OVIEDO, Fla. — A former Orange County sheriff’s deputy has been convicted of petit theft after prosecutors said he illegally took a woman’s valid driver’s license during a traffic stop in Seminole County.
The Office of the State Attorney for the 18th Judicial Circuit said a Seminole County jury found Jacob D. Hobby, 29, guilty during a trial on June 24.
RELATED: Orange County deputy resigns amid investigation for seizing personal belongings during traffic stop
Investigators said Hobby, who was an Orange County deputy at the time, stopped a woman who was driving more than 100 mph on Alafaya Trail in Oviedo, just inside Seminole County, around 1:50 a.m. on Jan. 12, 2025.
Prosecutors said Hobby did not return to his car to run a check on the woman, did not call in the traffic stop, did not activate his body camera and did not issue a citation.
Instead, investigators said Hobby confiscated the woman’s license and a THC vape pen before sending her back onto the road.
Later, Hobby told investigators he was doing the woman “a solid” by not giving her a traffic citation, according to prosecutors.
“He took the law into his own hands, he didn’t follow the rules, he was going to impose his own form of justice,” prosecutor David Whateley said. “He let her drive away without her license, which is an offense by itself.”
The woman later checked online and saw that her license was valid, then called the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office, which found no record of the traffic stop.
Investigators used traffic camera video to confirm the stop happened and identified the patrol vehicle as one assigned to Hobby.
A search of Hobby’s patrol vehicle found the woman’s driver’s license tucked into a space above the interior ceiling dome light, prosecutors said.
Investigators said Hobby disposed of the vape pen in a property package from a different traffic stop.
After Hobby’s conviction on the second-degree misdemeanor, Judge Debra Krause sentenced him to six months of probation, 120 hours of community service and $1,292 in fines and fees.
Hobby resigned from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in 2025 amid an internal affairs investigation.
Prosecutors said Hobby rejected a plea offer that would have required him to surrender his law enforcement certification in exchange for entering a diversion program.
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