Palm Bay, Florida — A police dispatcher was arrested on Monday and charged with eight (8) counts of Capital Sexual Battery and five (5) counts of Lewd and Lascivious Molestation.
According to reports, Amanda Chandler, 40, was having a sexual relationship with an 11-year-old boy.
Palm Bay police said Chandler is married and has two small children, ages 8 and 10.
Chandler was also a volunteer for Little League.
Everything came to light on August 1, when police responded to a Melbourne hospital in reference to an attempted suicide.
According to the arrest affidavit, Chandler’s husband notified police after his mother-in-law forced her way into a locked bedroom and found his wife on the floor.
According to reports, there were at least eight (8) pill bottles on the bedroom floor.
Chandler’s husband told police that the two of them had been arguing on and off about his wife’s relationship with a boy who lived next door to them.
The husband stated that the boy would come over to the couple’s residence when he was not home and have sex with his wife. On one occasion, he came home and found the two in bed kissing.
He said the boy was hanging all over his wife.
The husband also found text messages on his wife’s phone. In the text messages, Chandler confessed her love for the boy.
Some of the messages were sent just moments before she attempted to overdose on medication.
One message read, “I will most likely be gone by the time you read these messages.”
She also referred to the boy as her soul mate.
The boy told investigators with the Department of Children and Families that Chandler would touch his penis and he would touch her vagina. He said that the two were having a sexual relationship.
During questioning, Chandler told detectives that she and the boy started a sexual relationship in February, and that the two of them have had oral sex multiple times. She said they had sexual contact a week before her arrest date.
Palm Bay Police Commander John Resh said he is sickened by the situation.
Chandler survived the overdose and will have to face the charges. If convicted, she could be facing life in prison because the boy is under the age of 12.
Chandler has been with the agency for nearly three years. The agency began termination proceedings the moment they learned of Chandler’s involvement with the boy.
If anyone has information on this case, or knows of children that might have been in contact with Chandler, you are asked to contact Detective Jasmine Smith at 321-733-3028.