Warrick County Sheriff's Office deputy arrested, accused of rape
EVANSVILLE – Evansville police arrested a Warrick County Sheriff's deputy Tuesday afternoon on two preliminary charges of rape after a woman said he sexually assaulted her in the backseat of a vehicle.
The deputy, Jarred Vance Stuckey, was booked into the Vanderburgh County jail just after 5 p.m. Tuesday, a jail official told the Courier & Press. Stuckey was promptly released that evening after he posted a $9,945 cash bond, court records show.
Evansville Police Department Detective Rob Waller, who filed a sworn affidavit against Stuckey, said there is probable cause to charge the deputy with Level-1 felony rape and Level-3 felony rape.
Vanderburgh County prosecutors have until Dec. 12 to file formal charges.
According to detective Waller, a woman accused Stuckey of sexually assaulting her in early December after the pair met up near a Comfort Inn hotel on Evansville's East Side. What initially began as consensual kissing escalated to sexual assault, the woman reportedly told detectives, when Stuckey became aggressive and demanded she "comply" with his advances.
Waller said the assault occurred inside a vehicle and lasted for at least 90 minutes.
According to the affidavit, the victim told Stuckey "no" multiple times and said Stuckey bit and choked her – at times hard enough to make her feel as though she would "pass out."
The woman reportedly told detectives she's known Stuckey for years. They had previously exchanged numbers, the affidavit states, and the victim had expressed a romantic interest in Stuckey prior to the incident.
During a police interrogation, Waller said Stuckey at first claimed he was unable to remember anything about the alleged assault. Later, the deputy would acknowledge that he had in fact kissed the victim, Waller said, but he denied ever assaulting her.
"He had a lot of contradictions (in) his story during the interview," Waller wrote in the affidavit. "He finally stated he believed everything was consensual..."
Deputy placed on "administrative leave"
It was not immediately clear when, or how, Stuckey secured a bond hearing Tuesday evening.
According to court documents, Vanderburgh County Superior Court Judge Robert J. Pigman ordered Stuckey to be held in the jail until Wednesday, when Stuckey could appear for a "regularly scheduled" court hearing.
A staffer in Pigman's office said that is typically what happens when police arrest a defendant on felony charges after the courts close – they are held without bond until their initial hearing the following day.
Despite the written order from Pigman stating Stuckey should be held in the jail until Wednesday morning, booking records marked the deputy as "released" just hours after his Tuesday evening arrest.
Warrick County Sheriff Mike Wilder said in a Tuesday evening news release that he was aware of the case and had placed Stuckey on administrative leave.
"Sheriff Mike Wilder contacted deputy Stuckey this afternoon and placed him on administrative leave pending an internal investigation," the news release states. "Sheriff Wilder is disturbed by these allegations but will have no further comment pending the outcome of the internal investigation."
Houston Harwood can be contacted at walter.harwood@courierpress.com with story ideas and questions. Twitter: @houston_whh
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Warrick County Sheriff's Office deputy arrested, accused of rape
