A veteran Nassau County Sheriff’s Office deputy has been arrested and fired after officials say he pulled a handcuffed suspect from a patrol car, causing the man to strike his head on the pavement and lose consciousness.
Sheriff Bill Leeper announced in a press release that Deputy William Woods, 32, was taken into custody Tuesday and charged with battery and official misconduct. Woods had served with the agency since 2016.
Leeper said Woods initially claimed the suspect had “lunged” out of the back of his cruiser. But a public defender challenged that account after reviewing body-camera footage.
“Integrity is at the core of the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office mission and that applies to every member of this agency,” Leeper said. “Deputy Woods has been a good deputy during his years of service, which makes this outcome especially disappointing. But when actions fall short of our standards and the public’s trust is compromised, we have a duty to hold our own accountable.”
ST. AUGUSTINE MAN ARRESTED FOR DUI CRASH THAT KILLED ONE AND MAIMED ANOTHER
According to Woods’ arrest report obtained by The Citizen, the incident took place on July 6 when deputies responded to the Hammer Head Bar in Fernandina Beach after an intoxicated patron, Tyler Merritt, refused to leave.
The report says Merritt fled, jumped a curb in his truck, and nearly hit a car and light pole before stopping near the Amelia Hotel by the Sea.
Officers found him bleeding from his knees and foot and noted vomit inside his vehicle.
Woods wrote that Merritt used racial slurs, handed over his keys, stumbled from the truck, and failed sobriety tests before being placed in the rear of the patrol car in handcuffs.
While in the cruiser, Merritt allegedly began head-butting a window.
“I advised him to stop head butting the window and attempted to open the rear door to keep the arrestee from harming himself,” Woods wrote. “When I opened the rear door of my patrol vehicle the arrestee lunged out of the vehicle as I was trying to pull him out of the vehicle.”
Woods wrote that Merritt his head on the asphalt. He was hospitalized and later taken to jail once medically cleared.
But Merritt’s public defender later noted that body camera footage contradicted his account, according to Leeper.
It shows “Woods forcibly pull the individual out, causing the fall. because the victim was handcuffed, he was unable to break the impact,” Leeper stated in the press release.
Woods, who is married with children, was terminated from the agency after an internal investigation.
Merritt was charged with DUI, resisting an officer without violence, and careless driving. Those raps are still pending, according to court records.
