SROs Resign After Covering up Accidental Tasering of School Employee

The victim and a witness were reportedly scared to come forward.

March 29, 2017 CS Staff

SROs Resign After Covering up Accidental Tasering of School Employee

The accidental Tasering occurred in a Leesburg High School classroom.

Two school resource officers in Florida lost their jobs after one accidentally tasered a school employee in January and they attempted to cover up the incident.

Lake County sheriff master deputy Raymond Mattiucci resigned and Deputy Darrell Blanton was fired following a Lake County Sheriff’s Office internal investigation.

The incident occurred in a classroom Jan. 31 when Mattiucci accidentally fired his Taser after Leesburg High School security monitor Jerome Scott asked him how far it could shoot, reports the Orlando Sentinel. The Taser hit Scott, who fell unconscious and broke his wrist.

Leesburg High School clerical assistant Pamela Nash was also in the classroom and was reportedly too “terrified” to come forward.

Mattiucci radioed Blanton after discharging the Taser, and Blanton entered the classroom and removed the probes from Scott’s body. Scott could not speak for 15 minutes.

Scott and Nash told the deputies they wouldn’t report the incident and Blanton told dispatch a school employee “fell.”

In the weeks following the incident the deputies stayed in communication with the employees. Mattiucci offered to pay for Scott’s medical costs at first, but Mattiucci later refused to pay Scott for medical expenses and began avoiding Scott.

In early February, Nash told the Leesburg High principal about the incident. When the principal confronted Blanton, the deputy denied the story and asked Nash later “Did you tell?”

The same day, Mattiucci saw a sheriff’s corporal talking to school employees and texted Scott, “What’s the word… Our Corp is about poking his nose around.”

Scott and Nash both said they feared coming forward. Mattiucci and Blanton had pretended to Tase Scott multiple times in the past, even when Scott had asked them to stop. One time the deputies also pointed the Taser “lights flashing” at the face of Nash.

The deputies were placed on administrative leave during the investigation and accused of conduct unbecoming of an officer.

Mattiucci, who’d been employed with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office for over 11 years, resigned March 8. Blanton was fired March 15.

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