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Man Who Complained About Deputy Held

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By VALERIE KALFRIN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 15, 2008

TAMPA - A man who last month accused a Hillsborough County sheriff's deputy of roughing him up while he was trying to comfort his girlfriend has been charged with felony domestic violence, records show.

Robert Kehr-Orzechowski, 31, said that Deputy Kevin Stabins unnecessarily arrested him on a misdemeanor charge of resisting an officer without violence Dec. 30 after the man reported his girlfriend had been raped and tried to return to her side.

Sunday, deputies encountered Kehr-Orzechowski again, this time charging him with felony domestic violence by strangulation and misdemeanor domestic battery, saying he choked his girlfriend of four months, slapped her and grabbed her by the hair, records show.

The sheriff's office has not determined whether to open a formal investigation into the man's accusations from December, agency spokesman J.D. Callaway said Monday.

However, Callaway said the recent arrest "can speak volumes about him and maybe shed some light on what happened that evening when he complained on our deputy."

Although the incidents are not related, "for an individual who claimed he was trying to console his girlfriend in December, this is a 180-degree turn," Callaway said.

Kehr-Orzechowski was being held at Orient Road Jail on $5,000 bail Monday.

According to an affidavit, he choked his girlfriend during an argument about 10:40 p.m. Saturday while driving in their vehicle.

After they returned to the North Manhattan Avenue apartment where they have lived for about four months, Kehr-Orzechowski grabbed the woman around her face and neck, forced her onto the bed and slapped her, the affidavit states.

When she ran outside, he grabbed her by her hair, the document states.

The sheriff's office has not identified the girlfriend because she is the subject of an investigation by Tampa police into a report of sexual battery.

On Dec. 30, Kehr-Orzechowski and his girlfriend were celebrating his birthday at MacDinton's pub in South Tampa when he decided to walk to Whiskey SoHo to use the restroom, Kehr-Orzechowski said in a previous interview.

His girlfriend walked to their car alone, phoning him several hours later to say she had been raped, Kehr-Orzechowski said.

According to Kehr-Orzechowski, he drove to their apartment and called 911, then flagged down Stabins' patrol car in the parking lot.

In the arrest report, Stabins said he told Kehr-Orzechowski to remain outside so he could talk to the woman alone, but Kehr-Orzechowski tried to push past him to enter the apartment.

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.

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