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Hillsborough County deputy arrested after fight with Plant City police officer

The altercation started as the officer was shining his flashlight, looking for a missing girl, deputies said.
 
Ivan Moreno, 33, faces a felony charge of  battery on a law enforcement officer and a misdemeanor charge of resisting an officer without violence.
Ivan Moreno, 33, faces a felony charge of battery on a law enforcement officer and a misdemeanor charge of resisting an officer without violence. [ Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office ]
Published June 22, 2020

PLANT CITY — An off-duty deputy Hillsborough County sheriff’s deputy was arrested and placed on leave early Monday morning after trying to fight a Plant City police officer, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Ivan Moreno, 33, who has worked at the sheriff’s office since 2016, faces a felony charge of battery on a law enforcement officer and a misdemeanor charge of resisting an officer without violence, according to a news release from the Sheriff’s Office.

Moreno was sitting in the backyard of a home on the 2000 block of Walden Woods Drive in Plant City around 1 a.m. Monday when a Plant City police officer shined his flashlight behind nearby houses, searching for a girl who ran away from her home, the Sheriff's Office said.

Moreno yelled at the officer to turn the light off.

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The officer continued his search and Moreno kept yelling, the Sheriff’s Office said. The officer identified himself and Moreno moved toward him, bumping shoulders with him and trying to fight him, the Sheriff’s Office said. Moreno appeared to be intoxicated, the officer told sheriff’s deputies.

The officer arrested Moreno and booked him into the Orient Road Jail, where he was being held on $2,500 bail. Moreno was placed on administrative leave while the office investigates.

“No one is above the law,” Sheriff Chad Chronister said in the news release. “Battery on an officer, even if it’s coming from another law enforcement officer, is completely unacceptable. This is an incident that should never have escalated to the level of physical violence.”