MIRAMAR, Fla. – More details are surfacing about an Opa-locka police sergeant’s troubled family after he was recently arrested for domestic violence in Broward County.
Sgt. Johane Taylor’s abuse of his wife allegedly began in 2014 and the accusations include putting a gun to her head, breaking her ribs, beating her until she lost consciousness, and dragging her out of a car in front of their children, according to police.
Taylor hit his eldest child in the head with a vacuum cleaner; he would order the kids, now ages 7, 10, and 13, to line up “after they did something that was not to his liking and would hit them with a belt,” according to the Miramar Police Department.
The sergeant’s brother John H. Taylor Jr. serves as the current mayor of Opa-locka, and their parents are Myra Taylor, a former mayor, and Bishop John Taylor, who are both convicted felons.
Sgt. Johane Taylor’s parents and his aunt Elvira Smith were convicted of federal income tax charges in 2005 as the co-owners of the Vankara schools in Opa-locka and sentenced to probation and house arrest.
Court records show Sgt. Taylor had also been arrested for domestic violence against a woman in 2008, the same year his mother served as Opa-locka’s vice mayor.
His father, brother Demetrius Taylor and Smith were also accused of participating in a scheme to use two family businesses to funnel about $6,000 to his mother’s 2010 election campaign and prosecutors charged them with conspiracy to tamper with evidence and campaign contribution violations.
Deputies arrested Sgt. Taylor on Tuesday, he was released on a bond from Broward County’s main jail on Wednesday night in Fort Lauderdale and the department relieved him of duty without pay pending the results of an investigation.
Sgt. Taylor’s domestic violence victims remained silent for years about the abuse under threats that included telling his wife that “if she called the police and he lost his job, he would make sure that she paid for it,” according to the arrest report.