Deputies accuse Iowa police officer of punching girlfriend at a Florida Keys bar
.jpg "An Iowa police officer was arrested on misdemeanor battery charges following what Monroe County deputies say was a domestic dispute in the parking log of a Florida Keys bar Monday, Feb. 13, 2023.")
An Iowa police officer remains in Florida Keys jail Tuesday night following his arrest Monday on two misdemeanor domestic battery charges.
Charles Leroy Dailey, 40, is accused of punching his girlfriend in the face as the two argued in the parking lot of Boondocks Grille and Draft House on Ramrod Key in the Lower Keys around 5:20 p.m.
According to Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputies, the two were arguing over Dailey’s phone, which the girlfriend wanted to check because she suspected he was talking to other women.
Deputies were called to the bar after staff called 911 to report that a man hit a woman and that she was holding the side of her face, yelling, “he just punched me,” according to the arrest report. The Miami Herald is not naming the woman.
Deputies stated that they watched security camera footage of the incident and that it showed Dailey and the woman leaning over the back of a Toyota Camry parked behind the bar.
Then Dailey, “without provocation, arched back and punched” the woman with his right hand, striking her on the left side of her face. The woman is seen dropping a phone, according to the report.
Deputies wrote that the left side of the woman’s face was swollen and she had abrasions on her leg.
Dailey is being held on a bond of $2,500.
He was hired on the Clarinda Police Department in November 2020, his boss, Chief Keith Brothers, told the Miami Herald.
Brothers said that when Dailey returns to Iowa, he will be placed on administrative leave while an internal affairs investigation is conducted, “and we’ll proceed as appropriate from there.”
