Jacksonville County Sheriff's Office (JSO) Deputy Michael Russell was arrested today for battery on a public or private education employee for allegedly punching a referee during a children's soccer game at Losco Regional Park in Jacksonville on Saturday. Russell was released and probably placed on leave.
You can listen to JSO Sheriff TK Waters describe Russell's crime in the video below. A fight allegedly broke out between two teams and referees moved in to break it up. Several parents including Russell came onto the field presumably to help break up the fight at which point Sheriff Waters said, "Sgt. Russell walked onto the field toward one of the referees and Sgt. Russell struck that referee in the face knocking the whistle out of his mouth."
Sgt. Russell was employed as a homicide detective at the time of his arrest. He has been with the JSO since 2008. We have no idea how many unsolved murders must now be assigned to new deputies.
According to Sheriff Waters, Russell is the second JSO deputy to be arrested this year. We have noticed people post stories on this site about JSO deputies getting arrested multiple times in recent years.
According to public records, Michael James Russell is a 46 year old resident of St. Johns, Florida. He is a registered Republican linked to the email address michael.russell[at]jaxsheriff.org.