Kissimmee cop charged with domestic battery
A lieutenant with the Kissimmee Police Department was arrested just after midnight Sunday after an alleged altercation with her partner at their home in St. Cloud, the second officer in a month to have been charged, according to an affidavit.
Erika Castellucci, who was promoted to lieutenant September 2018, was arrested on charges of misdemeanor battery and false imprisonment, a felony. She was taken to the Osceola County Jail and was released Monday night on a $3,000 bond, court records show.
“The City of Kissimmee
Police Department takes domestic violence allegations seriously, especially when it involves one of the agency’s members,” KPD spokesperson Samantha Scarp said in a statement. Castellucci was placed on administrative leave.
St. Cloud police officers arrived at the couple’s home around 1 a.m. after a friend arrived at the home to pick up the victim following an argument and saw “Castellucci grasping [the victim’s] blue sweater and ripping it off of her, preventing her from exiting the residence through the back porch,” according to an incident report.
“I could hear her screaming that she wanted to get out and Erika pulling her back,” the friend told a 911 dispatcher.
The victim, whom the Orlando Sentinel is not naming because she is listed as a victim of domestic violence, told officers she was trying to leave the home when she was pulled back by Castellucci, who then followed her into the bedroom and bathroom to prevent her from leaving, the report added.
Castellucci was initially “uncooperative during the investigation” except to say the altercation was verbal, police said in the report, though they noted her later allegedly saying, “A bottle of wine will do this to you.”
She later claimed she pulled on the sweater to keep her from falling “due to her being intoxicated” after she was “accidentally shoved” by the victim. Neither initially reported injuries, but Castellucci was taken to a hospital in St. Cloud after later complaining about ankle and hip pain from the incident, the report said.
The lieutenant is the second officer from that agency to be charged this month in domestic incidents. On Nov. 15, Officer Luis Pérez was arrested for a written threat to do bodily harm, accused of saying in a text message to his ex-girlfriend, “I can’t wait until the day I black out and have the courage to shoot you in the [expletive] face. You have no idea,” court records show.
The victim in that case, whom the Sentinel is also not naming, said she was “shocked” to receive that text and told officers she wants Pérez to “receive some type of assistance for his irrational thinking,” according to a report. He’s currently on unpaid leave.
Days earlier, Osceola County Sheriff Marcos López announced the arrest of Deputy Kevin Encarnación, who was also fired after he was accused of trying to help his cousin evade arrest for threatening a woman with a brick. Investigators
were aware after the victim came forward with texts between the two men that were archived on an Apple Watch, a report said.
Encarnación was charged with official misconduct and being an accessory after the fact, both third-degree felonies.
In addition to being a KPD lieutenant, Castellucci was recently named treasurer of the Gay Officers Action League of Central Florida, an advocacy group for LGBTQ law enforcement officers. The organization did not respond to a request for comment.