A St. Petersburg police officer who has had prior run-ins with the law was arrested on a domestic battery charge Sunday, court records show.
Curtis Wright, 43, is currently on parental leave and will return to the department March 7, when he will begin an administrative assignment, according to a department spokesperson.
Wright was booked in the Pinellas County Jail Sunday on a first-degree misdemeanor charge of domestic battery, records show. He was released on $1,000 bond and ordered to stay away from the woman he is accused of battering and her child. No details were released about the nature of the incident.
He does not have access to his weapon, equipment or police vehicle, according to the department.
Once his criminal case is resolved, the St. Petersburg Police Office of Professional Standards will begin an internal investigation, according to the department.
“I take the arrest of any officer very seriously, especially an allegation of domestic battery,” Police Chief Anthony Holloway said in a statement to the Tampa Bay Times. “I can assure the residents of St. Petersburg that this case will be thoroughly investigated.”
In 2016, Wright was accused of assaulting a different woman while trying to force her to unlock her phone, records show.
The woman told deputies that Wright “snatched” the phone out of her hand, according to an arrest report. When she tried to get it back, she told deputies he grabbed her hand and tried using her fingers to unlock the phone so he could access it.
The woman told deputies she grabbed a bottle of window cleaner and sprayed him in the face “to get him to release her.” Then she said Wright grabbed her and “body slammed” her, according to the report.
Then, Wright “held her eyes open” and sprayed her with the cleaner, according to the report. He tried forcing her to unlock the phone again, the report said, trying to manipulate her finger while “he put all of his weight on top of her chest.”
The woman said she struggled to breathe, according to the report, and bit him on the arm and back to get away.
Deputies said Wright was also injured during the altercation. The officer said his girlfriend kicked him in the face, leaving him bleeding from the nose. Deputies said they also observed bite marks on Wright.
The state attorney’s office declined to file charges in that case.
Wright also was suspended from the police department in 2017 after acting aggressively toward Hillsborough deputies at a summer concert in Tampa, records show.
While looking for his e-cigarette and girlfriend, he came into contact with concert security guards and “became belligerent, aggressive and committed a battery upon a couple of the guards,” according to a police disciplinary report.
Deputies said he appeared to be intoxicated.
A police disciplinary board reviewed the incident, and Holloway sustained four charges against Wright. Two were violations of police department rules: committing conduct unbecoming of an employee and consuming too much alcohol. Two were violations of city rules: behaving inappropriately as a city employee and committing an act that could have resulted in “conviction or guilt of a felony or misdemeanor.”
He was suspended from duty for 160 hours, prohibited from consuming alcohol for five years, subject to random alcohol screenings for 18 months and ordered to undergo counseling.
A department spokesperson said Wright’s history will be taken into consideration during the internal investigation.
