What did Candice Stroud do? Florida mom arrested twice in a week over abuse allegations

Candice Stroud, a 30-year-old woman from Florida, was arrested twice in one week over abuse allegations. Authorities said that following her initial arrest for battery, Stroud was arrested again five days later on allegations of child abuse.

The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office revealed that Candice Stroud was first arrested on February 18, 2023, for a battery charge after her husband filed a report stating that she struck him in the back and then pulled a “clump of [his] hair.”

Authorities said that the second arrest on February 23 stemmed from an initial arrest report after the husband, who was seeking a restraining order against Stroud, revealed that she also struck a child multiple times with a phone.

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Candice Stroud was arrested after a video showed her abusing a child

Candice Stroud was arrested for the second time after her husband showed deputies videos of her abusing a child. He allegedly documented the video as evidence in order to obtain a restraining order against his wife, who was taken into custody a week earlier for violently attacking him.

The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office said that while interviewing the child, they revealed that Stroud had hit them several times with a phone. She was then taken into custody a second time and is being held in the Putnam County Jail on a $50,000 bond.

While additional details on the case have not yet been shared publicly, News4JAX spoke to an attorney over his views on the two arrests in connection to the same incident.

Curtis Fallgatter, a former federal prosecutor, told News4JAX that in his decades-long career, he has never stumbled across a case as unusual as Candice Stroud.

Fallgatter said that usually the abuse cases are resolved with a single arrest and supervised visitation, but multiple arrests on abuse allegations are rare. He said:

“I’ve done a lot of battery cases. Child abuse cases, if they happen the same day, they’re normally expected to be resolved with a single arrest.”

Speculating on the future of Stroud’s case, Fallgatter told the outlet that the Department of Children and Families will now be involved and based on their recommendation, a child might be removed from the home after exploring the severity of the abuse.

“If they believe she is an unfit mother or a potential danger to her children, there’s a lot of things they can do. One is, of course, they can have supervised visitation or they can take the children from the home.”

Fallgatter added that Stroud might have to undergo parenting classes and counseling sessions for the incident. He estimated that based on official findings, Stroud, who might be facing child abuse charges, could serve up to five years in jail.