Ex-Florida deputy arrested after wrongfully arresting 14 people, sheriff’s office says
A former Martin County deputy is accused of wrongfully arresting over a dozen people on drug charges. Now, the deputy is the one behind bars.
Steven O’Leary, 28, was arrested Monday on 49 counts of charges, including official misconduct, false imprisonment and evidence tampering. Although the Martin County clerk of court wouldn’t confirm his bond, a complaint affidavit had it set at a $1 million.
Between February 2018 and January 2019, O’Leary made at least 14 narcotic arrests for substances that crime lab tests later revealed weren’t drugs, an investigation report says. He was reportedly fired after the revelation.
Most of the people O’Leary arrested bonded out in one to two days. Others spent more than 11 weeks behind bars.
After the state attorney general dismissed three drug trafficking cases of which O’Leary was the arresting officer in January, the sheriff’s office began an internal review of his pending narcotics cases. The review found that O’Leary had a pattern of arresting people he suspected of drug possession regardless of the test kit’s results.
“I care more about putting [the defendants] in jail than making the charge,” O’Leary said during an interview with investigators, according to the report.
While the investigation found at least 14 suspects were wrongfully arrested, there could be others like 29-year-old Matt Crull, who spent nearly six weeks in jail after being arrested by O’Leary. Crull’s name was not mentioned in the report.
O’Leary is also accused of making false statements, petit theft and battery.
