POMPANO BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - Police said the Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy they arrested in connection to a hit-and-run, Monday night, has been transported to a nearby hospital after being Baker Acted.
BSO Road Patrol Deputy Santiago Mayorga, 22, allegedly side-swiped a car on Copans Road in Pompano Beach with his BSO-issued Ford Crown Victoria. “The next thing I knew, I was being slammed from behind,” said Penny Reynolds, the driver who was allegedly struck, “and then the car moved two lanes over, and I saw it was a BSO Sheriff’s deputy car, so I was like, ‘You’re kidding me.'”
Police said Mayorga failed to stop and continued eastbound.
Reynolds said she followed the officer in her vehicle to Northeas fifth Avenue, where she identified the car’s unit number. “I got up behind him, and we went through a couple green lights, and he wasn’t stopping, no brakes, no lights, no nothing. I did see taillights at that point on his car.”
Police said investigators found the deputy later that night at his Pompano Beach home, where they saw drug paraphernalia and a substance believed to be marijuana. Mayorga, off duty at the time, told the investigators he had returned home from a friend’s house.
Police said officers from the BSO Public Corruption Unit, Internal Affairs and Traffic Homicide Investigators found a bag of marijuana in the home, a marijuana grinder in his marked car, marijuana residue in the car’s center console and a cigarette wrapper with an unknown substance on it.
The arrest affidavit said investigators found approximately 21 grams of marijuana, six grams of Adderall and 10 hits of LSD, all of which were on top of the suspect’s passport.
Investigators said Mayorga admitted all the narcotics found in his house belonged to him. He faces charges of possession of amphetamine, possession of LSD, possession and use of drug paraphernalia, possession of cannabis over 20 grams, leaving the scene of a crash and failing to use due care.
Mayorga was later Baker Acted after reportedly saying something in jail that prompted police to send him away for evaluation.
Mayorga has been suspended with pay and relieved of his badge, BSO ID card and BSO vehicle, police said. Mayorga has only been with the department for a little more than a year.
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