An open letter to Sheriff Richard Nugent

On Oct. 5, I read in Hernando Today "Deputy accused of beating his wife." At first I was enraged and then waited for days to see the public's response to this outrageous act by a deputy employed by the Hernando County Sheriff's Office.

It is now Thursday and I am saddened by the fact that either we, the taxpayers, have become accustomed to and therefore desensitized to such atrocities or that someone has the power to keep such things from being printed about any further. After all, these are the very people who carry guns and have the authority to determine if we are obeying the laws and when we appear in court it is our word against theirs.

The article states that Jeffrey P. Swartz was charged Saturday with domestic violence and placed on administrative leave. It states that Swartz had an argument with his wife, pushed her into the floor and placed his arms around her neck. It goes on to say that the wife sustained red marks on the front of her neck and arm. There was even a witness to this event.

My questions are: Is Swartz being paid while on administrative leave and will he retain his job?

You may wonder why I take such an interest in this "incident." You see, my sister was killed by her husband, a deputy for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's office, 17 years ago, Oct. 9, 1992.

His peers' explanation was that my brother-in-law was so in love with my sister that he could not live without her so he shot her in the head a couple of weeks after their divorce was finalized and then turned the gun on himself. She had been abused by him for 24 years but waited until the children were grown to leave him so that her children would not have to do without the necessities of life. I would be willing to bet that my nieces would sacrifice everything to have their mother back.

There is a very long story to all of this, how my brother-in-law's fellow deputies helped him stalk her when she tried to hide from him, how he was given the opportunity to admit himself into St. Mary's Hospital mental unit when on a previous occasion, a few weeks before he killed her, he attempted to kill her. When she reported it to the sheriff's department they played the recording of her report to my brother-in-law who then stated she was accusing him of those things only because she wanted alimony. Believe me, she wanted nothing but her freedom of him and his abuse.

This is what I would like to know, Sheriff Nugent. Will Detective Swartz be required to attend some "anger management" classes and retain his current position or another job in the department or will he be terminated? I would also be interested in knowing if there are any other members of your department who have been charged with domestic violence and are still employed by Hernando County.

I hope that you can respond that it is Hernando County's policy to terminate immediately any officer charged or believed to be involved in domestic violence of any kind.

I read some of the e-mails attached to this article, one of which was a woman married to a law enforcement officer who was currently abusing her. My advise to her is run to a women's shelter out of this area. Your life and the life of your children are much more important than his paycheck or his pension.

Don't make the mistake of thinking this could never happen to you. It happened to my family. My sister has been gone for 17 years and I still miss having a cup of coffee with her each Saturday morning while discussing the events of the week on the phone.

Carol Nelson

Brooksville