From the Harford County Sheriff’s Office:
A Harford County Sheriff’s Office Correctional Deputy has been arrested and charged with first and second degree assault following a domestic incident.
Senior Deputy Michael Vasiliou, a forty year-old male Correctional Deputy assigned to the Harford County Detention Center Interagency Processing Center, was arrested on March 14, 2017, at approximately1:30 a.m.
Deputies from the Harford County Sheriff’s Office’s Domestic Violence Unit and Office of Professional Standards have initiated parallel investigations into the incident. Vasiliou, who was hired in 2005, was suspended from duty without pay following a suspension hearing. Additionally, Vasiliou’s correctional powers will remain suspended while the internal and criminal investigations remain active. The outcome of the criminal prosecution and/or the internal investigation could result in Vasiliou’s termination from employment with the agency.
Deputies assigned to the Northern Precinct were dispatched to the residence of Vasiliou’s wife on March 13, at approximately 10:44 p.m. Upon arrival, deputies were advised of an altercation between Vasiliou and his estranged wife that began in a vehicle earlier that evening. While the argument began as verbal only, it quickly escalated and resulted in the suspect displaying a personally owned handgun and striking the victim in the head, causing injury. Three children were present in the vehicle at the time of the incident, but were not physically harmed nor threatened.
Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler will not discuss the incident further as he does not want to jeopardize the integrity of the administrative or criminal investigations. He did offer the following, “At this time, our focus is on the victim and children, their safety and well-being is of great importance to me. I was deeply disappointed to hear of the alleged actions of our Correctional Deputy.” Sheriff Gahler continued, “As Sheriff, I firmly believe the community we serve deserves transparency and accountability and the actions taken in this case demonstrate our deep commitment to earn and maintain our community’s trust.”
Vasiliou was arrested at a residence in Bel Air without incident and taken to the Harford County Detention Center for processing. After meeting with a District Court Commissioner for his initial appearance, he was released on his own recognizance.
The Harford County Sheriff’s Office holds its employees to the highest standards and will thoroughly investigate all allegations of misconduct, remaining vigilant to insure our efforts are professional and meet the high standards the public has come to expect from our deputies.
The acts alleged are not reflective of the hard work and dedication of the men & women of the Harford County Sheriff’s Office. Members of the public are reminded the defendant is presumed innocent of the charges and it will be the government’s burden to prove the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.
I’m sure the NRA will say he has a 2nd amendment right to carry, despite what he is alleged to have done.
Lol. I’m pretty sure you’re trolling comment makes no sense.
No gun rights organization or even a reasonable person would ever be for another person to “carry” much less “possess” a firearm when their legal means of possession is suspended either temporary or permanently by disqualifying crimes.
The NRA cares only about people carrying guns. An NRA member friend told me they care about one single issue: people being able to carry guns anytime/amywhere/anyplace. All else doesn’t matter to them.
Makes sense. Now I understand why the Harford county sheriffs department takes domestic violence so lightly. I am speaking as a victim who the Harford county sheriffs did not help many years ago. Unfortunately they fail to help most victims in our county.
What about the article leads you to believe that the Sheriff’s Office takes domestic violence lightly?
Like I said the fact that I’ve experienced myself with this county as well as countless other young women. I’m happy for you that you have never lived through that nightmare but that man’s job is to protect people against monsters like himself. But see there’s the issue, who protects you when the protector is in fact a monster himself? This county needs to crack down on domestic violence and an example needs to made of him.
You are avoiding the real question. You stated that now it makes sense (meaning the article) that the Harford County Sheriff’s Office takes Domestic Violence lightly. There is nothing in the article that I read which would give that impression.
The suspect in this incident should be treated fairly in the judicial system by following the facts wherever the facts lead. He should not be treated any differently than anyone else in the judicial system. The fact that he is a HCSO Deputy will carry additional possible administrative sanctions up to and including loss of employment. According to the article the Deputy is currently suspended without pay.
In an ideal world, but we don’t live in one. Must be nice to pretend you are so in the know.
Pretend? If you don’t agree with my comments please share what you believe will be the outcome of this incident.
You were probably right when Banes was sheriff but I know I read that Sheriff Gahler fixed that problem when he took over. This is proof of the improvement.
@Reagan,
Here is the article about sheriff gahler updating the response to domestic violence incidents:
http://www.daggerpress.com/2015/06/11/harford-county-sheriff-gahler-announces-new-policies-on-domestic-violence-incidents/
Deputy was arrested and charged with first and second degree assault. Deputy released on own recognizance. No bail for an alleged assault. Average citizen would automatically be put on pre-trial detention or cash bail. Support bail reform for average citizens. Call your local Republican state rep.Harford Repubs automatically oppose bail reform. Lisanti (D-34) supports bail reform.
If bail reform means taking bail out of the private sector, then placing it in the hands of the Maryland Judiciary, then I oppose. The Maryland Judicial system is corrupt and that is all I will point out about that, until someone provokes me of course…..
not true. Domestic violence – you can be arrested for even if the other party has red skin. Its unfair. They do release you on your own. The laws are their to protect the victims, but so many use the laws to lock up innocent people.
Blue Lives Matter?….Nah
The bail bond agent doesn’t care about “justice for all” They are interested in turning a high profit over the lives of the poor. If we are all innocent til proven guilty then flight-risk and felony violence should be only grounds for setting cash bail
http://wapo.st/2fNt2jD
http://wapo.st/2lb9tqc
http://wapo.st/2m1QCzG
In order for bail bond agents to turn high profits, it took total cooperation from the courts at all ends as well. The courts had no problem in the past setting high bonds on defendants as long as the persons getting the money were “friends” of the courts. Before I was in the bail bond racket, bail agents were actually considered “officers of the court”. Most bail bondsmen were in areas where the Judges and Commissioners were actually “friends” and those same Judges and Commissioners went thru great lengths to ensure that their “friends” were the ones who received most of the business by preventing other bail agents from soliciting business in another agents area. This created corruption as members of the Courts and POLICE were getting paid by the bail agents in the form of favors, donations, goods and cold hard cash. Make no mistake about it, bail agents were making high profits, however most of the money was made off of good hard working individuals that could afford bail. If you were poor you couldn’t get out and your rights were violated. The courts and police were not only rewarded with the “favors” they received, but had an agent that did not have to follow the LEO norms to apprehend the defendants that skipped and then received large chunks of money for the defendants agents could not produce in time for court. Then came the idea of financing the bail fee in payments. Poorer people could get out and would pay the fees in increments that they could afford. This degenerated the industry from a racket to a system of money laundering organizations that were bailing people out of jail, not making defendants pay the fee and then using drug money proceeds to cover the fees while washing this money clean into a perfectly laundered little nest egg. All this took the cooperation of the entire Criminal Justice System and anyone who thinks differently is either naïve or foolish. Yes, bail was being used as a form of pre-trial punishment by the system and the idea that bail was to guarantee a court appearance of a defendant due to flight risk had long been thrown out the window. The garbage you have cited from the Washington Post is complete and utter nonsense as the bail system was always all about who could afford to be free and screw the poor. This system was instated since the inception of this country’s legal system and should tell you exactly what this country’s legal system has always been about. So don’t just blame the bail agents, blame the entire Criminal Justice System who took a very active role in the financial interests of those bail agents. Remember, it was always those court commissioners and the judges whom ruled those commissioners, that set all those expensive bails to make the bail agents rich in the first place…..
Justice?…in the United States? I know you can buy justice, if you have enough money? I know you can get revenge if you payoff the right authority!… Anyone who thinks you can get real justice in the USA in a fucking fool, a stupid fucking fool! Money will buy you whatever you want in any country but especially in the united states of american scum.