A Florida sheriff's sergeant walked up to a 71-year-old woman at a bar Monday afternoon and tried to kiss her.
When her 77-year-old husband stood up to stop it, the sergeant grabbed him by the throat.
A bystander had to physically choke him out before it was over – and when cops arrived, the sergeant flashed his badge and said "you know who I am."
The Sergeant Who Forgot a Bar Has Security Cameras
Jason Stickels has been a Volusia County Sheriff's Office sergeant since 2004.
Twenty-two years on the job.
Monday afternoon, he walked into Merk's Bar & Grill and decided those two decades in uniform meant he could do whatever he wanted to an elderly couple trying to enjoy their afternoon.
The surveillance footage tells the whole story.
Stickels approached the couple, leaned in close to the 71-year-old woman, and tried to kiss her.
She backed away and got up from her chair.
Her husband stood up.
https://twitter.com/AmericanCrime01/status/2074328511771201724?s=20
Stickels charged him, grabbed his throat, and had to be physically removed by a stranger sitting nearby – a bystander who jumped up, wrapped his arms around Stickels from behind, and choked him to the floor.
That's who stopped this.
Not Stickels' training or judgment.
Not professional restraint built over twenty-two years in law enforcement.
A random bar patron.
Think about what that husband went through.
He watched a drunk stranger try to force himself on his wife.
He stood up – the way men of his generation were raised to stand up – and a sworn law enforcement officer put his hands around his throat for it.
And a stranger at the next table had to save them both.
Chitwood Did What Every Sheriff Should Do
When the responding officers arrived, Stickels looked at them and said "you know who I am" before flashing his badge.
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood's response was immediate and merciless.
"How to throw away your law enforcement career in 2 minutes," Chitwood posted publicly. "Off duty, stumbling drunk, harassing people who are just trying to enjoy their afternoon."
He called Stickels a "soon-to-be former Volusia Sheriff's Office sergeant."
https://twitter.com/StevenJLatham1/status/2074522575594569742?s=20
Not allegedly. Not suspended pending review. Not subject to internal investigation.
Gone.
Chitwood has done this before.
When one of his deputies was caught stealing from a DUI suspect's wallet, Chitwood called him a "thieving idiot" on camera and had his badge melted down so – in Chitwood's own words – "it can never be worn on the chest of an honest, hardworking deputy."
That's what accountability looks like.
Stickels now faces two counts of felony battery on a person 65 or older – a Florida statute carrying enhanced penalties specifically because elderly victims are more vulnerable to injury.
He's out on bond.
His law enforcement equipment has been surrendered.
His 22-year career is effectively over.
Flashing a Badge After Choking a 77-Year-Old Has a Name
Stickels didn't just assault two elderly people.
He tried to use the badge to talk his way out of it.
That phrase – "you know who I am" – is the tell.
It's the moment when a law enforcement officer stops thinking like a public servant and starts thinking like someone above the law.
https://twitter.com/JBMAGA03/status/2074590522849599841?s=20
It never works when there's video.
The surveillance cameras at Merk's Bar & Grill caught everything – the approach, the attempted kiss, the husband's intervention, the throat grab, the bystander takedown, the whole ugly sequence.
Sheriff Chitwood understood exactly what that footage meant.
He released it publicly and promised termination.
Because the alternative – defending it, burying it, letting a lawyer handle it quietly – would betray every honest cop still wearing that badge.
The couple just wanted lunch.
Florida has a sheriff who watched the tape and immediately told the truth.
That's rarer than it should be.
Sources:
- James Cirrone, "Video shows off-duty Florida sheriff's sergeant allegedly assaulting elderly couple at bar," Fox News, July 7, 2026.
- Volusia Sheriff's Office, Official Statement on Jason Stickels Arrest, July 7, 2026.
- "New sheriff in town: Volusia's Chitwood is shaking things up," Volusia Sheriff's Office News, 2017.
