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Bailiff arrested on abuse charge

He is accused of hitting and choking his 16-year-old son in a Sunday incident over the boy's use of the telephone.

By COLLEEN JENKINS
Published November 30, 2005

NEW PORT RICHEY - The bailiff for west Pasco County's administrative judge was arrested Tuesday afternoon on a charge of felony child abuse.

Rodney C. Rupe, a Pasco sheriff's deputy, was booked into the jail and released a few hours later by Circuit Judge Stanley Mills without having to post bail.

Rupe's friends and co-workers said the incident was totally out of character for Rupe, who cares for his severely ill wife and four teenage sons with little outside help. According to the arrest report, Rupe grew angry at his 16-year-old son early Sunday morning for disobeying him and talking too late on the phone.

About 2 a.m., Rupe pushed his son, threw a phone at him, then hit him in his face, the report said. Rupe also choked him and caused his nose to bleed by ramming it with his forehead, the report said.

Rupe, 41, admitted to shaking his son and getting on top of him on his bed. But he said he did not choke him, nor did he intentionally strike his son with his forehead. He said he "lost control" during the altercation, which had escalated quickly.

"He's been trying to hold it all together," said judicial assistant Mary Bray. Rupe, who worked Tuesday, is assigned as the bailiff for Circuit Judge W. Lowell Bray, who is the husband of Mary Bray. "I think he just lost it. He couldn't handle one more thing."

Rupe's wife, Michelle, is under hospice care. She suffers from a form of multiple sclerosis in her brain and lung cancer. Rupe's oldest son, Josh, is in the Army and serving in Iraq. Mary Bray said the whole family is at wits' end, particularly Rupe.

"He's the rock," she said, crying in her office Tuesday night. "He felt it was his burden, and he had to take care of it. He didn't want to impose on anyone else."

Mills learned of Rupe's arrest about 4:45 p.m. Tuesday and held a special advisory hearing later that night. The judge said he thought a night in jail would be unsafe for Rupe, who has worked many years in law enforcement, including some time at the detention center.

Advisory hearings are usually held only once a day during normal business hours. But Mills said he didn't care if people viewed the after-hours hearing as special treatment.

"Whatever happened out there, he's still presumed to be innocent just like anybody else," Mills said, noting Rupe had undergone much more extensive background checks than most people at advisory hearings. "Why have him sit there if I could take care of it right now?"

Mills ordered Rupe to have no contact with his sons, who were removed from their home by authorities.

[Last modified November 30, 2005, 02:15:38]