The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office arrested one of their former members Wedesnday. Peter Ciucci, 51, and his son Nicholas Paul Tisevich-Ciucci, 25, were booked for allegedly attacking a man at a race track. Pasco County Capt. James Steffens explained the allegations in a press conference on Friday.
He said that according to evidence, the victim, a man, got into a road rage incident with a woman on the street. They exchanged hostile hand gestures, and the male driver drove off to a gas station called RaceTrac. But it didn’t end there.
As seen on footage obtained by deputies, two men confronted the male driver at the gas station parking lot, and attacked him as he was calling 911. They grabbed him, hit him on the back of the head, and subjected him to a chokehold, Steffens said. One of the attackers allegedly searched the victim’s vehicle.
Steffens suggested that bystanders at the scene did nothing after a suspect told at least one of them that he was former law enforcement.
Investigators identified the attackers as Ciucci, a former deputy with the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office, and son Tisevich-Ciucci. The woman remains unidentified, and Steffens declined to name her because the investigation remains ongoing.
Law&Crime reached out to Ciucci but he has not responded. He faces charges including false imprisonment, and tampering with a witness. Tisevich-Ciucci could not be reached for comment. He faces charges of battery, and false imprisonment. The pair was also charged with burglary-related counts.
Steffens said the investigation is ongoing. He said that he didn’t know Ciucci, and only learned about him secondhand. The suspect served in the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office in the 1990s, about 20 years with Hernando County, and retired about four years ago.
A reporter asked if he was subject to a charge of impersonating a law enforcement officer, and Steffens said that the probe is ongoing, and the prosecutors would have to make a decision about that.
[Mugshot of Ciucci via Pasco County Sheriff’s Office]
