Manatee deputy put woman in chokehold at concert. He said he was ‘doing right thing’
A Manatee County Sheriff’s Office deputy resigned before he could be fired after he was caught on video putting a woman in a chokehold and pulling her by her hair at a Luke Bryan concert in Tampa last month, according to an internal affairs investigation.
Deputy Robert Stephen Desch is also potentially facing a criminal charge.
On Aug. 2, Desch was standing outside a restroom at the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheater in Tampa waiting for his wife when two other women walked out of the bathroom arguing with one another, according to reports from the Manatee and Hillsborough sheriff’s offices. Desch didn’t know the women who were arguing.
“I grabbed one of the females, possibly by the hair, to pull them apart from each other so they couldn’t hurt each other,” Desch told Hillsborough deputies. “I was trying to do the right thing by making sure nobody got hurt.”
The incident was captured on video surveillance footage.
Investigators say Desch got in between the women, and then began to argue with one of them. The 25-year-old woman’s friend, who had also been waiting for her outside the bathroom, realized how aggressive Desche was acting and tried to pull her away.
Desch pushed the victim’s friend out of the way and then reached around to grab the woman, putting her in a chokehold, according to the reports. He held her by her hair and she began hitting him in attempt to get Desch to let her go.
Desch released the chokehold, but was still holding on to her hair as he fell to the ground.
The woman’s friend pried her hair from his grip and it took two other men to restrain Desch against a wall until security arrived.
Although there was enough probable cause to arrest Desch on a misdemeanor battery charge, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office chose not to do so. Instead, a “request for prosecution” was completed, recommending to the state attorney’s office that he be charged with battery.
An internal affairs investigation concluded on Aug. 15, three days after Desch resigned, with a sustained finding of conduct unbecoming a deputy.
“Deputy Desch has violated the fundamental precepts of his profession, and not only exhibited a lack of respect for the established practices and procedures of this department, but for the state laws he swore to enforce,” an investigator wrote in the internal affairs report.
“Deputy Desch’s conduct is contrary to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office standards and expectations, specifically, ‘Honest in thought and deed in both my personal and official life, I will be exemplary in obeying the laws of the land and the regulations of my Office.’ ”
Desch was facing termination when he resigned.
“He resigned his position after it was made clear that the sheriff’s office wanted him to leave,” his attorney Brett McIntosh said. “As of this time, he has not been charged with a crime.”
Hired in March 2014, Desch had been disciplined before for minor offenses and had also received praise during his tenure, according to personnel records.
Desch and the battery victim were both trespassed from the Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphitheater for a year.
According to Live Event security, Desch was “agitated, combative, belligerent and emotional” and identified himself as a “police officer.” Despite one guard’s attempt to get him to sit on a bench and calm down, Desch kept trying to push past them while cursing repeatedly, finally saying, “I’m a (expletive) officer.”
The guard admitted to internal affairs investigators that he attempted to “quell” the situation after learning that Desch was law enforcement, but he called over off-duty Hillsborough County Sheriff’s deputies working a detail at the concert because Desch got too aggressive.
Desch grew inpatient as the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office was investigating, yelling, “Is there a time-frame on this?” When asked why he was yelling, he complained about wanting to leave but was told that he would have to wait as long as it took to investigate what he did.
This story was originally published September 24, 2019 at 11:47 AM.
