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Deputy Wears Wounds Proudly

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By LISA A. DAVIS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 1, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - It's not exactly an award you'd strive to get.

If it comes, however, you embrace it.

As Pasco Detention Deputy Raymond Williamson stood next to Sheriff Bob White in front of a crowd Wednesday morning, the 23-year-old kept glancing down at the Purple Heart medal given to him.

Rarely awarded at the Pasco agency, the honor has gone to deputies seriously injured in the line of duty.

"It goes to courage. It goes to the dedication of the men and woman of the sheriff's office," White said in presenting the medal.

Williamson looked humbled when the audience filling the county commission chambers stood and roared with applause.

'I Knew I Had To Act'

On Nov. 21, an otherwise ordinary day turned into one he won't soon forget.

Williamson had instructed Rogelio Perez, who was awaiting trial on an attempted murder charge, to move from one cell at the Land O' Lakes Jail to another when the inmate suddenly attacked his cellmate. Phillup Partin had been helping Perez move from their cell when the inmate put Partin in a headlock.

"At first I was like, it's a normal inmate fight," Williamson recalled after Wednesday's quarterly awards and swearing-in ceremony.

He got closer and saw Perez stabbing Partin in the back with a black object, which turned out to be a pen, according to sheriff's officials.

"Once I seen the blood it became surreal and I knew I had to act," Williamson said.

He pepper-sprayed the inmates, separating them. Partin, since convicted of the murder charge he faced at the time, ran to the showers and hid, Williamson said.

Perez then attacked the deputy, stabbing him in the head and dislocating his left shoulder. Williamson didn't realize he was injured and continued trying to restrain the inmate.

Other deputies came to his aid, taking Perez to the ground and securing him. Partin had been stabbed a dozen times and was treated at a local hospital.

He May Need More Surgery

Williamson later learned he had torn his rotator cuff, which has required one surgery already and might need another to remove scar tissue.

Williamson is now on light duty, working in the jail's control room.

Dealing with inmates is just part of the job, he said, and he's not nervous about doing that again.

"You were actually excited to go back" to work, his wife, Rachael, a detention center corporal, said while cradling their 9-month-old son, Dallas.

Her heart stopped when she heard about her husband's injuries that fall day, she said. The couple's emotions were already taxed because Dallas was only a few months old after being born four months prematurely.

"I rather him not gotten the award and not gotten hurt," she said, looking at her son's father with pride.

Reporter Lisa A. Davis can be reached at (727) 815-1083 or ldavis@tampatrib.com.

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