Archer man charged with escaping handcuffs and threatening the family of a deputy after traffic stop

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Kevin Michael Kortright, 48, of Archer, was arrested on August 9 and charged with resisting an officer without violence, escape, property damage, and threatening a deputy’s family after a traffic stop.

An Alachua County Sheriff’s Deputy reportedly conducted a traffic stop on Kortright’s vehicle for driving at 68 mph in a 45 mph at about 2:15 p.m. on August 9 near the intersection of SW 13th Street and SW Williston Road.

The deputy reported that Kortright was “immediately verbally hostile” and continued to be hostile during the entire traffic stop; Kortright allegedly refused to follow commands to move out of the middle of the road, and at one point, he suddenly walked past the deputy to take a picture of the tag on the deputy’s patrol vehicle. After he took the photo, the deputy reportedly asked him multiple times to walk back to the front of the patrol vehicle, and Kortright allegedly refused until the deputy warned that he would be tased.

Once Kortright was standing at the front of the patrol vehicle, he allegedly kept moving toward the deputy in spite of multiple commands to step back. When the deputy asked for his registration and insurance, Kortright allegedly said it was in his vehicle but refused to say where it was.

The deputy waited for backup, and after a second deputy arrived, Kortright allegedly refused to let the first deputy get the documents from his vehicle; when asked if he was refusing to provide the documents, he reportedly did not answer.

Kortright reportedly started moving toward the second deputy and allegedly refused to comply with multiple commands to step back; the deputies decided to detain him.

Kortright allegedly pulled away from the first deputy and was taken to the ground. While he was being transported to the jail, he allegedly escaped from the handcuffs and repeatedly slammed his fists and his head into the plexiglass divider. Kortright allegedly grabbed the deputy’s plexiglass riot shield, which was secured in the back seat next to him, and repeatedly slammed it against the partition, cracking the shield; the shield is valued at $250.

Kortright allegedly made repeated threats to sue the deputy, find his address, and rape him, his wife, and his children.

Kortright was reportedly admitted to a hospital on August 10 and was booked into the jail on August 14.

Kortright has no local criminal convictions but was charged with battery on a person over 65 in 2020 and aggravated stalking in 2022; both charges were dropped. Kortright has an unspecified criminal history in New York between 1994 and 2015. Judge Susan Miller-Jones set bail at $270,000.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.