Sheriff: Deputy Sent Pictures of Suicide Victim to His Ex-Girlfriend

Exchanging heated words or angry glances with an ex is pretty much par for the course following a breakup. Sending pictures of a dead body fresh from a crime scene, however, is not typical breakup behavior.

That, however, is what the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office says happened recently with one of its own deputies. That deputy decided to reach out to his ex-girlfriend, in the middle of a shift, by sending her graphic photos from a crime scene.

That deputy has since been arrested and is in the process of being relieved of duty, the sheriff’s office reported in an email to media Friday.

The case against Austin Douglas, 29, began to unfold just before 11 p.m. Feb. 19 when he was working a suicide scene on Richwood Lane in Port Richey. Douglas, an arrest report states, took photos of the victim on his cellphone and sent them to his ex-girlfriend’s phone.

See Also:

• Man Delivers Dead Body to Lawyer’s Office
• Pasco Arrests, Fires 2nd Deputy in 2 Weeks

The ex-girlfriend, the arrest report states, didn’t ask for nor did she want to see the pictures.

When questioned before arrest why he would do such a thing, Douglas told investigators “he was having a bad weekend,” according to the report.

That bad weekend has cost him his job and a third-degree felony charge of a custodian providing an unauthorized photograph, video or audio recording that depicts or records the killing of a person.

Douglas was booked into the Land O’ Lakes Jail Thursday. He was later released in lieu of $5,000 bond, jail records indicate.

Douglas had been a Pasco deputy since May 2006.

Booking photo courtesy of the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office

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