By Police1 Staff
BRUSLY, La. — A high-ranking sheriff’s deputy was issued a misdemeanor summons for simple assault after he was caught on dash cam shoving another police officer for putting his wife in handcuffs.
Brusly police officer Charlie Zalfen pulled over a vehicle with only one working headlight, according to WAFB. After asking the driver to step to the rear of the vehicle, a passenger got out of the car and approached Zalfen, despite his repeated orders to stop.
“I stepped out my patrol car and the passenger met me at my driver’s side door,” Zalfen wrote in his incident report. “At this time, I informed the passenger that I was detaining her for my safety. The passenger told me she was Nancy Graham, Maj. Ronnie Graham’s wife. I attempted to place handcuffs on Mrs. Graham and Mrs. Graham pulled away. I grabbed Mrs. Graham by her left wrist and turned her around and placed the handcuffs on Mrs. Graham.”
The other two occupants of the vehicle were West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office Major Ronnie Graham’s daughter and his daughter’s boyfriend, according to the report. One of them then called Ronnie and he arrived at the scene moments later.
“What the **** you put her in handcuffs for?” asked Graham.
“Whenever she got out of her vehicle, I told her to get back in her vehicle. I don’t know this lady,” said Zalfen. “Whenever I tell her to get back in the vehicle, she needs to obey my commands. She did not. She kept coming toward my vehicle.”
When Ronnie noticed a second responding officer from Addis police department was at the scene, and tempers flared.
“Don’t sneak up on me like that,” said Graham.
“Shut up,” said Addis officer Chris Hogan.
Ronnie can then be seen on dash cam shoving Hogan, and both on-duty officers pull out TASERs.
West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Mike Cazes arrived to deescalate the scene. He ordered Ronnie into his vehicle and explained to the two officers that Ronnie had been drinking and that it was best to clear the scene, according to the report.
Cazes said there is an internal affairs investigation into the matter and the administrative action, if any, will reflect the results of that investigation.