A Georgia police officer has been placed on administrative leave after being arrested on domestic violence charges.
The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office has charged Michael Seth Perrault, an Eatonton, Georgia, police officer, with simple battery, family violence and cruelty to children in the third degree, according to Putnam County Jail records.
Police said they responded to a call by Perrault’s wife around 5:20 p.m. Tuesday. She stated her husband had hit her and pushed her that evening at their home on Long Island Drive in Eatonton, Sheriff Howard Sills told the Lake Oconee News. The officer denied striking his wife. Deputies on the scene reported seeing red marks on the woman’s neck and upper chest, consistent with being shoved.
The couple’s 8-year-old daughter also reported her parents were fighting, and said she witnessed her father shove her mom out of the entryway of their home.
“The red marks on her chest are the only physical evidence, but when we have physical evidence, we have to make an arrest,” Sills said.
Perrault, 43, has been an Eatonton police officer since 2018, Police Chief Kent Lawrence told the newspaper. Perrault previously worked in law enforcement in the Covington area.
Lawrence said that, when he learned of the arrest, he immediately placed Perrault on administrative leave without pay pending the outcome of an internal investigation and the charges made by the sheriff’s office.
A bond hearing for Perrault will be held at 3 p.m. Wednesday.
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