PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — A former assistant U.S. attorney involved in a 2023 stabbing incident on the Howard Frankland Bridge has taken a plea deal.
Tampa Bay 28 was in the courtroom when Patrick Scruggs apologized to the victim. The plea deal requires Scruggs to spend 90 days in jail, pay $100,000 in restitution, and serve five years of probation.
On Sept 26, 2023, Patrick Scruggs is accused of getting out of his car and stabbing a man who was stopped in his vehicle on the Howard Frankland Bridge.
The driver involved, a 35-year-old Tampa man, was stopped in the lanes of the interstate and slumped over inside his vehicle for unknown reasons.
A couple from Tampa, a 40-year-old man and his 43-year-old wife, saw the first driver and stopped. FHP said they pulled ahead of the stopped car, and the 40-year-old man got out to help the first driver.
The second driver was unable to access the first driver, so FHP said he returned to his vehicle to get something to break the window. While he was getting that item, FHP said the first driver woke up, drove forward, and crashed into the couple's vehicle.
The first driver reversed and tried to drive around the couple's vehicle, FHP said, but he crashed into a third vehicle passing by.
The third driver, a 38-year-old Tampa man identified as Patrick Scruggs, stopped and exited his vehicle. FHP said Scruggs went up to the first driver, broke the vehicle's window, and stabbed the man multiple times with a pocket knife.
Struggs was booked into jail today to start his sentence.
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