A longtime Sarasota County Sheriff’s Deputy is accused of trying to murder a 79-year-old woman. 46-year-old Frank Eugene Bybee was arrested Monday morning and is facing a number of other charges. Bybee declined to speak with detectives following his arrest and Sheriff Thomas Knight told a news conference–quote–“That he didn’t want to talk to them–he invoked his rights–he’s a criminal.” Bybee allegedly worked to gain the trust of the elderly woman and, among other things, wound up selling her dog without her knowledge and writing checks on her account to himself and his children. That resulted in Bybee being placed on leave from the sheriff’s department. Apparently in retaliation for that, the Sheriff says the deputy attacked the woman, put a pill in her mouth and left her passed out in her house with her car running and carbon monixide filling her house. The woman managed to survive the attack. Bybee is being held at the Sarasota County Jail on bonds totaling more than one million dollars.
