ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – An Osceola County deputy accused of using a Taser at a gas station and setting a man on fire was back in court Friday for closing arguments.
Deputy David Crawford was charged with culpable negligence in the incident, which occurred in 2022 at a Wawa on Central Florida Parkway. Crawford and other deputies had followed 26-year-old Jean Baretto-Baerga through Osceola County to the Wawa because he was allegedly driving his motorcycle recklessly.
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Prosecutor Ryan Williams said Friday during the state’s closing that Crawford inflicted personal injury on Jean Baretto-Baerga.
“Crawford picks up the weapon, transfers it to dominant hand, and says he is going to use it,” Williams said. “Overwhelming evidence shows Crawford discharged the Taser that injured Jean Baretto.”
Williams added that the incident “never needed to happen. It happened because (Crawford) was reckless with the safety of others.
“(The defense is) going to argue that law permits what he did in the circumstance because he was making an arrest. That ability and right has limits. Law enforcement cannot just go headlong and use any force they wish, (they) must be reasonable under the circumstances.”
Crawford took the stand on Thursday as the defense presented its case. His own body-worn camera footage had been played in the courtroom in the days leading up to his account of what happened.
Crawford maintained that the Taser accidentally went off and that the situation escalated because Baretto-Baerga resisted arrest. The defense also raised questions of whether the motorcycle could have started the fire instead.
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Prosecutors rested their case Wednesday in the Orange County courtroom, trying to prove that Crawford knew the danger of the gasoline that had spilled around them yet deployed the Taser anyway on Baretto-Baerga.
Jurors on Tuesday watched dramatic body-worn camera footage showing the moments the Taser was deployed near the spilled gasoline. The fire burned both Crawford and Baretto-Baerga, the latter extensively.
Crawford faces up to one year behind bars or a fine if he is convicted on a charge of culpable negligence.
ClickOrlando.com will stream the trial live at the top of this story.
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