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Ex-deputy arrested in stalking of woman

Authorities say they saw him screaming at her while driving on the Bayside Bridge. He's been arrested twice before in incidents involving the woman.

By JACOB H. FRIES
Published May 11, 2005

CLEARWATER - A former Pinellas sheriff's deputy previously accused of beating a female companion has been arrested again on charges of battery and stalking the same woman, authorities said Wednesday.

Jeffrey McCann, 29, who had worked at the county jail for two years, stalked the woman and called her home several times in recent days, demanding that she drop the pending charges and a domestic injunction against him, according to arrest reports.

McCann, arrested Tuesday morning, faces charges of aggravated stalking, tampering with a witness/victim and battery. He was being held at the jail without bail.

The woman, who works at the jail, could not be reached for comment.

The case speaks to the vulnerability of women caught in bad relationships, said Bonnie Rosendale of Community Action Stops Abuse, a domestic violence group in St. Petersburg.

Even when a woman obtains a protective injunction, she often finds herself the victim of threats and continuing harassment, Rosendale said. "You have to wonder, "How safe is a piece of paper going to keep me if I'm a victim?' " she said.

That persistent fear and stress can manifest physically in sleepless nights, loss of appetite and headaches, Rosendale said.

"It's a kind of terrorism," she said. "It's a psychological terrorism and that is much worse than the broken bones and the black eyes. . . . The distrust, from that point on, almost never goes away."

The woman contacted authorities Saturday to report McCann's repeated phone calls, said sheriff's spokesman Mac McMullen. She called again Monday because she felt that he was following her, and detectives began to conduct surveillance, McMullen said.

On Tuesday, deputies witnessed McCann screaming at the woman while driving on the Bayside Bridge, and arrested him, McMullen said.

McCann resigned from the Sheriff's Office on March 11, in the midst of an internal investigation related to his prior arrests on Feb. 22.

He was initially arrested in the parking lot of Eric's New World Bistro at 1026 Florida Ave. in Palm Harbor, authorities said. He had choked the woman and punched her twice, in the hip and forehead, they said.

"I'll kill you if you say anything," McCann told her then, according to an arrest report.

McCann was booked at 2:53 a.m. on a misdemeanor battery charge and released at 6:04 a.m.

After posting $150 bail, McCann went to the woman's house to retrieve his bicycle and, once inside, pulled a knife on her, authorities said. He eventually left and was arrested a second time.

[Last modified May 11, 2005, 19:13:02]