BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Telegraph Staff Writer
STARKE—A Starke police sergeant resigned, and an officer has been suspended as the department investigates the pair’s actions in a March arrest.
Police Major Barry Warren said Sgt. Moses Bellamy resigned on Friday, June 9, and Patrolman Jay Raulerson was put on administrative leave after a lawyer for James Baxley complained about the officer’s actions.
James Alfred Baxley, 34, of Sparr, was arrested by Starke police on March 5 for aggravated battery and assault.
According to an arrest report, reporting Officer Raulerson drove to the Bradford County Sheriff’s office due to a report of a disturbance.
Raulerson wrote that when he arrived at the sheriff’s office, the defendant was screaming in front of the building.
According to a body camera recording, Bellamy put the defendant in the back of Raulerson’s vehicle, and the pair spoke to Baxley’s mother.
The defendant’s mother told the officers that although her son claimed in a 911 call that he threatened her, he did not. She added, however, that if the assault charge would assist police in getting her son medical attention, she would attest to it.
“Do you think he’s on something? Bellamy asked the mother.
“I know he’s on something,” she replied. He’s got to be. He’s on drugs. I know that.”
Raulerson wrote that he then attempted to talk to the defendant.
“At this time, while the rear door was open, James Baxley stated that he wanted to go to jail,” wrote the officer. “I advised him that he wasn’t under arrest because he hadn’t committed a crime. At this, James Baxley then spit in my face. I then closed the door to my patrol vehicle.”
Raulerson reported that the defendant spat toward him a second time, but the officer did not know if he had been hit.
“James Baxley continued to scream obscenities and threaten both myself and Sgt. Bellamy,” the officer wrote. “James Baxley also was banging his head on my rear passenger window in an attempt to break it.”
The recording shows that up to the time of the battery, Bellamy appeared to be arranging to transport the defendant to Meridian Behavioral in Gainesville.
According to the video, Bellamy called a lieutenant to ask about the charges. During the conversation, the officers concluded Baxley committed a felony when spitting on Raulerson, and that instead of driving him to Gainesville, police would arrest him and have a jail nurse evaluate him.
After Baxley spat on Raulerson, the demeanor of both officers changed, with Bellamy responding to the defendant’s comments, using profanity.
At one point the sergeant threatened to spray Baxley with a chemical agent.
Raulerson drove the defendant inside the jail’s sallyport, where the two officers, Bradford Sheriff’s Sgt. Scott Konkel and a detention deputy extracted Baxley from the vehicle.
After the defendant resisted the officers, Raulerson tased him several times.
Warren said that the department initiated an internal affairs investigation over the officers’ statements and the language they used to interact with the defendant.
He added that the administrative, non-criminal investigation centers on allegations that the two officers engaged in unprofessional and inappropriate conduct.
The State Attorney’s Office dropped the charges against Baxley on Friday.
