A deputy in Bradford County, Florida, resigned from his post with the sheriff’s office after serving in law enforcement for two years. His conduct, including a recent traffic stop where he held a mother at gunpoint in front of her children, was so egregious the agency immediately released a statement distancing itself from the former deputy.
Ebony Washington’s children were in the car when she was pulled over by Deputy Jacob Desue, then serving the Bradford County Sheriff’s Office, on Friday, Aug. 12. The mother was stopped for going 72 mph in a 55 mph zone on Highway 301 between Starke and Lawtey Road, First Coast News reports.
Because of his inappropriate behavior during the arrest, the deputy faced a last-straw disciplinary action that forced him to resign.
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In this incident, Desue caught Washington speeding and flashed his police lights at her. Because she had three kids in her back seat and was traveling on a poorly lit road, the mother, who was also pregnant at the time, did not immediately stop.
Instead, she says she put on her hazard lights, slowed her speed, and pulled over in a more secure, better lit location.
Action News Jax reported that authorities said only three to five minutes went by from the time the officer signaled for her to stop to when she pulled over, and that Washington did the right thing to signal the officer she had the intention of complying. However, once the woman pulled over, she was immediately met with confrontation.
The patrol car’s dash cam recorded Desue cursing at the woman before he reached her car.
As he approaches the vehicle, she is recorded saying, “Sir, I have my three kids in the car and the reason why I did not stop is, I’m in the middle of nowhere. And my husband tells me not to —”
He interrupts her and says, “Your excuses mean nothing to me right now. I don’t want to hear it.”
At this time, one of the woman’s children started to film the interaction, while another cried and the third called their father and her husband to detail what was happening to their mom.
She is told to get out of her car. When she does, he pulls out his gun on her.
The children are frightened, but the one with the cellphone never stops recording the deputy, and the child on the phone with her father says, “he told her to step out of the vehicle. He just put the handcuffs on her, Dad.”
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