{"id":270213,"date":"2026-05-14T00:48:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T00:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/270213\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T00:48:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T00:48:07","slug":"off-duty-jso-officer-cleared-of-battery-charge-after-being-caught-on-video-slamming-teen-on-ground-at-skate-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/270213\/","title":{"rendered":"Off-duty JSO officer cleared of battery charge after being caught on video slamming teen on ground at skate park"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Charges have been dropped against an off-duty officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office who was captured on surveillance video slamming a teenager to the ground at a Jacksonville Beach skate park earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Stephen Hicks, 34, was charged with misdemeanor battery after he was seen on video slamming a teen to the ground who was riding an electric bicycle inside the Sunshine Skate Park in January. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Records showed that the charge was dropped as of Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">According to Hicks\u2019 arrest report, multiple people had asked the teen to leave because he was riding an E-bike inside the skate park, which was against park rules.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">RELATED |\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/local\/2026\/01\/21\/witnesses-give-insight-into-altercation-with-off-duty-jso-officer-and-kid-on-e-bike-at-skate-park\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/local\/2026\/01\/21\/witnesses-give-insight-into-altercation-with-off-duty-jso-officer-and-kid-on-e-bike-at-skate-park\/\">Video shows off-duty JSO officer slam teen to ground at Jax Beach skate park; witnesses describe what led up to incident<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The report stated that the teen was making his way out of the skate park while still on the bike when Hicks grabbed him by the arm, pulled him off the bicycle and slammed him to the ground.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">According to the arrest report, Hicks stood over the teen and told bystanders that \u201che was a JSO detective dealing with a criminal issue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Riding an electric bicycle inside the skate park is a violation of a park rule, but attorney Shannon Schott, who is representing the family of the victim,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/local\/2026\/02\/16\/teen-slammed-to-ground-by-off-duty-jso-officer-last-month-has-been-threatened-online-attorney-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/local\/2026\/02\/16\/teen-slammed-to-ground-by-off-duty-jso-officer-last-month-has-been-threatened-online-attorney-says\/\">believed Hicks went too far when he confronted the teen.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Hicks left the park before Jacksonville Beach police arrived, but left his name and JSO badge number with a witness. Hicks later surrendered himself to the JSO Integrity Unit.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Charges have been dropped against an off-duty officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office who was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,1872,63173],"class_list":["post-270213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jso","tag-stephen-hicks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}