Pinellas Deputy Fired for Excessive Use of Force, Falsifying Report

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — A 28-year-old Pinellas County Sheriff’s deputy is out of a job after a March traffic stop in St. Petersburg was called into question. Deputy Wayne Wagner’s termination was announced Friday.

According to the sheriff’s office, Wagner made a legal traffic stop in the 10000 block of 4th Street North at 9:40 p.m. March 25. The driver was arrested for operating a vehicle on a suspended license, an email from the sheriff’s office said. At that time, Wagner asked the female occupant of the vehicle to get out.

“Investigators say that the female occupant exited the vehicle and took her license back from Wagner,” the email said. “When the woman turned to walk away, Wagner pushed the woman into the side of the vehicle and took her to the ground.”

Wagner, however, said the woman approached him aggressively, ripped her license from his hands and shoved him in the chest, the sheriff’s office said. Wagner wrote those allegations into his report and charged the woman with battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting an office with violence.

Shortly after the incident, the agency’s Administrative Investigation Division received a complaint, the sheriff’s office noted. That complaint kicked off a probe into the arrest that determined Wagner’s story didn’t hold up to scrutiny, the email said.

Investigators looked at dash cam video and pulled surveillance video from the gas station where the incident occurred. It was ultimately decided that Wagner’s version of events didn’t hold up and that he “used excessive force to arrest the woman and he falsified a Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office offense report to support his allegations.”

Wagner, who was hired by the agency in October 2014, was terminated effective Nov. 18, 2016. It is unclear if he will face charges related to the incident.

No further information is available at this time.

Image via Shutterstock