Auburndale City Manager Jeff Tillman has been charged with battery over an incident that occurred at a restaurant in December 2024.
The State Attorney’s Office for the 10th Judicial Circuit filed an information report Oct. 20 charging Tillman following an investigation by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. Tillman is due for arraignment on Nov. 26.
The charge results from a visit Tillman made on Dec. 21, 2024, to the Brack Shack Bar & Grill in downtown Auburndale. The unnamed victim, an 18-year-old waitress, alleged that a heavily inebriated Tillman hugged and kissed her against her will while sitting at the bar.
Reached by phone Oct. 22, Tillman said he could not comment on the advice of his lawyer.
Tillman, 41, was hired as Auburndale’s assistant city manager in 2016. He rose to the city’s top role in 2021 upon the retirement of longtime City Manager Bobby Green.
“I have been made aware of the situation, and it is under review with the city attorney,” Auburndale Mayor Dorothea Taylor Bogert said.
Auburndale’s attorney is Frederick Murphy Jr. of Boswell and Dunlap.
Witnesses describe intoxication
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office opened an investigation in April, according to the agency’s records. Though the Brack Shack is in Auburndale, the city’s police chief, Terry Storie, referred the case to the Sheriff’s Office to avoid any potential conflict of interest, Polk Sheriff Grady Judd said.
As city manager, Tillman has authority over Storie.
Reports from PCSO and the State Attorney’s Office provided this narrative, redacting the names of the accuser and her family members:
Tillman entered the Brack Shack the night of Dec. 21 “visibly intoxicated,” according to the accuser. She said that Tillman “was slurring his speech and nearly fell off his chair on several occasions,” according to SAO investigator Chad McConchie.
About 9:30 p.m., the waitress approached Tillman and suggested he eat some bread to help metabolize the alcohol he had consumed. Tillman smiled and placed his arm around her waist, pulling her toward him in a hug and kissing her forehead, McConchie wrote. The woman “immediately said ‘nope’ and pulled away from Tillman,” he wrote.
The waitress did not know Tillman and did not consent to his touching her, McConchie’s report said. In the PCSO report, filed in May, Deputy Leanna Austin wrote that the woman came to know who Tillman was because her family had recently been involved in civil litigation with Auburndale that involved the family being relocated to temporary residence in a hotel.
There were no witnesses to the incident, Austin wrote in her report.
The owner of the Brack Shack, Bracken Smith, drove Tillman home after the incident, leaving the city manager’s vehicle at the restaurant, McConchie wrote. Smith later reviewed surveillance video and confirmed that Tillman hugged the woman and “tried to kiss her on the cheek.”
“It looked kinda innocent, but someone might take it the wrong way,” Smith said, according to McConchie.
Asked if Tillman was intoxicated, Smith told the investigator, “The way he was carrying on, he had a buzz.”
By the time the woman filed her complaint, the surveillance video was no longer available, Austin wrote in the PCSO report.
No statement from Tillman
McConchie interviewed another patron, who reported that he confronted Tillman that night after seeing him spit on the floor. The patron said that Tillman had “glassy eyes” and became aggressive.
Another patron described Tillman as “staggering” and said he “couldn’t hold himself up.”
Tillman called the waitress’ father two days after the incident and admitted he had been drinking with friends at the Brack Shack, McConchie’s report said. Tillman said he was sorry and didn’t know the waitress was the man’s daughter, the report said.
In September, McConchie interviewed Green, the former city manager, who said that Tillman called him about a week after the incident. Tillman admitted to drinking “three shots” in the restaurant’s parking lot and to grabbing a waitress and kissing her, as well as spitting on the floor, McConchie wrote.
Green advised Tillman to notify all Auburndale’s city commissioners about the incident but learned when the complaint was filed in April that he had not yet done so.
McConchie interviewed Bogert and the city commissioners — Alex Cam, Keith Cowie, Jordan Helms and Bill Sterling — in September. All said that Tillman had told them about the incident.
McConchie spoke to Tillman by phone on Sept. 24, the report said, and he declined to make any statement on the advice of his lawyer.
McConchie determined that probable cause existed for a charge of battery, a first-degree misdemeanor. Assistant State Attorney Lauren Mikaela Perry filed the information document on Oct. 20. The maximum penalty for a conviction is one year in jail and/or a fine of up to $1,000.
Tillman is a 2003 graduate of Auburndale High School and began working for the city at age 16 after school and during summers, The Ledger previously reported. He has a bachelor’s degree from Florida State University and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of South Florida.
According to a Ledger story in August, Tillman’s annual salary was $181,160 in the 2024-25 fiscal year.
Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Auburndale City Manager Jeff Tillman charged with battery over December incident at restaurant
Reporting by Gary White, Lakeland Ledger / The Ledger
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