A Jonestown man with an extensive criminal record has been arrested again for threatening the life of a Florida deputy.
Jason E. Senseman, 51, was taken into custody in Jonestown on Wednesday evening, Sept. 27, by Pennsylvania State Police.
The deputy, Royce James, serves with the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office. Volusia County lies on the east coast of Florida, just north of Orlando, and includes Daytona Beach.
Joyce has been featured on “On Patrol: Live,” a reality-TV crime show that, according to the Internet Movie Database, “follows the everyday lives of police officers on patrol from diverse departments across America.” A reboot of the A&E series “Live PD” and “Police Patrol,” “On Patrol: Live” airs on Reelz and Peacock.
According to a statement issued Wednesday by Andrew Gant, from the Office of Public Affairs & Media Relations in Volusia, Senseman “admitted to sending several threatening and/or vulgar messages to the show via Facebook Messenger.”
One of Senseman’s messages to the show said, “I would kill Royce James.” Other messages from Senseman stated he is “not scared of killing anyone” and “some of your officers are worthy of death,” the press release from Volusia said.
Representatives from “On Patrol: Live” notified the sheriff’s office in Volusia on Sunday, Sept. 24, the release said, and detectives made contact with law enforcement in Pennsylvania. According to the press release, Pennsylvania officers “were aware of the messages and also already familiar with Senseman.”
When contacted by a Pennsylvania state trooper, the release says, “Senseman indicated he did send the messages while watching the show and drinking, and that no one else uses his phone or his Facebook account.”
He was arrested on a warrant charging him with making written threats to kill, a second-degree felony that carries a bond of $100,000. He will be extradited to Volusia County at a later date. Sheriff Michael J. Chitwood, a Pennsylvania native, plans to meet him alongside Deputy James before Senseman is transported to the Volusia County Branch Jail.
Pennsylvania State Police did not provide a statement on the arrest.
However, the website for the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania lists numerous prior arrests on Senseman’s record.
The first record on Senseman’s docket is a guilty plea for simple assault and harassment in 2011. The last, in 2019, is a guilty plea for disorderly conduct and public drunkenness. In the intervening years, he also pleaded guilty to charges including corruption of minors and use and possession of drug paraphernalia, and he was also found guilty by trial of DUI and other charges.
Some records list Senseman’s address as Palmyra.
Deputy James has been an officer with Volusia County since 2016. He is a training deputy, firearms instructor, defensive tactics instructor, and member of the Volusia Sheriff’s Office Emergency Response Team and the awards committee. In 2021, he was selected as the Florida Law Enforcement Office of the Year.
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