{"id":370401,"date":"2026-08-13T14:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T14:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/370401\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T14:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T14:28:08","slug":"2-stuart-police-officers-reprimanded-1-suspended-over-domestic-assault-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/370401\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Stuart police officers reprimanded, 1 suspended over domestic assault investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

STUART, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Two Stuart police <\/a>officers were disciplined after an internal affairs investigation found they failed to properly investigate and document a domestic violence call in which a man repeatedly told officers that his girlfriend had punched, hit and slapped him.<\/p>\n

Officer Devon Taylor, the primary officer on the Feb. 8 call, was suspended without pay for 36 hours and placed on a six-month performance improvement plan. Officer Ashley Montoya, who responded as a backup officer, was ordered to receive a formal reprimand. Both officers were also directed to undergo additional training in domestic violence investigations, victims\u2019 rights, lethality assessments and related state laws and department policies.<\/p>\n

The disciplinary action followed an Internal Affairs investigation into the officers\u2019 response to a Feb. 8 domestic disturbance. According to the investigative summary, dispatch information indicated that a man had reported that his girlfriend was hitting him and that he had locked himself in a bathroom. Once officers arrived, the man said his girlfriend had been \u201cpunching me, slapping me, hitting me,\u201d and that he retreated to the bathroom to call 911.<\/p>\n

The investigation found that officers did not complete a required domestic violence report that night, did not conduct a lethality assessment, did not provide the alleged victim with required victims\u2019 rights information, and did not adequately investigate reports of a possible injury to his eye. A report was not completed until Feb. 26, after supervisors began reviewing how the call had been handled.<\/p>\n

Investigators also found that Taylor changed the call classification from \u201cDomestic Trouble\u201d to \u201cDisturbance\u201d before clearing the scene.<\/p>\n

The case came under scrutiny after a Stuart Police Department records coordinator noticed there was no report associated with the domestic call while reviewing a public-records request. She alerted supervisors, prompting Sgt. John Martin to ask Taylor and Montoya about the incident.<\/p>\n

According to the investigation, both officers told Martin that the dispute had been verbal and that nothing physical had occurred. Martin later reviewed body-camera footage and found that the man had clearly described being punched, hit and slapped. Family members at the scene also discussed previous incidents involving violence and a knife, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Internal Affairs investigated whether Taylor and Montoya intentionally made untruthful statements to a supervisor. Although the investigator concluded their statements were inaccurate, that allegation was not sustained because investigators could not determine that either officer intentionally tried to mislead Martin.<\/p>\n

Several other policy violations were sustained against Taylor, including failure to perform her duties, failure to conduct a lethality assessment, failure to properly document injuries and evidence, failure to write a required domestic violence report and failure to provide victims\u2019 rights information.<\/p>\n

The investigation found Montoya, as the backup officer, was not primarily responsible for several of those requirements. However, investigators sustained a separate allegation that she failed in her duty to make sure another officer was performing to department standards or to alert a supervisor when that was not happening. Investigators also sustained a Canon of Ethics violation against both Taylor and Montoya for failing to demonstrate sufficient familiarity with domestic violence law and their responsibilities.<\/p>\n

See also: $1.04 billion Powerball jackpot won in Illinois; Florida player wins $1 million<\/a><\/p>\n

Chief Flamur Zenelovic wrote that Montoya displayed a \u201clackluster response\u201d to the call and said such a response \u201ccannot be tolerated in Domestic Violence Investigations.\u201d He noted that the victim\u2019s allegations were straightforward and said officers should have recognized that the incident required, at a minimum, a report, victims\u2019 rights information and a lethality assessment.<\/p>\n

Zenelovic was more critical of Taylor, describing her response as a \u201cgross\u201d failure to perform her duties. The chief noted that Taylor had previously worked as a detective and field training officer and, as the senior and primary officer, was expected to perform at a higher level.<\/p>\n

The chief wrote that officers\u2019 claims that they did not realize what had been said until they later reviewed body-camera footage were unacceptable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe allegations were made in a very clear, plain-English tone,\u201d Zenelovic wrote, adding that first responders are expected to listen carefully, ask follow-up questions and protect victims. He also criticized Taylor\u2019s decision to reclassify the call from a domestic incident to a disturbance, writing that the change avoided the additional documentation required for domestic calls.<\/p>\n

Taylor later met with the chief and apologized, saying she took full responsibility for her actions, according to the disciplinary report. She served her 36-hour unpaid suspension in July.<\/p>\n

The Internal Affairs case was ultimately closed with a sustained final disposition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STUART, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Two Stuart police officers were disciplined after an internal affairs investigation found they failed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-370401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370401","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=370401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}