A Keys jail deputy was locked up at his workplace after choking his girlfriend, police say

A Florida Keys deputy assigned to one of the county jails ended up in one Tuesday after police said he choked his girlfriend during an argument about him ignoring her while on his cellphone.

Elias Emmanuel, 32, of Key West, denied placing his hands on his girlfriend’s neck and attempting to strangle her.

That’s how the girlfriend, Evonne Lanee Aviles, described the incident to Key West police. Emmanuel was arrested on a felony charge of domestic battery by strangulation and booked into the Stock Island Detention Center, where he works as a deputy.

On Wednesday afternoon, Emmanuel remained locked up without bond.

Emmanuel said Aviles, his girlfriend of seven years and the mother of his child, became upset that he was on Facebook on his phone and snatched the phone out of his hands, according to the arrest report.

Emmanuel said he tried to snatch it back.

Emmanuel’s brother separated the two but didn’t mention anything about Emmanuel choking her.

The brother said Emmanuel was pushing Aviles while trying to get his cellphone back.

Aviles had “light marks” on both sides of her neck and some discoloration in the middle of her throat, wrote Key West Police Officer Nicholas Dantu in the report.

She said she almost passed out after Emmanuel knocked her to the ground, put one knee on her chest and choked her, police reported.

Emmanuel was hired by the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office on Dec. 22, 2017, and earns $52,195 a year, said Adam Linhardt, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office.

Emmanuel was placed on unpaid leave pending the criminal investigation and one by MCSO’s internal affairs department, Linhardt said.

“I was saddened to hear of this incident, but also adamant that we get to the bottom of what occurred as I and this agency take these allegations very seriously,” Sheriff Rick Ramsay said.

At the time of the attack, there were four minors in the apartment. Police said they will contact the Florida Department of Children and Families about the case.

They couldn’t immediately reach DCF Tuesday night, the report states.

Gwen Filosa

Miami Herald

Gwen Filosa covers Key West and the Lower Florida Keys for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald and lives in Key West. She was part of the staff at the New Orleans Times-Picayune that in 2005 won two Pulitzer Prizes for coverage of Hurricane Katrina. She graduated from Indiana University.