JUDGE AMENDED RESTRAINING
ORDER TO ADD NO-ARREST
STIPULATION. POLICE OFFICER
THREATENED TO ARREST WOMAN
ANYWAY.
by Dennis Reeves Cooper
Newly-elected Circuit
Judge Tegan Slaton seems to
be taking a “middle ground”
approach when signing some
restraining orders in domestic
cases. In at least two recent
cases, he has signed restraining
orders— but amended those orders
to prohibit the police from
making arrests before bringing
alleged violations of those orders
back before him.
Last month, when Key
West Police Detective Janeth Del
Cid asked for a restraining order
against her boyfriend’s wife,
Judge Slaton almost reluctantly
signed a temporary order. But
when the wife’s attorney argued
that Del Cid, as a police officer,
was in a position to trump up
alleged violations and get fellow
officers to arrest and jail her boyfriend’s
wife, Slaton amended
the order to prohibit the police
from making an arrest before
bringing the alleged violation
back to his courtroom.
More recently, on July 13,
he signed a restraining order
to protect Sandra Downs from
her estranged husband, Nick
Downs. If Sandy’s name sounds
familiar, it’s because she was a
candidate for Monroe County Sheriff last year.
In signing the protective
order, Slaton amended it with
a hand-written note: “No arrest
on extended injunction for protection
until matter is brought
before the court.”
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