LCSO deputies apologize after ‘traumatizing’ arrest

LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. – A woman has filed an inappropriate arrest complaint against Lee County deputies after she says she was handcuffed and wrongfully taken into custody.

Stephanie Garner said she was peacefully asleep in her Lehigh Acres home on Aug. 18 when deputies with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office arrived on her doorstep around 3 a.m.

“Heard a door bell ringing, banging on the door,” Garner said.

A female deputy told Garner they had a warrant out for her arrest after she failed to appear in court, then proceeded to handcuff her.

“I gave my husband a hug and she handcuffed me in the middle of my living room,” Garner said.

Deputies drove a handcuffed Garner to downtown Fort Myers where she spent more than an hour in a booking room before authorities discovered Garner’s court date was actually scheduled for the end of the month; she had not missed the court date because it had not yet happened.

Garner said she received an apology and was told deputies were supposed issue a court notice for a probation violation after a 2015 DUI arrest. But deputies had arrested her when they were only supposed to serve her the documents.

“Somewhere in that I heard ‘un-arrestable,'” Garner said. “So she [the deputy] put me back in the car.”

Even with the mistake, deputies would not remove Garner’s handcuffs.

“She still didn’t take the handcuffs off. I had to ride all the way back home with the handcuffs on,” Garner said.

Now Garner says her sense of security has been robbed. She does not feel at ease in her own home. Her lawyer, Gerry Olivo, said the incident should have never happened.

“She should’ve never been arrested. She should’ve never have been traumatized the way that she was. Her family shouldn’t have been awoken and she shouldn’t have to be sitting in my office,” Olivo said. “The safest place a person is supposed to feel is in their home. Lee County Sheriff’s Office took that away from her.”