WINTER HAVEN, Fla. -- A 19-year veteran of the Polk County Sheriff's Office is suspended from duty pending an investigation into domestic battery.
Deputy Sheriff Timothy Strickland, 46, is accused of pushing his wife against her will to the ground, causing bruising to her face and left hand, plus scratches to her arms, according to a news release.
The incident is said to have happened late Friday, March 30, at the family's home.
Deputies say Strickland's wife later called her son, asking to be picked up because he was "shoving her to the ground" and "roughing her up." She told her son they had returned home from shopping and going out to a bar.
This was not the first time something like this had happened, Strickland's wife reportedly said.
Strickland told deputies that his wife was "flailing" her arms, never hitting him nor was he in fear that she would hit him. He ended up pushing her to the ground and leaving to take a shower, only to push her down again when she came into the bathroom, Strickland told deputies.
Strickland was arrested on a domestic battery charge and was taken to the Polk County jail.
He was hired in September 1998 and became a deputy sheriff that December.
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