ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. --
A St. Augustine city commissioner was arrested Saturday night on charges of resisting an officer without violence.
Commissioner Errol Jones was booked into the St. Johns County Jail that night.
According to a police report, St. Augustine police officers were called to investigate an assault at 60 Julia Street just before 9 p.m. Saturday.
Police said that when they arrived, a woman was crying in the driveway and said she was assaulted. The woman told police that she was in the home when another woman grabbed her by her hair and slammed her to the ground, according to the police report.
At that point, one officer said he saw a man coming out of the garage rushing toward him. He officers said he didn't recognize the man, later identified as Jones, because of a flood light over the garage that blinded his vision, according to the report.
Police told Jones to stop where he was, but Jones said, "Like hell, I'm not coming over there," according to the report.
According to the report, one officer put out his hands and told Jones to back up, and Jones then said, "Do you know who I am?" and grabbed a hold of the officer's wrist.
The officer said he pulled out his handcuffs and tried to get a cuff on Jones' wrist, but Jones began pulling away and flailing his arms, according to the report.
The officers struggled with Jones for about a minute, trying to get him to calm down and in handcuffs, according to the report. Police said Jones was intoxicated and continued being irate and saying he wasn't going to have a job next week.
Once Jones was in handcuffs, he continued saying to call the chief and that the officer was going to be fired, according to the report. Jones also continued calling the officer a rookie and threatening his career, according to the report.
Jones told Channel 4 on Monday that he didn't do anything, adding that he will fight the charge.
St. Augustine Police Chief Loren Lueders issued this statement Monday:
"The St. Augustine Police Department treats all of our citizens the same. We apply the law fairly and equally to everyone. We stand behind our officers' decisions in this situation and we believe we did not do anything wrong. I have conferred with the City Manager and I suggested to him in order to answer any concerns of our citizens, I will ask the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for an independent investigation of this incident."
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