By Anthony Rice
In Broward County Sheriff, the arbitrator found that the Sheriff’s Office did not have just cause to discharge a Florida deputy sheriff accused of domestic violence, because no reliable evidence was presented to show that the deputy head-butted his girlfriend and the little evidence that was presented had been altered at the scene.
This case involves an altercation between an off duty sheriff’s deputy and his girlfriend. Each party claims that the other was the principal aggressor. The deputy consistently held that his girlfriend was the aggressor and head-butted him. The deputy said he only took action to restrain his girlfriend; that the argument was over his girlfriend’s previous arrest for domestic battery against him; and she became enraged when he suggested that she plead to the criminal charge in order to get on with her life.
On the other hand, in her recorded statement, the girlfriend explained that the argument started when the deputy came home. He was upset with her sleep hours, made a profane statement about her and spit in her face. The deputy then grabbed her arm, forced her to the ground, straddled her, choked her, and head-butted her—resulting in a laceration to the deputy’s eye. The State never filed charges against the deputy or his girlfriend. However, the Sheriff’s Office conducted an internal investigation against the deputy, which led to his termination and this arbitration.
It is the role of the arbitrator, who the parties have selected, to determine how much weight should be given to the evidence presented. Arbitrators generally give the parties a free hand in offering evidence which they deem reasonably relevant and material to the case.
The arbitrator found the evidence presented raised a number of issues regarding the decision to discharge the deputy. First, no reliable evidence was presented to show that the injury above the deputy’s eye is an indication that he head-butted his girlfriend. Second, much of the evidence had been cleaned up or altered before the deputies arrived at the scene. Finally, Deputy Caperton, with the crime scene unit, offered objective testimony of the blood evidence and the injuries sustained by the deputy and his girlfriend.
Based on the record presented, this Arbitrator reaches the same conclusion as that of Deputy Caperton when he testified, “The only conclusion I came to is that she had been in a physical altercation with somebody, that [the deputy] had been in a physical altercation with somebody. I am unable to determine the aggressor and I am unable to determine how those injuries got there.”
