PORT ST. LUCIE – A Martin County Sheriff’s Office deputy, who lives in Port St. Lucie, faces child abuse and domestic battery charges in regards to a dispute he allegedly had with his 15-year-old daughter.
On March 11 at about 11:30 a.m., a Port St. Lucie police officer responded to a home where an altercation between Cpl. Emmanuel Perez and a 15-year-old girl, later identified as his daughter, was in progress, according to a Port St. Lucie Police arrest affidavit.
The officer wrote in his report that Perez had the girl, whose sweater was ripped open, pinned to the ground and was holding her hair.
Perez told the officer that the girl was out of control and pushed him. Perez said that he was having trouble with his daughter, that she was not doing well in school, according to the arrest affidavit.
The March 11 incident stemmed from her not going to school on time and that he was trying to take her cell phone from her when the fight started, Perez told the officer.
The girl told the officer that her father attacked her while he was trying to get the phone and slammed her to the ground and kicked her while she was being held. He also pulled her hair and continued to push and pull her to the ground, she told the officer, who noted in his report that he saw visible marks on her abdomen.
A neighbor told the PSL police officer that she saw Perez grab the girl’s hair and slam her to the ground with excessive force. Perez was taken into custody on a misdemeanor domestic battery charge and a felony child abuse charge without great physical harm and taken to the St. Lucie County Jail.
In addressing the issue on March 11, Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said that he understood that Perez, an 11-year veteran with the sheriff’s office, was having issues with her running away from home.
“She was trying to go to school, which I guess today she was not, and he was having issues reeling her back in,” Budensiek said. “The police department showed up out there, helped resolve that issue, got her back in the car.”
The fight happened after Perez drove his daughter to their home, Budensiek said.
Budensiek confirmed that Perez was on paid administrative leave while an internal affairs investigation continues.
In a statement released March 12 by Port St. Lucie Police, it said that the department “is in communication with the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, as this matter is both a criminal investigation and an internal investigation inquiry. The Port St. Lucie Police Department takes such incidents very seriously and is treating this matter factually and in a state as any other investigation would occur.”