BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — Michael Fultz, the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office deputy honored as the agency’s 2025 Deputy of the Year, resigned after an internal investigation documented misconduct involving firearm safety, racial slurs, an off-duty license-plate search and repeated traffic stops.
The findings were described in agency records obtained and reported by News 6 investigator Mike DeForest. The report says Sheriff Wayne Ivey approved the internal investigation and intended to terminate Fultz before the deputy submitted his resignation on May 27.
Complaint filed after awards ceremony
According to the News 6 report, Fultz’s former girlfriend contacted the sheriff’s office on the same day the agency held its annual awards ceremony. She provided photographs, messages and other information that prompted an administrative investigation.
Investigators could not substantiate every allegation, but the records reportedly show Fultz acknowledged participating in several of the incidents under review.
One photograph, taken before Fultz joined the agency, reportedly showed him with a mustache styled to resemble Adolf Hitler’s while appearing to give a Nazi salute. Fultz admitted posing for the picture but denied being racist and described it as a joke, according to the investigative report.
Investigators also reviewed text messages in which Fultz repeatedly used a racial slur. The report says Fultz confirmed the messages were authentic, explained that the language had become normalized while he was growing up and acknowledged that a law-enforcement officer should not use derogatory slurs.
Firearm-safety and patrol-car findings
The former girlfriend gave investigators images showing Fultz placing a handgun in her mouth and pointing it at the back of her head during consensual sexual activity, according to the records described by News 6. Fultz said the weapon was personally owned. Investigators wrote that it resembled the agency-issued handgun assigned to him after an April 2025 fatal shooting.
The investigation concluded that Fultz disregarded his firearm-safety training. The former girlfriend also supplied images from a video call made while Fultz was in uniform and inside his patrol vehicle. Investigators said the images were not clear enough to prove her allegation that he was engaged in a sex act. Fultz denied doing so and said he was pretending, the report states.
Flock-camera search and traffic stops
An audit of the sheriff’s office Flock license-plate-reader system found that Fultz searched his former girlfriend’s license plate before the start of a shift, according to the administrative records. The entry was labeled as an investigative search, but Fultz reportedly could not provide a reason for the query. The administrative report did not identify a related criminal investigation.
Investigators also examined at least four off-duty motorcycle stops over a two-month period that Fultz failed to report to supervisors as required by agency policy.
During one February stop, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper documented Fultz traveling at 111 mph on U.S. 192 near Melbourne, according to the report. Fultz received a civil citation rather than a misdemeanor arrest under Florida’s dangerous-excessive-speeding law and later paid a $155 fine.
Records further indicate that Melbourne police stopped Fultz twice over an intentionally obscured motorcycle license plate without issuing a citation. After supervisors directed him to keep the plate visible, surveillance footage reportedly recorded him leaving sheriff’s office property without the plate attached.
From agency honor to resignation
The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office’s official awards announcement named Fultz its 2025 Deputy of the Year. The agency credited him with responding to an April 30, 2025 disturbance in which a man armed with a knife charged toward him. Fultz shot the man, then provided medical aid, according to the sheriff’s office.
In a memo quoted by News 6, Ivey wrote that the seriousness of the misconduct had damaged the trust required to serve as a deputy and created an unacceptable risk to the agency and the public.
Fultz issued a statement apologizing to the sheriff’s office, his colleagues, his family and Brevard County residents. He said he made poor decisions, accepted responsibility for his actions and was focused on learning from the experience and moving forward.
This article summarizes reported administrative findings. The investigation described above was an employment matter; the cited records did not report criminal charges against Fultz arising from the misconduct investigation.