Orange deputy abused woman, threatened her with gun, probe finds

An Orange County deputy sheriff arrested on domestic violence charges in July repeatedly battered and threatened the life of a woman, including by pointing a gun at her, an internal investigation found.

Deputy Brett Bailey was fired on Oct. 16. The findings, according to records obtained by the Orlando Sentinel, came in November, months after prosecutors dropped their criminal case against Bailey. They cited the woman’s refusal to testify in criminal court, coupled with a lack of physical evidence and eyewitness testimony.

But the woman did cooperate with internal investigators for the Orange County Sheriff’s Office who, based on her testimony, text messages and recorded conversations between Bailey and the woman, as well as interviews with her coworkers and family, found “sufficient evidence” of domestic abuse.

“Deputy Bailey on multiple occasions actually and intentionally struck [the woman] against her will, and also pointed a firearm at her,” the report from the internal probe said, adding Bailey also put his hands around the woman’s neck, dragged her into a home by her hair, gave her a black eye, knocked her unconscious and “committed other acts of violence.”

Bailey was relieved from his duties without pay July 11, the day of his arrest, but, when the criminal case was dropped days later, he was placed on desk duty while the agency completed its internal investigation, OCSO spokeswoman Michelle Guido said.

The Sheriff’s Office also took the unusual step of seeking a protective order under Florida’s “red flag” law against one of its own employees, asking a judge to prohibit Bailey from possessing guns or ammunition. After a hearing, that request was denied.

He was fired after he stopped showing up for work, Guido said.

Bailey’s attorney, David Bigney, noted that the burden of proof is much lower for agency internal affairs cases compared to criminal court.

“It’s not surprising to me that despite the fact that the evidence was not sufficient to prosecute, the department found otherwise,” Bigney said. However, Bigney declined to comment directly on the internal investigation’s findings because he said he only represented Bailey in the criminal case.

Coworkers reported abuse

In early July, the woman’s coworkers reported to OCSO that they were worried Bailey was abusing her.

One had noticed she seemed “nervous about Deputy Bailey being” at their workplace, and a few other coworkers said the woman had confided in them that Bailey had become “physical” with her, the report said. Deputies began an investigation into the allegations.

They interviewed four coworkers, who gave second-hand accounts of what the woman had disclosed to them, as well as the woman, all telling similar accounts of abuse: Bailey had punched and hit the woman several times. At least once, he strangled her to the point of unconsciousness. Another time, he dragged her by her hair into her home. They said Bailey became particularly violent when drunk, the report said.

The woman said Bailey had admitted to killing her dog and disposing of its body in a dumpster, records show. She told deputies he might have been jealous because the dog was a gift from an ex-boyfriend.

She was initially “very evasive and refused to answer specific questions, which was consistent with behavior displayed by domestic violence victims,” the report said. But later, she provided more information about the abuse.

And while she continued to cooperate with the Sheriff’s Office internal investigators, she was adamant that she did not want to press criminal charges.

Without the victim’s testimony and cooperation, prosecutors found themselves without an option forward in criminal court due to the elements of the case, Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala said. The case had no hard evidence — such as 911 calls, responding officers or injury photographs — that prosecutors could rely on to push the case forward without the victim’s testimony, Ayala said. It also didn’t emerge from a specific incident, but rather the concerns of coworkers.

“We try our hardest to make certain that if we don’t have a willing victim that we can still go forward,” Ayala said.

In addition to having the woman’s direct testimony, the Sheriff’s Office internal probe relied on text messages and recorded conversations and second-hand testimony from the woman’s coworkers and family, which would not be hold up in criminal court, where the standard of evidence is higher, Ayala said.

“Many of those evidentiary tools, that we as prosecutors have learned to use [when victims decline to testify], just simply weren’t available,” said Sandi Murphy, the legal adviser at national resource group the Battered Women’s Justice Project. She reviewed the case and called it particularly complicated because of how the allegations came to light and because it involved a law enforcement officer.

OCSO investigators sought a risk protection order against Bailey under Florida’s Red Flag law, which would have barred the deputy from possessing any guns or ammunition. The law, created in the wake of the Parkland mass shooting, allows police and judges to take weapons out of the hands of people considered a threat to themselves or others.

That led to a hearing in August at which the woman testified under oath about the abuse, including that Bailey had “pointed a firearm at her head” in the past. But she also said she was not afraid of Bailey or concerned he would shoot her, the report said.

The judge denied the risk protection order.

Before his July arrest, Bailey told deputies that he has “never been physical with her,” the report said. At the protective order hearing, he testified that he had struck the woman, but only during sex, and said it was always consensual.

‘Never wavered’

Even though prosecutors dropped the criminal case against Bailey and the protective order was denied, the administrative probe was just beginning.

OCSO investigators first reviewed deleted text messages between Bailey and the woman, which they obtained through a search warrant. The texts showed “clear instances of violence committed” by Bailey, the report said.

“You literally brutally beat on me so many occasions,” the woman wrote in one text. “You’ve held a gun to my head . ... You’ve told me you wished I crashed on my way home.”

Investigators noted Bailey did not reply to the text messages to deny the violence.

Investigators also reviewed 10 recorded phone calls Bailey made to the woman from the Orange County Jail, in which he berated her for talking to coworkers about the allegations and for cooperating with the OCSO probe. He also complained that he was going to lose his job and people would judge him.

“I mean, you don’t have to talk,” he said.

In one of the last calls, Bailey told her that “we just have a kinky sex life and we like rough sex.” When she replied, “You need to be careful of what you say,” Bailey laughed, the report said.

Investigators interviewed family and friends of both Bailey and the woman. They also interviewed her extensively. From those interviews, they learned about other instances of abuse, the report said, including a time the woman told family Bailey had smashed her head against the wall during an argument. Bailey later said she had slipped, the report said.

The woman also told investigators she had called out of work at least once for a black eye from Bailey.

At the end of the probe, deputies interviewed Bailey, asking for his response to the allegations and the evidence they found. When asked if the allegations in the text messages were true, he said, “During sex. We have [a] very different sex life compared to most.”

But Bailey also said he didn’t remember sending certain messages or didn’t know what they meant. At one point, he suggested the woman could have been sending replies to herself from his phone, the report said.

The woman’s testimony “remained consistent and never wavered,” the report said.