens in different parts of Alabama, including Jefferson and DeKalb counties.
Sept. 22, 2025: Oh Snap!
Novotny’s phone went to Rainbow City for extraction, and the data contained confidential NCIC computer-screen images sent to him by text and Snapchat.
The text contact was saved as “Fernandez,” while the Snapchat display name was “Fern.” That same account had also sent several photographs of a Florida Highway Patrol car.
Bradley contacted the Alabama Attorney General’s Office, which connected him with FDLE Special Agent Michael Bartus, and several other FDLE agents became involved soon afterward.
FDLE then compared the communications with Fernandez’s own database activity.
One exchange could be matched almost minute for minute. Novotny sent him an Alabama driver’s license number; about a minute later, Fernandez returned an image of the NCIC result. Transaction logs showed he had queried the same license immediately beforehand.
Other exchanges involved driver photographs, addresses, and vehicle information. After one disclosure, Fernandez wrote: “U didn’t get that pic from me.”
He held credentials for the Florida Crime Information Center, NCIC, and Florida’s Driver and Vehicle Information Database, known as DAVID. FDLE found at least 22 disclosures dating back to 2022. Some searches were personal, parody, or disparaging, and Fernandez sometimes selected DAVID reasons including “Traffic Related Injury” and “Court Purposes.”
Sept. 14-16, 2025: White Whale
On Sept. 14, FHP was pursuing a white 2020 Tesla Model 3 with black wheels east from Interstate 95 toward Palm City. Troopers said they already had probable cause to arrest the driver for fleeing when they lost sight of the car. The Martin County Sheriff’s Office was alerted, and two citizens later called 911 to report the Tesla traveling northbound on Southwest Mapp Road.
At about 8:51 a.m., Sgt. Brian Tison found a matching Tesla stopped in the 1300 block of Southwest Sunset Trail with a man standing near the driver’s side. As he moved his marked cruiser toward the front of the Tesla, the man got back inside, accelerated into the cruiser, and fled.
The pursuit continued until the Tesla reached roughly 130 to 140 mph and disappeared near Southwest Martin Highway and Citrus Boulevard. Tison could not positively identify the man he had encountered.
The Tesla was registered to Khaled Abdullah Turkustani at a Port St. Lucie address, and records from the same morning show Fernandez had also encountered the car. Four citations he wrote identify Turkustani as the driver and cite him for 91 mph in a 70 mph zone, an improper U-turn, passing in a no-passing zone, and failing to immediately report a crash. All four cases were later dismissed.
Detective Angelo Palmieri handled the follow-up, going with Tison and Fernandez to Turkustani’s Port St. Lucie address, where they spoke with a 15-year-old girl and reached a woman by phone who said the Tesla was in Miami.
Police instead recovered it Sept. 16 near Southwest Dilido Lane in Port St. Lucie with moderate front-right damage, removed hubcaps, and ants around the vehicle that they believed suggested it had been sitting there for some time.
The onboard cameras could have recorded the driver, so the Martin County Sheriff’s Office obtained a search warrant. Palmieri later wrote that “all the footage had been erased.” Cellphone-location information associated with Turkustani also failed to place him at the pursuit.
Palmieri’s later probable-cause affidavit says Fernandez “was able to positively identify the driver as Khaled” after querying the Tesla’s tag through FCIC and NCIC. The records do not make clear how Fernandez identified Turkustani as the man Tison encountered.
Sept. 15, 2025: On Both Sides
While the Martin County Sheriff’s Office searched for the Tesla, FDLE says Fernandez privately sent Turkustani Flock screenshots of the car and warned him that vehicles tied to an address had been “hot listed,” warrants had been filed, and police would eventually catch up with him.
Fernandez also told him to turn himself in.
The Martin County Sheriff’s Office later relied in part on Fernandez’s identification of Turkustani as the Tesla driver.
FDLE concluded that the disclosures were not made with the intent to obstruct, impede, or prevent a criminal investigation or prosecution, while alleging that Fernandez knowingly used restricted systems outside his authorized purpose.
Oct. 10-Nov. 25, 2025: Sidelined
On Oct. 10, FHP administrators called Fernandez to the Troop L substation in Fort Pierce as FDLE executed a search warrant, removing his weapons while agents seized his personal phone and agency computer.
FHP and FDLE later retrieved his work cellphone from his Port St. Lucie residence.
FHP placed him on paid administrative leave, where he remained until his Sept. 9, 2026 arrest. They said he performed no patrol, investigative, administrative, law-enforcement or other official duties after being placed on leave and that they revoked his access to all restricted systems.
Palmieri sought an arrest warrant for Turkustani on contemplated charges of high-speed fleeing and aggravated battery on a law-enforcement officer, relying in part on Fernandez’s earlier identification of him as the driver.
A judge approved the warrant Nov. 25, more than a month after Fernandez was placed on leave and FDLE searched his devices.
Feb. 6-24, 2026: The Missing Witness
Turkustani was arrested Feb. 6 on the Martin County warrant for contemplated charges of high-speed fleeing and aggravated battery on a law-enforcement officer. Eighteen days later, the 19th Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office filed a No Information rather than formally prosecuting either charge.
A Feb. 24 disposition note says Fernandez was the only witness who potentially could identify Turkustani as the driver, but he remained on administrative leave, FHP would not provide his contact information, and his agency-issued phone had been taken from him.
The case could be reevaluated, the prosecutor wrote, if Fernandez returned from administrative leave and the statute of limitations still allowed prosecution.
2000-2024: Earlier Encounters
Turkustani’s Florida court history reaches back more than two decades.
In November 2000, an FHP trooper in Osceola County reported pursuing him on a motorcycle after an attempted traffic stop. Prosecutors initially charged aggravated fleeing, a third-degree felony, before reducing the case to misdemeanor fleeing or attempting to elude.
Turkustani pleaded no contest in May 2001 and was adjudicated guilty, receiving 12 months of county probation, 100 hours of community service, an advanced driver-improvement course, and an order to write an apology to the trooper.
He was also found guilty of violating a driver’s-license restriction and operating a motorcycle without the required endorsement, while a resisting-without-violence count was dropped.
A decade later, West Palm Beach police arrested him during a prostitution investigation. That misdemeanor case was later closed.
In October 2020, Lantana police arrested him after his wife, Marcela Tavares Turkustani, reported that he slammed her into kitchen cabinets, threw her to the floor, stomped her torso, and choked her while threatening her. Arrest paperwork listed two counts of domestic battery, felony domestic battery by strangulation, and false imprisonment.
The case also records him working as a commercial driver. Lantana police waited for him to return from work in a red-and-white MacArthur Dairy box truck before taking him into custody.
In February 2024, occupants of another vehicle told Boynton Beach police that a man in a black pickup had thrown objects toward them and pointed a gun. Police later stopped Turkustani in a black 2019 Nissan pickup.
Two occupants identified Turkustani in separate show-ups, while one was unsure and another gave a 50/50 identification.
A judge found probable cause for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and set bond at $7,500, with no contact with the victim and no possession of weapons. Prosecutors later filed misdemeanor assault instead of pursuing the felony charge.
Turkustani pleaded not guilty and entered pretrial diversion before the State filed a nolle prosequi, ending the prosecution.
He was cited in the same Nissan on Nov. 7, 2024, for 86 mph in a 70 mph zone on Interstate 95.
2024-2025: On Loop
Marcela was cited for driving the 2020 Model 3 at 55 mph in a 35 mph zone in March 2024 and for a tag-display violation in June 2025. She later received two more citations in another white Tesla, a 2018 model: one for 55 mph in a 40 mph zone and another for a windshield covering or obstruction.
Khaled had an improper or obscured tag-display citation involving the 2020 Model 3 in April 2025. Similar tag-display violations appear in his record from 2013 and 2014.
May 31, 2018: On the Clock
A May 31, 2018 complaint said Fernandez was spending extended periods at a residence during regular duty and beginning and ending shifts from an unauthorized location despite having already been counseled by a sergeant about the visits.
During the investigation, FHP determined the residence belonged to his girlfriend. Fernandez had told the sergeant it was his in-laws’ house because he did not want anyone to know about the affair.
Between April 1 and July 3, Fernandez went there 35 times for at least 30 minutes and reported the time as work without permission to spend duty time there or checking out through CAD or radio.
When investigators later asked what he was doing there, Fernandez said he ate meals, used the restroom, and worked on reports. FHP checked his computer activity from June 21 through July 3 and found no work completed at the residence.
No criminal charges were filed. FHP suspended Fernandez for 120 hours without pay for poor performance and conduct unbecoming of a public employee.
The Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission later took up the matter as a false-official-statement violation. FDLE sought a 60-day prospective suspension of Fernandez’s criminal-justice certification, followed by a year of probation and Commission-approved ethics training.
The Commission instead imposed a 120-day retroactive suspension and accepted the rest of the requested penalty. FDLE records later listed him as completing the resulting probation or suspension in February 2021.
Sept. 9, 2026: Busted
FHP terminated Fernandez effective Sept. 9, the day of his arrest, when he also filed a public-records exemption request listing the Fort Pierce Troop L address and seeking protection for personal information, including his booking photograph
They never announced the felony arrest publicly, saying it was not required to issue a release and that the lead agency could decide whether to make one
They also did not notify people whose information may have been improperly accessed or disclosed, referring questions about notification to FDLE, which is leading the criminal investigation.
All parties are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
Update: Sept. 26, 2026
New Attalla Police reports and Alabama court records added detail to the Sept. 16 pursuit, the Charger, and the phone evidence that led investigators to Fernandez.