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Brawl involving deputies probed
By JAMIE JONES SPRING HILL -- Deputies came by the dozens to the Palace Grand for the Hernando County Sheriff's Office Christmas party Saturday night. They mingled in the sand-colored labyrinth of dance floors and banquet halls. About 11:30 p.m., a group of officers and their dates headed to the Flamingo's bar, where they swayed on the dance floor to the music. Nearby, Beverly Hills resident Brian Templeton sat at a table. The 30-year-old father of three had driven from Citrus County on Saturday night to show off the area to two friends who had recently moved to Citrus from Oregon. Templeton said he was sipping his second mai tai when he saw several men on the dance floor start fighting with his friend, Steven Bowen. Templeton rose. What happened next is not clear. The off-duty deputies say one of the men made rude comments to their wives, which prompted an argument that ended with Templeton smashing a beer bottle in an off-duty officer's face. Templeton says he threw a punch, not a bottle, before he was pushed to the ground, handcuffed and kicked repeatedly by officers. What is clear is that Templeton of 9 N Wadsworth Ave. spent Saturday night in the Hernando County Jail, where he was charged with aggravated battery and held in lieu of $5,000 bail. His friends bailed him out Sunday. Hernando County Sheriff Richard Nugent on Monday ordered an internal affairs investigation into the incident to learn exactly what happened and whether his officers acted properly. He declined to discuss the fight. Lt. Mike Owens, 41, said Bowen was drunk and rude to the women on the dance floor. Owens, who has been with the Sheriff's Office since 1986, said he asked Bowen to leave the group alone, but that Bowen shoved him. He said Templeton came over and hit him in the face with a glass bottle, and that several off-duty officers shoved Bowen away and tackled Templeton. Deputy Carlo Daleo, 28, was involved in the scuffle and gave the same account. In an interview Tuesday, Templeton said he saw about six men hitting Bowen. He said he got up and tried to punch one of them. He said the deputies attacked him and that he remembers hearing someone yell, "deputy sheriff," and he thought, "Thank God, the Sheriff's Office is here." "I didn't know they were police officers," said Templeton, a Florida Power employee and 20-year Citrus County resident. "I was lying there taking the hits, praying for it to be over. All I was doing was trying to help my friend." Templeton said he blacked out while lying on the ground and does not remember the ride to the jail. He said he woke up, confused, in a cell at 3 a.m. He said he had had two beers and two liquor drinks in almost three hours at the bar. Sheriff's Lt. Joe Paez said he could not comment on whether the off-duty officers had been drinking, because of the investigation. Templeton said he did not know whether his friend said something inappropriate to the women. The third man in their group, Jerry Mendenhall, told authorities he heard someone tell Bowen to "stop harassing the girls." Templeton said he went to the hospital Sunday and is recovering from a swollen eye, cuts and bruises, and said he has missed two days of work to recover. Paez said one of the officers also looked battered. Templeton is scheduled to meet with the sheriff today and hopes the charges against him will be dropped. The Crystal River High School graduate said he's confident other witnesses at the bar will come forward to debunk the deputies' story about the beer bottle, which he says is false. "I regret jumping up now," Templeton said Tuesday. "But when you see someone beating up your friend, you just don't think too clearly." -- Staff writer Carrie Johnson contributed to this report.
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