VIGO COUNTY, Ind. — A sheriff’s deputy in hot water in Vigo County is keeping his job, for now. Jeffrey Bell has been suspended without pay by the County Sheriff Merit Board. He’s charged with domestic battery and interfering with the reporting of a crime.

According to state police investigators, Bell was arrested April 8th after he got into a fight with his teenage son at his home and during the scuffle kicked his wife in the chest.

They say she tried calling 911 but Bell ripped the phone out of her hand as she was doing so.

Sheriff John Plasse calls the whole thing a “sad situation.”