A candidate on the ballot for the Republican primary for governor has a history of domestic battery and child neglect arrests, Sarasota County court records show.
All but one of the cases were eventually dropped by the State Attorney’s Office in Sarasota.
Arthur Joseph McCaffrey, 59, is a retired computer repair business owner from Venice who is running among 10 other Republicans for the GOP nomination for governor. He does not have a campaign website, but he said he plans to make about 100,000 yard signs.
McCaffrey faced nine criminal cases between 2002 and 2024, according to court records.
Records show five felony counts of child neglect, three counts of domestic battery, two reports of violations of a domestic violence injunction and one count each of sexual battery, false imprisonment and unlawful withholding of identification documents.
Reckless driving and a traffic violation account for two of the other cases.
He’s been found guilty once: on a 2012 charge of violating a domestic violence injunction brought against him by his then-wife.
“I have never committed a crime in my entire life,” McCaffrey, who said he’s been married four times, told the Tampa Bay Times. He said the domestic and child-related cases were false arrests brought on by “lying” wives.
McCaffrey’s most recent arrest dates to July 2024. His current wife, mother to six of his children, told the Venice Police Department that April that McCaffrey “has been refusing to allow her and the children to leave the house, access her passport and other important documents, or send the children to school,” according to an arrest warrant.
The warrant, signed by a judge, said the children’s diapers and clothes were “inside out and/or dirty” and that McCaffrey “willfully failed and omitted to provide (five children) with the care necessary to maintain their physical and mental health.”
McCaffrey said his wife made up the allegations because she wanted to divorce him and return home to the Philippines without going through a custody battle over their children. McCaffrey said she could only do so if she accused him of a crime, so the police “pretty much forc(ed) her to lie.”
The charges — sexual battery, false imprisonment, unlawful withholding of identification documents and five counts of child neglect — were dropped on July 31, 2024, by the State Attorney’s Office in Sarasota.
McCaffrey said his wife wrote a letter to prosecutors absolving him of guilt. The letter McCaffrey spoke of does not appear in Sarasota County court records and is not referenced in a document provided by the State Attorney’s Office in Sarasota explaining the reasoning for the declined charges.
The State Attorney’s Office document said the charges were declined due to insufficient evidence because McCaffrey’s wife did not appear for an interview and instead returned to the Philippines with the children. McCaffrey previously told the Times that his mother agreed to pay for their international plane tickets to prevent McCaffrey from being prosecuted and his children being removed from his care.
Since then, the couple has remained together and welcomed their sixth child, McCaffrey said. He said he visited the Philippines and brought the family back to the U.S. in 2025.
McCaffrey also had brushes with the law during previous marriages.
In June 2002, McCaffrey called Venice police after his first wife told him she wanted a divorce and tried to leave the home, a probable cause affidavit said.
The woman said she wanted to return to Turkey “to be with her family,” but McCaffrey physically restricted her from leaving and “shoved her to the ground.” The probable cause affidavit said he told authorities he called them because she is his wife and therefore “she is not allowed to leave.”
McCaffrey was arrested on a domestic battery charge. He said his then-wife wrote a letter to drop the case, but the Times was not able to verify McCaffrey’s story or why prosecutors dropped it because the State Attorney’s Office said case documents have since been destroyed.
McCaffrey filed for divorce in September 2003.
In January 2007, Venice police responded to an abandoned 911 call from McCaffrey’s residence. The probable cause affidavit said his wife, from his second marriage, had called from the bathroom before McCaffrey took the phone from her.
In the report, the officer observed that the woman had marks on her neck and a swollen lip, which McCaffrey said she accidentally did to herself. McCaffrey’s then-wife told the authorities her husband said to her, “You wanna die,” according to the report.
McCaffrey was arrested on a domestic battery charge. The case was dropped by the State Attorney’s Office in Sarasota on Jan. 22, 2007. McCaffrey said that it was because his then-wife told the court that she lied to police, but the Times was not able to verify this information or why the case was abandoned, since the case documents have since been destroyed.
McCaffrey filed for divorce in August 2007. In April 2008, the same woman petitioned for an injunction against McCaffrey, which was granted temporarily and then dismissed. That May, both petitioned for an injunction against each other; neither was granted.
In July 2011, his wife from his third marriage petitioned for an injunction against McCaffrey; the request was denied. In February 2012, they filed for injunctions against each other; both were denied.
That March, a probable cause affidavit said that McCaffrey’s then-wife told officers that McCaffrey yelled, grabbed her and chased her inside. The document says the two lived in separate homes, but the victim was worried “he will come to my house again and try to hurt me.”
McCaffrey was arrested on a domestic battery charge, according to Sarasota County records. The case was dropped by the State Attorney’s Office in Sarasota on May 2, 2012, and documents explaining why have since been destroyed.
In March that year, McCaffrey’s wife petitioned for another injunction, which was granted in April.
Both filed for divorce from each other during the spring of 2012.
In May 2012, McCaffrey was arrested on a charge of violating the injunction. It was dropped by the State Attorney’s Office in Sarasota. Publicly available court documents don’t detail why.
In June of the same year, McCaffrey was found guilty on another charge of violating the injunction by coming within 500 feet of her, according to the probable cause affidavit. He paid a fine and court costs of $323 and was put on probation.
An arrest warrant for McCaffrey was executed in February 2014, according to court records. McCaffrey admitted to violating the terms of his probation after disregarding the no-contact order with the woman on several occasions between February and May 2013.
McCaffrey told the Times that he has “never hit a woman” and that he is “a very loving person.”
If elected governor, he said, one of his priorities would be raising the bar for probable cause in cases of domestic abuse. McCaffrey said he believes physical evidence should be necessary for an arrest warrant.
“The only thing that lies is a voice,” he said. “A bruise can’t lie.”
McCaffrey also said he wants to dismantle the Department of Children and Families, saying it tears apart families. In the probable cause affidavit for the 2024 child neglect charges, the document said that McCaffrey had “several prior incidents with DCF, including an incident where he has had a child removed for family violence threats towards a child.”
McCaffrey said in a June interview with the Times that he did not want to reveal many of his policy proposals for fear that other candidates would steal his ideas. However, he listed the titles of 100 items he said he will eventually campaign on, including “fat people,” “spam email” and abolishing the minimum wage.
McCaffrey said he does not see his history with law enforcement as a challenge in the race for the Governor’s Mansion. In fact, he thinks he can win.
“Quite frankly, some of (the candidates) are insane,” he said. “They’re messed up.”
.subtext-iframe{max-width:540px;}iframe#subtext_embed{width:1px;min-width:100%;min-height:256px;}
fetch(“https://raw.githubusercontent.com/alpha-group/iframe-resizer/master/js/iframeResizer.min.js”).then(function(r){return r.text();}).then(function(t){return new Function(t)();}).then(function(){iFrameResize({heightCalculationMethod:”lowestElement”},”#subtext_embed”);});
• • •
Tampa Bay Times Election Coverage
Congressional midterms: St. Petersburg and Wauchula are in the same congressional district. We drove it
Property tax amendment: DeSantis has claims about his tax amendment. Here’s what it actually does.
Voting: Mail ballot requests are down across Tampa Bay
State races: Here’s who wants to represent Tampa Bay in Legislature, Cabinet primaries
Congressional candidates: Who’s running for the US House in Tampa Bay after redistricting?
Governor’s race: Field set for Florida 2026 governor race
