A Sanford man arrested after a traffic crash in DeLand allegedly tried to buy his way out of jail, first offering a sheriff's deputy $500 and then his entire $1,990 cash stash to let him go free. Instead, 52-year-old Ronald Duke Jr. is now facing a felony bribery charge on top of the misdemeanors that landed him in custody in the first place.
According to court records cited by the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Duke was involved in a crash near the intersection of North Woodland Boulevard and North Spring Garden Avenue in the DeLand area at approximately 4:07 p.m. on Tuesday. He was taken to a medical facility for evaluation and medically cleared at HCA Florida West Volusia emergency facility in south DeLand before being arrested and charged with driving without a driver's license and resisting arrest without violence. Volusia Sheriff's Office activity logs, which document daily arrests across the agency's patrol districts, list the case under Case #260021536 and note Deputy Mswia's involvement in the booking.
Cash Offers Caught on Body Camera
As a deputy transported Duke to the Volusia County Branch Jail, he repeatedly attempted to persuade the deputy to release him, according to an arrest report cited by the News-Journal. Duke, who had $1,990 in cash on him at the time of his arrest, offered the deputy $500 during the ride, telling him, “it's a tip.” Court records indicate he then upped the offer to all of the cash he was carrying if the deputy would simply let him leave.
The deputy's body-worn camera captured the exchange, and the deputy wrote in the report that Duke knew the action was unlawful even as he tried to characterize it as a tip. The DeLand Police Department equipped its officers with 59 Axon Body 2 cameras in 2018, and footage from the program can be used as evidence, according to the Volusia Sheriff's Office.
Bond Jumps From $750 to $5,000
Duke was initially released Tuesday on a $750 bond tied to the driving and resisting charges. But he was rearrested Wednesday after the sheriff's office added the bribery charge, and he remained in custody as of Thursday on a $5,000 bond. Under Florida's uniform statewide bond rules, judges retain authority to adjust preset bail amounts when new felony charges are filed, per the Thompson Law, P.A. That bump reflects the new felony exposure Duke faces beyond his original traffic-stop misdemeanors.
Florida law mandates that arrestees receive a First Appearance hearing within 24 hours of booking, where a judge reviews charges and can adjust bail — a process that explains the rapid shift in Duke's bond conditions, according to the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court of Florida. The Volusia County Branch Jail, located at 1300 Red John Drive in Daytona Beach, also enforces a rule barring inmate releases between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., a constraint that can affect how quickly someone in Duke's position is processed out, per Daytona Bail Bonds.
What Bribery Charges Could Mean for Duke
The gap between Duke's original charges and his new one is stark. Driving without a valid license is a second-degree misdemeanor carrying up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine for a first offense, and resisting without violence is a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in county jail and a $1,000 fine, according to Musca Law. Bribery is an entirely different category of crime.
Under Florida Statute § 838.015, bribing a law enforcement officer or public official is a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in state prison and a $10,000 fine, the Sammis Law Firm notes. The sentence Duke might receive if convicted is not yet known.
What Bribery Charges Could Mean for Duke The next steps in Duke's case remain unclear: whether he has entered a formal plea, and whether his defense will challenge the context of the statements captured on the deputy's body camera during the ride to jail.
