photo by: Journal-World File Photo

Breanna S. Pence

New details have emerged about why a former Douglas County sheriff’s deputy is facing a domestic battery charge stemming from a Halloween party in 2020.

The former deputy, Breanna S. Pence, 32, is facing one count of misdemeanor domestic battery, after allegedly battering another employee of the sheriff’s office, Sgt. Michael Hladky, with whom she was in a romantic relationship. Pence left the office on May 3, just weeks after she was issued a summons in the case, as the Journal-World has reported.

According to a recently released probable-cause affidavit, Pence attended a Halloween party on Oct. 31, 2020, and became so inebriated that other people at the party asked that Hladky take her home because she had become “out of control and belligerent.”

As Hladky was escorting Pence to his Jeep, she allegedly punched and kicked him and another deputy multiple times. Once put in the Jeep, she allegedly kicked the passenger window out of its track.

People at the party then decided to bring her back into the house, where she allegedly struck Hladky in the ribs with a baseball bat that was part of her Harley Quinn Halloween costume and also kicked him again.

Numerous paragraphs in the affidavit supporting Pence’s arrest have been redacted.

The affidavit says that Pence and Hladky began dating in 2017 and lived together from 2018 until 2021, “during which time there were multiple incidents of domestic battery,” according to Hladky, who retired as a lieutenant from the sheriff’s office on Jan. 30.

A special prosecutor, William F. Hurst IV, out of Johnson County has been appointed to prosecute the case.

Pence is currently free on a $1,000 own-recognizance bond, meaning she was not required to pay any money to be released from jail but may be charged that amount if she fails to appear.

Pence first appeared in court in connection with the charge on May 18 in response to a summons and is next scheduled for a status conference on July 18. She is represented by attorneys Jeffrey S. Kratofil and Morgan Lehi Roach.

Editor’s note: This story has been revised to reflect that Pence is alleged to have hit Hladky with the bat.