Thin Blue Marital Line: Florida Officer Allegedly Beats Another Officer Over An Affair With A Third Officer

There is an interesting case out of St. Cloud, Florida where a woman is charged with hitting another woman who she believed is having an affair with her husband. That is unfortunately not uncommon. However, the attacker is police officer deputy sheriff Edeania Nettles and the victim is another officer, Jennifer Hoyos, and the husband is police sergeant, Elbert John Nettles. It was the charge that I found interesting in this case.

Nettles, 39, reportedly followed her husband to a park where she spotted him chatting with Hoyos, 26. She is accused of dragging Hoyos out of a car and pulling a large clump of her hair out of her head. She is also accused of hitting her on the side of the head.

The beat down happened around midnight while Hoyos was on duty and in uniform. Needles was therefore charged with battery on a law enforcement officer. It is an interesting charge since she was not attacking an officer but the supposed lover of her husband. It is a more serious charge than simple battery. Battery on a law enforcement officer can be charged as a “3rd degree felony, punishable by up to 5 years in prison and $5,000 in fines.”

There is no heat of passion exception or special circumstances for a crime when all of those involved are officers. Thus, if a fight erupts at the station at the cafeteria or next to the water cooler, is it charged as battery on an officer? If both are at fault, do both get charged with battery on an officer?