A former Alachua County Sheriff’s Office deputy was accused of kidnapping and choking a woman early Friday morning.
After an evening out on Valentine’s Day at White Buffalo, at 111 S. Main St., Joseph Clayton Sperring, 29, of Gainesville, and the womanreturned to his apartment at about 2 a.m., according to a Gainesville Police sworn complaint affidavit.
Sperring accused her of cheating on him. He forced her outside the apartment while she tried getting dressed, the report said. She began walking away when Sperring chased after her and said, “You’re not f------ leaving.” He then carried her back inside.
Sperring pushed her against a wall and choked her, the report said. He took her phone and car keys and told her she couldn’t leave.
He forced her to lie in bed with him and when she tried to leave he blocked the door, threw her onto the bed and choked her, police said.
He also asked her to have sex with him and when she said no he said he would rape her, the report said. He unzipped her jeans but stopped when she told him he was making things worse.
She told police the incident lasted about six hours, the report said.
He let her leave when she gave him her mother’s address and phone number, the report said. He told her he would give her mother’s contact information to people who would kill her and her family if she told police.
The woman had bloody scratches inside her mouth on her upper lip, a bruise on her left hand, scratches on her left wrist and abrasions on her elbows, knees and right inner bicep, the report said.
Police arrested Sperring on a warrant Saturday, according to court records.
He resigned from the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office in 2017 before he could be fired after he was accused of aggravated assault earlier that year, said ACSO spokesperson Brett Rhodenizer. He was hired in 2014.
Sperring was charged with domestic battery by strangulation, simple battery, false imprisonment and delaying communication to law enforcement, according to the report.
Sperring could not be reached for comment.
He bonded out of the Alachua County Jail on a $155,000 bail Saturday.
Joseph Clayton Sperring's 2017 mugshot. His most recent mugshot was unavailable.
