Suspect in that case was arrested Friday in unrelated battery charge
An Osceola County Sheriff's deputy charged with negligence in a February 2022 gas station fire started by a taser was fount not guilty Friday by an Orange County jury.
Deputy David Crawford, who was trying to arrest motorcyclist Jean Barreto-Baerga when a fire broke out at the Wawa at John Young Parkway near Central Florida Parkway when a fire broke out, was brought up on misdemeanor culpable negligence charges last year in connection with the incident. After a three-day trial and the jury deliberating much of Friday afternoon and evening, a not guilty verdict was returned.
Crawford's defense was that he believed Barreto was armed, the fire was an accident, the taser was another deputy's, and that his training dictated that firing a taser around gas was inadvisable. The trigger on the taser, Crawford and his defense said, was pulled as he tried to toss it away from Barreto and the gas pump.
In an interesting twist, Osceola County Jail records show that Barreto-Baerga was arrested Friday by the Kissimmee Police Department for aggravated battery of a pregnant person. The jail records, nor Osceola County court records, gave any details into that arrest over the weekend.
State prosecutors said Crawford's actions escalated what should have simply been a traffic stop and recklessly put more lives in danger.
In May 2022, three months after the incident, the Osceola Sheriff's Office said it was sending a charge of culpable negligence against Crawford to the State Attorney's Office after investigating it. State Attorney Monique Worrell filed the charges in May 2023.
Much of Barreto-Baerga's torso, as well as Crawford's legs and feet, were burned in the fire. No gun was found on Barreto after the incident. Barreto has not been criminally charged with any crime in Osceola County.
Prior to the Feb. 27, 2022 incident, Osceola Sheriff Marcos Lopez said his communications department received 911 calls from local drivers who said motorcyclists brandished firearms at them along John Young Parkway in Kissimmee. It's STAR helicopter unit provided footage of pursuit of a motorcyclist, later determined to be Barreto. He eluded deputies on Michigan and Donegan Avenues before fleeing northbound on Orange Blossom Trail in Orange County, running numerous red lights. The helicopter continued to follow Barreto, who eventually stopped at the Wawa for gas.
When the footage was released three months after the incident, Lopez called Barreto-Baerga's actions on the highway, "Reckless and brought danger to himself and members of the community.”
Mark NeJame and Albert Yonfa, Barreto's attorneys, have spoken in the time since the incident about filing a civil suit against Lopez and the Osceola Sheriff's Office.
