Florida Deputy Cannot Legally Own or Buy Firearms Following Arrest

A Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy , who is accused of threatening three people at gunpoint this month while he was intoxicated in downtown West Palm Beach, cannot legally buy or own guns for the next year.

At a risk-protection order hearing Tuesday afternoon, Jerald Samuel Alderman’s attorney, Scott Richardson, told Circuit Judge Ted Booras that Alderman agreed to the city’s request that he neither buy nor own guns for the next year.

Richardson stressed that the agreement was not an admission to the criminal allegations against Alderman and said that he may ask for the order’s length to be shortened, pending the results of the criminal case.

For now, the order is in effect until Oct. 29, 2020, just over one year from the 54-year-old sheriff’s deputy’s arrest on three counts of aggravated assault and one count of using a firearm while intoxicated. Alderman, who appeared in court Tuesday, has been out of the Palm Beach County Jail under supervision on a $40,000 surety bond since Oct. 18, the day after his arrest, the Palm Beach Post reports.

Alderman, who has worked for the sheriff’s office since 2006, is on paid administrative leave. He most recently worked on road patrol, the sheriff’s office said.

Alderman already turned over guns, knives, bows, and swords to three people, court records show.