VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – A former Volusia County Sheriff’s Office sergeant is charged with making false statements that ultimately led to his firing last year, according to the sheriff’s office.
Jacob Kraker, 37, was arrested Thursday by Port Orange police on a warrant for felony perjury from the sheriff’s office.
According to the arrest report, Kraker was working as a security officer at Sanctuary Westport Apartments in Port Orange on July 26, 2020 and used a chokehold on a man at the complex’s pool.
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According to the internal affairs investigation, the man was in the pool area after hours celebrating his 21st birthday with friends when Kraker approached the group to ask them to leave. The man was never arrested when Port Orange police arrived, according to the report.
The 21-year-old said he did not know Kraker, who was dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, was a sheriff’s deputy. A few minutes into the encounter Kraker did identify himself as a deputy and produced his badge but the man said he doubted the authenticity, according to the report.
Kraker told Port Orange police the 21-year-old head butted him “so I tackled him” and he complained his ribs were “killing” him after the incident, according to the IA report.
Kraker repeated multiple times that the man head-butted him and included that in his incident report, however, the encounter was recorded on surveillance video, seen above, showing that did not happen as Kraker described.
The man told investigators, “I may have touched him with my shoulder and then I was put into a very strong chokehold and I tapped out because I couldn’t breathe. Literally couldn’t breathe.”
Kraker told investigators he did not use a neck hold but video and witnesses told investigators otherwise.
According to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office general orders manual, “A neck hold is considered deadly force; VSO does not train in this technique and does not authorize its use.”
Kraker was fired by Sheriff Mike Chitwood in September 2020 after finding he violated several department policies including unlawful use of deadly force.