A judge issued a one-year “no hostile contact” injunction against an Orange County Sheriff’s deputy. Master Deputy Bryan Villella, 46, faces allegations that he abused his boyfriend of four years, even forcing his partner at gunpoint to clean up his own blood after one altercation. The court order allows Villella to continue to work while criminal inquiries and a sheriff’s office internal investigation are proceeding against him.
“I came here for protection, and that’s what I got,” Villella’s ex-boyfriend Angel Joel Carrion stated while leaving the courthouse with court papers in hand. “Bryan is a cheat and a liar and he needs to be stopped.”
Carrion initially filed his petition for a temporary domestic violence protection against Villella in spring 2009. According to Carrion, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office refused to launch an internal investigation at that point.
“Back in May, they were calling him one of their ‘valiant officers,’” Carrion said.
In November 2009, local news coverage revealed more of the 23-year veteran deputy’s problematic behavior. The sheriff’s office then started cooperating, according to Carrion. Carrion re-filed for protection on Feb. 18 this year. However, Judge Sally D.M. Kest—the same judge who presided over the March 2 hearing—denied the request pending this upcoming court appearance.
Captain Angelo Nieves of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office confirmed an internal investigation is also underway.
“Once the investigation has concluded, it will become a matter of public record and we can provide investigative conclusions and findings” Nieves said.
Because of that investigation, Villella and his lawyer declined to answer questions after his March 2 court appearance.
The “no hostile contact” injunction allows Villella to carry his gun during duty. However, it denies Villella the right to act as off-duty security at other events, lucrative side work for many deputies. Because his brother is the head of Disney World security, Villella—who until late 2009 was stationed in Orange County’s theme park area—had worked many special events for extra income. During the March 2 hearing, Villella’s lawyer asked Judge Kest to reconsider, but the judge refused.
Sherriff’s internal investigations previously found Villella guilty of public sex while working one such event. In November 2009, Villella’s employers docked 150 hours from his pay and placed him on disciplinary one-year probation for having semi-public sex with a male guest in an abandoned Royal Plaza Resort conference room.
Villella was supposed to be working as an off-duty security officer for Gay Days. Investigations found that he’d been wearing his officer’s uniform and gun. Villella was them re-stationed to the downtown Arena area. The internal investigations report states that Villella “violated the moral code” of being an officer.
“That was terrible for him,” Carrion says of Villella being put on probation for public sex. “Up until that point, he had not been out of the closet at work.”
“I’m not sure what Bryan would do if he wasn’t an officer,” Carrion says. “It’s his whole identity.”
The injunction does allow Carrion and Villella to still have contact, but when asked after the court hearing about that possibility, Carrion replied, “There will be no contact.”
Carrion states that emotional and physical abuse started after he found out about Villella’s infidelity. Up to that point—two years into their four-year relationship—Carrion said Villella had been suggesting a third sexual partner to for two years, but Carrion always refused. Carrion said he also ignored small clues that Villella was having sex with multiple other partners.
Carrion says that most altercations would occur after Villella had spent time in online chat rooms or away from home with other partners and that Villella made him clean up his own blood after one particular fight. Carrion said he decided to end the relationship in February 2009, after he found out at his birthday dinner that Villella had lied and taken another man on a three-day cruise weeks earlier. At that point, Carrion’s attempts to obtain a restraining order were denied and he had trouble obtaining personal property from Villella’s residence.
“Law enforcement has been protecting its own,” Carrion said of his previous difficulty. “All that changed, I suppose, after the Gay Days incident.”
It’s not the first time Villella has faced problems stemming from sexual relations. A Feb. 23 Orlando Sentinel article stated that in 2001, Villella’s ex-wife, Helen Mackenzie, made claims of domestic abuse during their five-year marriage. He was reprimanded by the sheriff’s office in 2002 for transferring $552 from his ex-wife’s account to his.
The final official report could not confirm her allegations of abuse but did state, “It is clear Villella and Ms. Mackenzie have a history of domestic disturbances.”
