Documents detail events on night Lake County deputy was accused of sexual battery

LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — New documents were released Tuesday in the case of a Lake County deputy who was arrested in January on sexual battery charges.
 
Channel 9's Kenneth Craig spent much of the day poring over through 131 pages of evidence that make up the case against former Lake County Deputy Matthew Donnelly, who is accused of sexually assaulting a woman while he was on the job.
 
A woman told investigators it happened after a night of New Year's Eve partying on International Drive with her boyfriend.
 
According to documents, as her boyfriend drove her through Minneola she passed out in the car. The woman's boyfriend pulled over and flagged down a deputy for help.
 
The report said the boyfriend was placed in the back of Donnelly's patrol car.
 
In the woman's sworn statement, she told investigators that when she woke up the deputy was at her passenger-side window. She said she begged the deputy not to take her boyfriend to jail.
 
Next, she said Donnelly sexually assaulted her with his hands and repeatedly told her if she didn't tell anyone he would let her boyfriend go.
 
The woman told authorities she was ''scared'' and went into ''panic mode."
 
The new documents show that the deputy turned off his cruiser's dash cam video and it did not come back on for 22 minutes.
 
"That's consistent with the victim's story that she was being assaulted during that time," said WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer.
 
The report also said the woman's DNA was found in the deputy's patrol vehicle.
 
Investigators said when they tried to talk to Donnelly he refused to speak to them.
 
Donnelly bonded out of jail shortly after his arrest. He started with the Lake County Sheriff's Office in 2004.

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