What started as a fight between Gregory Wright and his girlfriend over a cat sleeping in the bed the evening of Dec. 17 escalated into physical violence, cops showing up, Wright fleeing as a cop tried to Taser him and a fruitless K-9 and helicopter chase around and over the Mondex, finally ending with Wright’s arrest on Tuesday after another brief pursuit, not far from Bunnell’s Beer House.
Wright, 48, who’s been jailed five times in Flagler County since 2008 on a variety of charges–including criminal violation of injunction, probation violation, disorderly conduct, trespassing, several cases of domestic violence and grand theft–now faces a half dozen new charges, including two assault charges, two resisting arrest charges, false imprisonment and probation violation. He’s currently at the Flagler County jail without bond.
A Flagler County Sheriff’s Office deputy was dispatched to 5607 Cypress Street in the Mondex, or Daytona North, just before 9 p.m. on Dec. 17. A 55-year-old woman who identified herself as Wright’s girlfriend was at a neighbor’s house, worried for her son’s safety and her own. “Cant’ deal with this anymore,” she told the deputy as she cried, “I can’t keep getting beat.”
The incident with the cat was not the half of it. That had happened on Dec. 17, when the cat was lying in bed and Wright complained that he didn’t want it there because of dander, but then turned his anger on his girlfriend, allegedly running after her and threatening to kill her. A day earlier, the woman told deputies, he had grabbed her by the arm and slapped her in the side of the head, according to a police report. Deputies noticed large black and blue marks on her upper right arm and black marks on the wall in the bedroom of the Cypress Avenue home. The woman said it was the result of Wright throwing her around and her feet hitting the wall. “She advised,” a police report states, “Gregory grabbed her by her ankles and threw her around. She was complaining of ankle and hip pain.”
On Dec. 15, the woman claimed, Wright held her in the house and wouldn’t let her out, slapping her repeatedly against the head and temple. Nor would he let her use the phone, she said. A neighbor told police that the fighting in the house was frequent, describing Wright as a heavy drinker who “flips out” for no reason at times, according to the police report. The neighbor, too, told police that he “can’t take this anymore.”
When deputies asked Wright about the incident, he denied touching his girlfriend or threatening her. He was told he was being placed under arrest and instructed to turn around and place his hands behind his back. “He didn’t comply,” a deputy’s report states. “I can’t go back to prison. Fuck this,” he yelled, then fled toward the back of the house. A deputy took out his Taser but missed, then ran after him but lost sight of Wright, who’d jumped over a fence in the back yard.
A K-9 unit and a search helicopter proved unsuccessful.
Tuesday evening around 7, tipped off by Crime Stoppers, Sgt. Michael Fink, deputy James Kaphan, one other deputy and two Bunnell police officers converged on the Beer House in Bunnell. Half the group went into the bar, the other half positioned itself outside, only to see Wright walk toward another business in the area. He was ordered to stop. He ran. And kept running until he was subdued by a K-9 in the woods near Hardy Street and Second Avenue. The police dog bit him in his lower left leg.
He was taken to jail. Last June he’d been placed on probation, with a release date of Dec. 7, 2013.
Sandra Reynolds via Facebook says
Love me, LOve my cat!
palmcoaster says
How many more times this dude is going to be let go with a slap in the wrist by our Flagler County Court judges?
NortonSmitty says
There has to be something we can do with this type of person besides waste $75,000 every year to put him in jail.
Every society since time began has had people like this among them. Troubled souls who are having problems with their family, job, neighbors, life in general. Most of us have been there at some point in our lives and rebounded in a short time to have a normal existence. Some have problems that last longer, but rebound with little damage to their lives. Others self destruct and go down in flames, Finiti.
But mostly there is the consistent, eternal and inescapable presence of this guy. Not a criminal, but not dangerous. Not productive, but not a major drain on our little community. A common, universal and familiar pain in the ass who’s only redeeming social quality is sometime he gives us a laugh. Until he marries your sister.
From time immemorial and all across this accursed blue marble they inevitably find a way to lower our expectations of the innate nobility of our fellow man. in all the languages they are awarded names like Putz, reprobate, poltroon, hobo, clown, republican and the basic and inelegant term, loser.
These carbuncles on the ass of Humanity have always been a millstone around the neck of every society from the Romans to the Russians, Italians to the Indians, Polish to the UnPolished and they will curse us all for eternity. If God doesn’t like stupid, why did he make so many of these guys? They have to be here to teach us something. Tolerance? Patience? Self-Restraint? I don’t know, but they have to have some purpose. And it ain’t creating jobs in Florida as prison guards.
Palmcoaster, The reason he keeps walking is the Judge doesn’t have the option to give him the wake up he needs. Up until the last twenty years or so, when they stepped over the minor line, they would get 30 days. Sixty or ninety the next time. The guy would usually get a taste of Baloney and beans and reform, or go hardcore and get put away. With the mandatory sentencing guidelines, it’s different today. The only thing a Judge can do is give him a felony, which is a minimum of 1 year, usually 5. For things that used to be minor infractions. I bet this guy skated because the Judge figured he didn’t quite deserve this amount of time, so he never learned his lesson.
But he will now. Wounds on his wife, fleeing (and making the Deputy look bad by missing him with the Taser), The expense of a Helicopter and dogs, he’s graduated to a whole new level. I’ll take 7 to 10 years on the sentencing pool.
But there are a lot more of his kind we can watch and laugh and marvel at their level of incompetence at maneuvering their way through the obstacle course and peripheral minefield that is life in the 21st Century.
I read something a long time ago that gave me a reason to tolerate and understand my brothers and sisters who have a more difficult time navigating their course through life without stepping on my toes. Here’s what I remember of it:
If it were not for the presence of the unwashed and half-educated,
The formless, queer and incomplete,
The unreasonable and the absurd.
All of the infinite variations of the delightful Human Tadpole,
The Horizon would not wear so wide a grin.
Happy Holidays.
John C says
This is good police work…..get more! clean this town up!
dave says
I loved the part where his girfriend says she can not take it more , I can not understand why she would still be in the same house with him in the first place, there is no way its about love because no one beats someone they love nor does anyone stay where they will be beaten inches away from their life , this story is going to have a headline ending with her dead one day and him back in prison , We have all seen it way too many times.
Jenn says
One of this man’s past girlfriends is a long time family friend of mine and he always beat her up for no reason too! I’m just glad that she got away from him before it was too late for her. Obviously he will never change and hopefully his current girlfriend will wisen up and stay away from him too before someone does get killed as a result of his violent temper!!
Liana G says
Dallas Darling aka Beverly Darling writes very insightful and thought provoking articles…
The Weaker Sex and Army of One
http://article.wn.com/view/2011/12/22/The_Weaker_Sex_and_Army_of_One/
…”Do male Armies of One, individual or collective, that beat and kill women and produce widows, whether in New York, Egypt or Iraq [or FL], have a cruel and twisted primordial urge? Maybe they violently resent that women are primarily responsible for the continuance of humankind and its political and economical livelihood or that women are of immeasurable worth and hold a kind of divine status and knowledge. The psychologically and emotionally weak resort to war and bloodshed. Seldom is this observed among women.
Until the weaker sex, or men, give birth too, it would be wise to heed this ancient truth: “Where women, verily, are honoured, there the gods rejoice; where, however, they are not honoured, there all sacred rights prove fruitless.”(4) ”
((4) Manu-smriti. “The Sacred Law.” (1 B.C.E.) )
BONNIE says
Lock him up and throw away the key.
Catlover says
I love cats. Add a little Thai peppers and some sprouts and MMMMmmmmmm !
Bob says
Alot of these small time criminal now living in Daytona North are from the Daytona Beach beashside, they used to live in the old motels and run down apartments, Daytona Beach lost 5000 units in the last 7 years. So now they live in section 8 homes in Daytona North. Daytona North crime rates keep going up, and will keep getting worse as investors buy vacant homes, and rent them out without doing background checks.
NortonSmitty says
So when we chase them out of there, where will the poor downtrodden bastards go then? Somewhere where they can get a job?
Outsider says
Not in this case Bob….been here since ’86 and he was hanging around in the Hammock then.
beth says
this is a waste of taxpayers money keep him locked up its where he belongs this is the meaning of waste product hopefully Judge Atack wont be sleeping through this trial
the real criminals go free and the poor working people get screwed