ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — 9 Investigates has obtained documents revealing that a former Orange County deputy has been charged with perjury and battery in a case involving a pregnant woman.
The deputy resigned in the middle of the internal investigation.
The department believed his actions may have been criminal and forwarded the case to the state attorney’s office, and the office has decided to move forward with a criminal case.
Reporter Daralene Jones spoke with the woman involved in the case, and she said she’s relieved.
She was pregnant the day the former deputy attacked her at the apartment, and he arrested her for battery on a law enforcement officer.
Prosecutors now say the charge against her was based on the former deputy’s manufactured report.
The cell phone video 9 Investigates obtained is unstable and fuzzy, but photos sent to us clearly show injuries.
Nokomis Chaney showed us precisely where she was roughed up last January when former Orange County deputy Ayler Cruz responded to her Orlando apartment for a disturbance.
“(He was) using a lot of foul language that I’m not going to use and … he attacked me when I was trying to go down the stairs and I was four months pregnant,” Chaney said.
9 Investigates has requested bodycam video because the prosecutor raised concerns that Cruz’s reports did not appear to correspond with the events observed in the bodycam videos.
During the internal investigation, the sheriff’s office found that Cruz did not have probable cause to arrest Chaney, and her arrest was merely the product of a verbal argument between her and Cruz.
“Now people know he’s that kind of officer and he doesn’t need to be an officer,” Chaney said. “He’s too aggressive.”
Cruz resigned in the middle of the internal investigation, but internal affairs found it was Cruz who committed battery “by actually and intentionally touching Ms. Chaney against her will and causing injury to her body.”
In addition, Cruz’s actions were the result of manufactured testimony, which he claimed Chaney committed battery against him when she was “holding a carton juice box in her hands” and “started to swing the juice box toward deputies.”
Cruz falsified his report to fabricate a crime.
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“It made me feel scared, super uncomfortable,” Chaney said. “Police are supposed to protect you.”
Cruz resigned from the sheriff’s office during the investigation last year. 9 Investigates was not able to find contact information to reach Cruz.
He told investigators “there’s no doubt” he “lost his temper” while dealing with Ms. Chaney.
Cox Media Group
