21-02-2025
Ex-Volusia deputy sentenced for threatening woman with arrest unless she performed sex act
An ex-Volusia Sheriff's deputy, who reportedly threatened to arrest a woman if she did not perform a sexual act on him, was sentenced Thursday to six months in jail.
Stephen Corbin, 41, entered a no contest plea to unlawful compensation or reward for official act and was sentenced to 180 days in the Volusia County Branch Jail and 10 years' probation, according to the State Attorney's Office and jail records. The charge is a second-degree felony.
Corbin must also surrender his law enforcement certificate.
As part of the plea with prosecutors, Circuit Judge Elizabeth Blackburn withheld adjudication, meaning Corbin will not have a conviction on his record if he successfully completes probation.
Prosecutors dismissed a count of solicitation to commit prostitution, a second-degree misdemeanor, as part of the plea agreement.
Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood wrote after Corbin's arrest that Corbin had been a deputy for 11 years. Corbin resigned as the process to fire him started, Chitwood said. At the time, Corbin was assigned to a courthouse in Daytona Beach, according to an affidavit.
The investigation began after a woman told Daytona Beach Police that she was approached May 13 on South Ridgewood Avenue by a man in plain clothes driving a marked Volusia Sheriff's Office patrol car.
The woman told police that the man, later identified as Corbin, ordered her into the patrol car at Cedar and Segrave streets. She said he threatened to arrest her if she did not perform oral sex on him, police stated. She refused. She said Corbin grabbed her left arm and pulled her toward his lap but she pulled away.
Corbin released the woman after she agreed to show him her breasts, according to a charging affidavit. Once she pulled up her shirt, Corbin let her out on South Street.
The woman, who was homeless, said she was not a prostitute but had spoken to some women who were. They told her a man in a 'sheriff's cruiser' was picking them up and paying for sex, the affidavit stated.
Corbin then picked up a second woman. That woman said Corbin asked her if she wanted to make some money but she told him she did not do that, the affidavit stated. Corbin responded by laughing and saying "Yeah, right," the affidavit stated. The woman said again she did not "trick." Corbin told her she was homeless and asked her if she wanted to make some money if he gave her a place to stay and shower and she declined.
Corbin then grabbed her hand and tried to force it to his genitals but she pulled away, the affidavit stated. She said she asked Corbin to let her out of the sheriff's vehicle but he refused and she tried the door and it was locked. She said she gave Corbin directions to the Sunset Inn so it would be on video when he dropped her off.
Once he dropped her off she walked back to Segrave Street and saw Corbin in the Ford Taurus patrol car drive back. Corbin tried to get her to go back inside but she heard people yelling at her not to get in the car. She said Corbin opened the passenger door but she slammed it shut and he sped off.
The woman said she was upset at what happened and that she was not a prostitute.
Corbin's patrol car was towed to the police department and searched. Officers found a sealed box of Trojan condoms in the driver's side door and two sealed condoms in the center of the vehicle.
Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood said after Corbin's arrest that the ex-deputy had disgraced the sheriff's office and later posted a video of melting down of Corbin's badge. Corbin's defense attorney, Michael Lambert, called the badge burning a "childish" stunt.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Ex-Volusia Sheriff's deputy jailed, tried to coerce woman into sex act
