David D. Taylor, JD

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          David D. Taylor, JD is a former law enforcement officer having over 19 years of sworn law enforcement experience.  He last served as a deputy sheriff with the Marion County Sheriffbs Office, which is situated in Ocala, Florida.  He last held the rank of Legal Investigator and was assigned to the Sheriff's Legal Services Bureau.  While a Legal Investigator, he was assigned to the Homicide Division in the Ocala office of the Office of the State Attorney - Fifth Judicial Circuit.  Currently, he is the Executive Director of DKL Professional Development, Inc. - a Florida corporation.  David now provides advanced and specialized law enforcement training for law enforcement agencies throughout the United States as well as consultation services to prosecuting attorneys and criminal defense attorneys in the areas of death and homicide investigations, and child injury and death investigations.  

          From July 1990, to December 1996, Investigator Taylor was one of seven detectives assigned to the Major Crimes Unit of the Sheriff's Detective Bureau where he was responsible for conducting criminal investigations of violent crimes.  Types of cases he has investigated include, but are not limited to homicides, armed robberies, sexual assaults and sexual batteries, home-invasions, car-jackings, aircraft crashes, train vs. pedestrian fatalities, kidnappings, suicides, child abuse & neglect, child maltreatment, and child/infant deaths, as well as officer-involved incidents involving deaths. Also, he has participated in over one hundred post mortem examinations.       Prior to being assigned to the Major Crimes Unit, he was assigned to the Property Crimes Unit where he was responsible for conducting investigations of criminal offenses involving crimes such as burglary, thefts, dealing in stolen property, auto thefts as well as forgery and uttering cases. 

          Investigator Taylor was assigned to the Property Crimes Unit from 1988 to 1990.  Prior to being assigned to the Detective Bureau, he was a uniformed patrol officer assigned to the Orange Lake District Office.

          Investigator Taylor began his career in law enforcement with the Upshur County Sheriff's Office, in Buckhannon, West Virginia, in 1981. He then graduated with the 50th Basic Police Training Class from the West Virginia Department of Public Safety (State Police) Academy in 1984. Shortly after graduation from the academy, he jointed the St. Mary's, West Virginia, Police Department where he remained for two years as a uniformed patrol officer before moving to Florida and becoming a member of the Marion County Sheriff's Office in 1986.

          Investigator Taylor holds and Associate of Arts Degree in Criminal Justice from the Central Florida Community College in Ocala, Florida, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Liberal Arts (honors) with a major in Criminology from the St. Leo College, in St. Leo, Florida. He has completed numerous courses in homicide and death investigation and advanced crime scene processing throughout his career and has participated in the Master's Course in Advanced Death Investigation at the University of St. Louis School of Medicine and Forensic Pathology in St. Louis Missouri.

In January 1997, he was admitted to the Evening Division Juris Doctorate program of the Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville, Florida, and graduated December 20, 2000.

Investigator Taylor is an instructor at the Central Florida Community College Criminal Justice Institute, and an adjunct Instructor at Saint Leo University in the Criminology and Criminal Justice areas of study. He is frequently invited to lecture at the University of South Florida in Tampa on death investigations to the school's criminology and social sciences majors.