St. Johns County to pay $6.3M for deputy’s crash

Five years ago, St. Augustine resident Julia Perez was on her motorcycle when a St. Johns County sheriff’s deputy hit her and her husband. Perez was on a motorcycle and her husband, Thomas Eiland, was on a bicycle.

The two were wearing helmets and had the right of way, but Deputy Brandon Hetzler was answering a phone call and made a left turn into the two. The crash left Perez unconscious on a ventilator for three months and, when she came to, disabled with a traumatic brain injury and kidney failure.

The crash occurred in 2019, and the St. Johns County Commission on Tuesday approved the payment of $6.3 million from the county coffers to Perez. The payment came after the Florida Legislature ordered the county to pay up .

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last month signed into law an order for the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office to compensate Perez the $6.3 million to pay for “the injuries and damages she sustained due to the negligence of an employee of the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office.”

Hetzler, who had been a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office for just one year when he hit Perez and Eiland with his police cruiser, is still employed with the Sheriff’s Office.

The measure garnered no discussion by the County Commission but was approved unanimously Tuesday.

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