Palm Coast’s Michael Bruns, 27, Jailed on Accusation of Rape; Posts Bail on $150,000 Bond

According to his arrest report, the incident dates back to the night of Dec. 19 at the home he shares with his wife and their children, who were asleep at the time. The victim reported the couple had been in an argument when Bruns began damaging several items in the house and demanding sex. The victim refused because she was afraid of him–she was clearly traumatized, as she herself described the incident in a statement seeking an injunction for protection against domestic violence: the description of the incident reflects a intensity of violence and harassment well before the physical assault.

The couple had been arguing for weeks, and Bruns, according to the victim–and to Bruns’s record–had had “issues with alcohol for years.” Bruns allegedly punched a hole in the bathroom door and berated her, accusing her of not being a good wife and demanding “love and affection.” After he knocked a bookshelf down, she told him to stop and that she was scared of him. He continued to yell and allegedly told her he would give her something to be scared of. According to her account, reproduced in his arrest report, he left the room, returned, still yelling, threw a chair across the floor and threw a beer bottle against the wall near the bed, sending shards all over the floor.

She was begging him to stop, telling him she’d do whatever he wanted if only he stopped. “You’re right, you’ll do whatever I want,” he told her, then allegedly assaulted her while she was in bed, forcing himself on her, before stating: “This isn’t fun, I’m raping you.” He then left the room and slept on the couch.

The next morning Bruns texted the victim his apologies: “I hurt you a lot last night and I was so hurt I couldn’t control my emotions they just spilled out of [me] with rage and hurt i was ready to kill myself last night idk how we got to this point, words can’t describe how sorry I am for how I acted I had no control over myself and I’m so sorry which I know means nothing.” The text goes on as Bruns tells the victim he would grant her a divorce if she sought one.

Flagler County Sheriff’s detectives subsequently arranged for a controlled, or recorded, conversation between the victim and Bruns, when the victim, who was in tears throughout, asked Bruns why he had conducted himself the way he had–“why would you do that to me? Why would you, why would you rape me?” He proffered apologies, said he wished he had an answer, said that in that moment he had stopped caring because he felt she didn’t care how he felt. “So it’s OK for you to do that?” she asked him. “It’s ok for you to rape me because of that?” He answered no and kept apologizing.

Bruns was, in fact, arrested during an appearance before Circuit Judge Chris France on Thursday, on a domestic relations matter.

In 2010 he was charged with burglary with assault and criminal mischief. The charges were downgraded then dropped. He was charged with battery domestic violence in 2014 after he came home from drinking, urinated on the bedroom floor where his girlfriend of two years was sleeping, then allegedly threw down his girlfriend on the floor after she’d told him to clean up. He was sentenced to a year’s probation. He was found guilty of drunk driving in 2015.

He was booked at the Flagler County jail Thursday afternoon. He posted bail on $150,000 bond six hours later and was released.