A South Florida cop with two prior convictions of battery was arrested again Wednesday for domestic violence against his wife.
Now Stephen Degerdon is on paid administrative leave from the Coral Springs Police Department, the agency that fired him in 2011 after a jury convicted him for choking a car burglary suspect, leaving red marks on his neck, then threatening to go to the man’s home in an incident captured on video.
But somehow Degerdon managed to get his job back after serving six months probation, managing to keep a low profile until Wednesday when he dragged his wife out of the car and drove off with their one-year-old child in the back.
The 32-year-old cop, who has been married for five years, is in the midst of a divorce from his wife, who is a cop for the Davie Police Department.
According to the [__South Florida Sun Sentinel:__](http://photographyisnotacrime.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/fl-coral-springs-police-officer-arrested-20150423-story.html)
> Degerdon told his wife she wasn’t taking their son with her for the night. He punched a hole in the kitchen wall, then stormed out of the house and took a crowbar to two of his wife’s car’s tires, deflating them, according to the complaint affidavit.
> The officer then went back into the house as the two continued to argue and began gathering the child’s belongings and a diaper bag, the affidavit said. Stacy Degerdon followed her husband to his car and sat in the back seat as he placed their son into his car seat.
> Degerdon grabbed his wife by her right arm, violently pulled her out of the vehicle, then began to drive off with their son, the affidavit said. Stacy Degerdon called 911, and her husband was arrested outside their residence at 8:25 p.m.
> Degerdon was being held Thursday on $5,000 bond, records show.
> “He’s on administrative leave, with pay, as of today,” Coral Springs police Lt. Joe McHugh said Thursday.
Well, who would have seen that coming?
This is a man who choked a suspect because the man had called him an idiot, which we can see now, is a complete understatement.
According to a 2011 [__Sun Sentinel article:__](http://photographyisnotacrime.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/fl-springs-police-terminated-20110821_1_civilian-investigator-female-officer-police-officer)
> The booking video shows Degerdon saying to him: “Do you think it’s a good idea to call a police officer an idiot? Let me tell you something, when you get out, be sure that I will come to your house.”
> Degerdon told investigators he did not mean that as a threat.
> Degerdon, 28, had been with the department for five years. In July a Broward jury convicted him of two counts of battery and he is awaiting sentencing. His attorney, Anthony Livoti, could not be reached for comment despite calls to his office and cell phone.
It is not clear when Degerdon was rehired by the department that fired him because he has yet to update his [__online resume__](http://photographyisnotacrime.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/b001de6f76e9c445), which lists his last employment at the appropriately named Dick’s Sporting Goods.
