A federal prosecutor who once pursued Jan. 6 rioters now finds himself on the other side of the law, without access to one of Florida’s most well-known legal defenses.
As previously reported by Law&Crime, Patrick Douglas Scruggs, 38, is charged with one count each of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault, and armed burglary by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. On September 26, 2023, he allegedly came across a stopped car on the 4.8-mile-long, fixed-link W. Howard Frankland Bridge during the final minutes of morning rush hour. Scruggs is accused of smashing the stopped driver’s window after getting out of his car and confronting the driver, who later claimed to be having a medical event.
He then allegedly pulled out a “pocket knife” and repeatedly stabbed the 35-year-old, according to troopers.
Scruggs attempted to use the contentious “Stand Your Ground” defense, which can result in criminal charges being dropped against someone who uses deadly force if they believe their life, or someone else’s, is in imminent danger or if they reasonably believe they are being threatened with great bodily harm. The law does not require the person using lethal force to retreat; however, they must not be committing a crime and must be in a location where they have a legal right to be.
Pinellas Circuit Judge Keith Meyer stated on Friday that the defense does not apply to Scruggs.
“The Court finds that the State has established through clear and convincing evidence that, based on the circumstances as they appeared to the Defendant, a reasonable and prudent person would not have used the same force as the Defendant used,” Meyer said, per WFLA, a local NBC station.
Witness testimony indicates that Scruggs was “acting out of anger and frustration, not in fear,” Meyer wrote in a court order, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
“A reasonable and prudent person, even under the circumstances … would not believe that the use of deadly force was necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm or the imminent commission of a forcible felony,” the judge stated in addition.
The conflict began when the 35-year-old victim was discovered slumped over his steering wheel, blocking some southbound lanes, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Other people stopped at the car, but their actions were very different from what Scruggs allegedly did. Another couple, identified as a 40-year-old man and his 43-year-old wife, pulled up in front of the victim’s car and got out to try to help him, citing “the hazard” that the stopped car could cause.
According to law enforcement, another driver got out and looked for something to break the window and help the motorist. Just as that was about to happen, the driver awoke and slammed the gas pedal, crashing into the helpful couple’s car. The driver then attempted to maneuver around the car he had just hit by backing up.
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, he reversed into Scruggs’ car, resulting in the alleged stabbing.
The couple attempted to intervene, but Scruggs turned around and allegedly tried to stab them as well. They “both fled before being harmed,” according to the FHP.
Scruggs previously worked for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa before his legal troubles in 2023. Scruggs, a federal prosecutor, was the attorney of record for the government’s initial case against Adam Johnson, the Florida man who made headlines by jauntily carrying and posing with Nancy Pelosi’s lectern after breaching the Capitol with hundreds of Donald Trump supporters on January 6.
Scruggs served as an assistant US attorney from September 2012 to April 2023. He worked as an attorney in over 500 cases in the Middle District of Florida. He began working for Barnes & Thornburg LLP, a national law firm, in May of that year; however, shortly after the September 2023 incident, he was “no longer employed” by the firm, according to a representative.