TAKE A BITE OUT OF CRIME? NO, FLORIDA WOMAN TOOK A BITE OUT OF COP’S LEG

Palm Coast woman bites, injures deputy during wild arrest

By Matt Bruce

The Daytona Beach News-Journal
January 21, 2020

PALM COAST, Fla. -- Flagler County sheriff’s deputies are known to take a bite out of crime every day. But during a recent arrest, a Palm Coast woman bit a deputy and he wound up in the hospital.

Cherie Saunders, 38, of Brookside Lane, was arrested Friday night following reports that she had slapped one of her housemates. She began cursing at deputies and became unruly while being taken into custody, biting one of the arresting deputies on the leg.

Deputies charged Saunders with domestic battery, battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest with violence-aggravated assault. She was released from the Flagler County jail on Saturday after posting $10,000 bail, booking records show.

According to an arrest report, deputies responded to Saunders’ home Friday night after her boyfriend’s 21-year-old son, reported that she slapped him during an argument. The 21-year-old said he had confronted Saunders for being too rough with his 10-year-old brother when she and the child were horse playing. He said she began yelling at him and slapped him.

Deputies described Saunders as hostile, agitated and uncooperative when they encountered her in the driveway outside the home. She was barefoot and red-faced, her make-up was smeared, and officers indicated she reeked of alcohol, according to reports.

She became enraged when officers asked if her 6-year-old daughter was in the home and she tried to close her garage door while two deputies were standing in the doorway. She then began screaming in one officer’s face, prompting a struggle between her and at least three deputies who were attempting to restrain her, reports state.

During the struggle, Saunders kicked and screamed at officers as they tried to handcuff her and she bit one of the officers on the right calf.

An agency release indicates Saunders refused to unlock her bite on the deputy’s leg until another officer pulled her off. Reports indicate the officer used a defensive maneuver described as a “hollow behind the jaw.”

Saunders’ bite broke the officer’s skin and left a two-inch mark on his calf, which immediately started swelling and bruising. Moments after the scuffle, the bitten deputy, whose name was redacted from reports, said he felt ill and and he lost consciousness seconds later. The officer was taken to the hospital for medical evaluation.

Court records show Saunders pleaded not guilty to her slate of charges during her first appearance Tuesday.

She was also charged with resisting arrest in May 2018 stemming from an incident at Tortugas in Flagler Beach, according to court documents. Police arrested her after she was found lying in grass outside the bar, and later cursed at one of the managers who refused to allow her back in, according to a charging affidavit. The charge was later dismissed by prosecutors, court records show.