SEBASTIAN – Former Indian River County Sheriff’s Deputy Steve Peek was arrested Thursday morning for two counts of lewd and lascivious battery on a child between 12-16 years old.
Peek, 46, was initially hired as a deputy by the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office on April 7, 2008, and resigned on June 6, 2014. Peek left the agency at that time to pursue another career.
In June of 2016, Peek again applied to work at the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office and was re-hired again as a deputy.
“When I learned of the criminal allegations against Peek, I terminated his employment with our agency. Detective Jeremy Shepherd obtained a warrant for Peek earlier this week and he turned himself in on those charges. He has been cooperative with our detectives throughout the investigation,” Indian River County Sheriff Deryl Loar stated.
Peek was terminated on October 28, 2016.
Last September, detectives pursued a complaint that Peek intentionally touched the victim, a step-daughter, in a lewd and lascivious manner when she was between the ages of 14 and 17 years old, according to the report.
The victim, now 20, told police that she was angry about what Peek had done to her in the past. She said Peek allegedly began touching her when she was 14 years old, and it stopped at age 17 when she started dating. She never told police because he was a deputy, and didn’t think anyone would believe her.
When they lived in Sebastian, the victim said that during her senior year of high school, she would have to allow “Steve to touch her for 10 minutes if she wanted to go out and do something,” the report states.
The victim’s current boyfriend, whom she has a baby with, saw a text message once when she was 17 years old. The message was from Peek asking the victim “for his 10 minutes.” Peek also sent another text asking her when he could see her body, according to the report.
After detectives had completed their investigation, Peek was arrested for two counts of lewd and lascivious battery on a child between 12-16 years old.
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