Officer Stephen Hicks’ attorney says the child wasn’t on an e-bike, but a 50-mph battery-powered motorcycle not allowed in the skate park.
JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. — The attorney for a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office officer accused of slamming a teenager to the ground at a skate park says his client was protecting children from a dangerous motorized motorcycle, not an e-bike as initially reported.
Philip Vogelsang, general counsel for the Fraternal Order of Police, told First Coast News the Jan. 17 incident at Sunshine Park skate park involved a battery-powered motorcycle capable of 50 mph.
“He was riding a, basically a battery-powered motorcycle that goes 50 miles an hour,” Vogelsang said.
Video of the confrontation, First Coast News obtained from a parent at the scene, appears to show 36-year-old Stephen Hicks, a five-year JSO veteran, grabbing the teen off the bike and taking him down.
Hicks was off-duty with his family at the time, according to the sheriff’s office.
Witnesses told police he showed his badge afterward. Hicks now faces a misdemeanor battery charge and has been released on bond. He’s been reassigned within JSO pending the investigation, with his next court hearing set for Feb. 17.
Vogelsang argues riders of that bike need to have a motorcycle license, be 16 years or older, and be restricted to roadways, not skate parks.
“This was a motorcycle, so the crime of reckless driving was being committed at a park where a child could have been killed by a vehicle, and this officer chose to put the safety of the public first,” he said.
He said multiple parents had already warned the kids to stop riding before Hicks intervened.
A witness previously told First Coast News, “They were both on the wrong side, but like that wasn’t fair to do that to the kid.”
“The actions of the officer, that’s, no. I mean, that’s, that’s too much,” he said.
A child who saw it all unfold called the officer’s actions “frightening.”
JSO internal records show Hicks has faced eight investigations since 2022, including five chargeable traffic crashes, which Vogelsang called routine and automatically investigated per policy.
He received informal counseling in 2022 for a response-to-resistance violation and in 2023 for a secondary employment issue. A 2024 allegation of unnecessary use of force was reviewed, but officials determined Hicks acted lawfully.
“The only discipline he’s ever received was for a traffic crash, and those are automatically, it’s not a complaint filed by a citizen,” Vogelsang said. “Every traffic crash is on an officer’s record.”
Vogelsang urged patience with the process and said that despite his disciplinary record, Hicks was doing what he believed was right to protect others.
“Unfortunately, he has to now go through this process for what he perceived as being a good deed that day and helping prevent a child from being seriously injured,” Vogelsang said. “Let the investigation play out. There’s a criminal investigation that’s there for a reason, and those facts are gonna come to fruition. His intervening that day potentially saved a kid’s life.”