Former Pierce County sheriff’s sergeant arrested in domestic violence incident

PUYALLUP, Wash. — A former sergeant with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department was arrested at his Puyallup home by a SWAT team on Monday, according to a department spokesman.

At 5:19 a.m., Robert Glen Carpenter’s girlfriend called the police about a domestic violence incident at their Puyallup home in the 8300 block of 191st Street East.

Deputies arrived and spoke with Carpenter’s girlfriend. They were able to develop probable cause to arrest Carpenter for second-degree assault, fourth-degree assault and interfering with the reporting of a domestic violence incident, sheriff’s spokesperson Sgt. Darren Moss said.

Carpenter, 52, had left the home but was taken into custody by deputies at 10:41 a.m.

“Because of his recent negative encounters with law enforcement from his previous arrest and his fighting skills and expertise, we had SWAT serve a warrant to arrest him. He surrendered peacefully and was booked into the Pierce County Jail,” Moss said in an email to The News Tribune.

In December 2018, Carpenter was charged with first-degree assault for stabbing one of three men he had met at a Tacoma bar. The stabbing happened outside a pot shop.

Carpenter was fired soon after, which led him to file two lawsuits against Pierce County and Tacoma that claimed the investigation into the assault case had been skewed, according to The News Tribune.

He later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of felony harassment and dropped both lawsuits.

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