An Osceola County sheriff’s deputy allegedly kicked and shoved his girlfriend to the floor Thursday after taking her cell phones during an argument, forcing her to drive to a nearby gas station to call 911.
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Elias Ramirez III, 34, was arrested around 1:30 a.m. by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office on a domestic violence charge. He has been a deputy with the Osceola agency since March 2024 and has been placed on paid administrative leave, the agency said following his arrest.
Ramirez and his girlfriend have lived together for about eight years and have a two-year-old son. Thursday’s altercation between the two started after they got into an argument over the girlfriend planning to take the son on a trip to St. Augustine, which Ramirez opposed, according to what she told deputies and they documented in an affidavit for Ramirez’s arrest.
The girlfriend was asleep in bed with the son when Ramirez arrived home shortly after midnight. He woke her up and asked to speak with her in the living room about the trip. He talked about “his rights” and said she should not be able to take the son on the trip.
She told him that she is not trying to take their son away. Ramirez then referenced a previous claim of domestic violence, but no details were provided in the affidavit. He added that if she contacted police, he would say that she attempted to harm him.
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The girlfriend told Ramirez to take her to court since she has proof of domestic violence on her phone, causing him to take her personal and work phones. When she asked for the phones back, he refused and shoved her. When she asked again, he said she was “challenging him” and kicked her repeatedly in the leg before shoving her a second time into the wall, causing her to fall to the floor, the affidavit said.
When she began to cry, Ramirez covered her mouth to keep her quiet for about two minutes, during which she struggled to breathe, the document said. She later asked him to give her the phones back and leave because she didn’t feel safe, but he refused. She then drove to a nearby RaceTrac and called 911 from there.
Responding deputies found she had visible injuries, including swelling on her upper-lip area and red-colored bruising on her neck, the affidavit said. She also told deputies Ramirez had spit on her and threw her phone at her the previous day, striking her in the leg. She completed a domestic violence lethality assessment, which indicated that she was in a potentially lethal situation, the affidavit said.
The girlfriend told deputies she is not willing to prosecute Ramirez, according to the affidavit. He was in custody at the Orange County Jail as of Thursday afternoon, records show.
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