September 2, 2025
Anthony Collins explained his departure by stating, “I didn’t want my personal life to bring unwarranted distractions to the workplace.”
A top deputy in the Hillsborough, Florida County Sheriff’s Office abruptly resigned in July after his wife accused him of cheating in an elite FBI leadership program. The charge has derailed his fast-rising law enforcement career. Anthony Collins, 41, had been considered a strong contender to succeed current Sheriff Chad Chronister one day.
Earlier this year, Chronister promoted Collins to chief deputy of support operations — the agency’s third-highest rank — making him the highest-ranking Black officer in the department’s 180-year history.
That trajectory shifted when Alexandra Collins sent an early morning email to more than two dozen law enforcement officials, including some of her husband’s colleagues, alleging “a serious incident of academic dishonesty.” She wrote that she felt an ethical duty to report his misconduct after he moved out of their home during marital turmoil.
“This behavior not only violates the standards of academic integrity set by the FBI Academy,” her message read, “but also undermines the professionalism and ethical expectations of all law enforcement personnel.”
In her email, Alexandra Collins included screenshots showing exchanges between her husband and Robert Roush, an acquaintance she described as someone who previously wrote papers for him. The images showed Collins forwarding FBI National Academy class materials and login information, followed by replies from Roush providing essays and summaries.
One message from Roush read: “Here is our paper. It meets the guidelines and requirements without focusing too much on the personal.”
Sheriff Chronister said he personally confronted former deputy Collins, who admitted “about half” of his coursework was completed by someone else. “I’m heartbroken,” Chronister told The Tampa Bay Times. “I had high expectations of Anthony and his future impacts on the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. I’m devastated.”
The sheriff said the admission would have led to Collins’ termination and likely added him to the Brady list — a record of officers with credibility issues that Chronister called “a death sentence in law enforcement.”
Collins denied wrongdoing. In a statement to The Times, he said, “At no point did anyone write papers or complete assignments on my behalf. Any assistance I received was limited to proofreading and formatting support similar to the professional editing help that many executives and students use.”
Roush also rejected the notion that he wrote papers for Collins, describing his role as tutoring rather than ghostwriting.
“If we did anything incorrectly, it was me accessing his classwork to look at his syllabus,” Roush said. “There was no ill intent at all.”
Alexandra’s email also alleged an extramarital affair and a domestic incident involving one of their children, though investigators found those claims unsubstantiated. The academic dishonesty accusation, however, triggered an internal inquiry that ended only when Collins resigned four days later.
In an officewide email announcing his departure, Collins said the decision was “purely personal” and made “after deep reflection and many heartfelt conversations with my loved ones.”
He added: “I have worked at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office for 21 years and I hold the integrity of the office, Sheriff Chronister, and all my co-workers in high regard. As such, I didn’t want my personal life to bring unwarranted distractions to the workplace.”
The FBI was informed of the allegations but has not indicated whether it will pursue action. The internal sheriff’s investigation ended with Collins’ resignation, and investigators never interviewed Roush before the case closed.
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