- April 19, 2024
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Cpl. Mark Moy, a 14-year Flagler County Sheriff's Office employee with a long list of commendations, has been arrested on a misdemeanor domestic battery charge. The FCSO has suspended him without pay pending an investigation, according to an FCSO news release.
“Sheriff Staly is extremely disappointed in his behavior,” FCSO Chief of Staff Mark Strobridge said in the news release. “Sheriff Staly has made the reduction of domestic violence a priority since becoming sheriff, and this proves that no one is immune from it or from being arrested if they violate the law. Sheriff Staly does not condone this behavior and will not tolerate it from deputy sheriffs wearing a badge pledging to serve and protect.”
Moy, a major case corporal in the Investigative Services Division's Special Victims Unit who'd worked on the Mobil has station murder case and had led the initiative to create a digital forensics unit, was booked at the county jail on Feb. 12.
The FCSO had received a domestic violence concerning Moy at 3:04 a.m., according to Moy's arrest report. Because Moy was an FCSO employee, a supervisor, Sgt. Frank Gamarra, was assigned to investigate.
The 19-year-old victim said that Moy, 39, had hit her on the left side of her face, leaving her with trouble hearing out of her left ear. She had scratch marks on her neck, and her ear was bleeding.
The victim told Gamarra that she'd been video-chatting with a friend in her bedroom when she went to the kitchen to get some potato chips. When she opened the bag, Moy took a couple chips and then told her to give him the whole bag, she said.
In front of several other people in the house, including Sheriff's Office Detective John-Jack Castanheira, Moy berated her and swore at her; when she went to the garage to grab a drink, he cursed at her and grabbed her by the shirt and neck, she said.
She ran back to her bedroom and ended the video call, but Moy broke down her bedroom door, grabbed her around the neck and slapped her across the face, she said.
A 42-year-old woman in the house who has the same last name as Moy tried to get between Moy and the victim, and the victim told Moy to stop, or she'd call law enforcement.
"[Moy] threw his cellular phone at her and stated, 'call them,'" according to the arrest report.
The 42-year-old woman took the phone and said such a call wasn't needed.
Castanheira entered the room and led Moy away.
The victim left to go to another family member's house, telling Gamarra that she'd feared for her safety.
Gamarra and FCSO Cmdr. Jason Neat interviewed Moy, who agreed to speak without an attorney present and told them that the victim had been "increasing disrespectful to him and his household, and that they were involved in a verbal argument over her attitude," according to the arrest report.
Gamarra asked him if the victim had made false allegations against him in the past or had any reason to lie to law enforcement, and Moy said she hadn't. But he denied hitting her.
Moy said the incident did not begin over a bag of chips. He said that the 19-year-old's attitude had been poor, and that earlier in the evening, they'd discussed her poor grades.
He said that when she'd gotten a drink from the garage, he believed it was a White Claw — an alcoholic beverage. An argument began and proceeded to her bedroom, he said.
The other people who were at the house at the time of the indent said they'd seen an argument, but no physical violence.
"Based on the [victim's] statement, her observed injuries, and nature of the allegations, probable cause exists that Mark A. Moy did commit the crime of battery, domestic violence," Gamarra wrote in Moy's arrest report.
Moy is charged with misdemeanor domestic battery and is being held at the county jail with no bond allowed.
