A Fruitland Park man was arrested Thursday night after a tussle over a pack of cigarettes with his mother turned violent.
Fruitland Park police officers were called to a home in the 200 block of South Dixie Avenue after a woman reported a verbal dispute with her son, 55-year-old David Franklin Newton. The woman told officers that Newton had been intoxicated most of the day and had been yelling and using abusive language toward her. She said Newton “had been in this condition for several days” but hadn’t physically harmed her.
Officers spoke with the woman’s other son, who told them Newton took his cigarettes and money from his wallet without permission. The brother couldn’t confirm how much money originally was in his wallet and said he did not want to press charges, a police report states.
Officers spoke with Newton and told him to stay away from his mother and brother for the rest of the night. He then went to his bedroom to “lie down for the evening,” the report says.
But as officers were preparing to leave the residence, Newton came out of his bedroom, entered the living room and attempted to grab his mother’s cigarettes from a nearby table. After she placed her hand over the cigarette pack and told him he couldn’t have them, Newton “forcibly grabbed” his mother’s hands and “ripped the cigarettes from her grasp,” the report states.
Newton was taken into custody and placed in a police cruiser for the trip to the Lake County Jail. But on the way to the Tavares facility, he requested medical assistance, complaining of chest pain and a possible heart attack. So the officer called for medical help and stopped in the parking lot of the RaceTrac minimart at U.S. Hwy. 441 and Tomato Hill Road in Leesburg.
A Lake EMS crew arrived a short time later and transported Newton to Leesburg Regional Medical Center, where he was checked out and released. He was then transported to the jail early Thursday morning, charged with domestic battery (second or subsequent offense) and held on $2,000 bond.
Newton, who has been in the Lake County Jail 24 times since Sept. 19, 2008, is scheduled to appear in court Oct. 8 at 8:30 a.m. to answer to the charge.
Newton had been arrested in 2015 after an attack on his son. He also had been drinking in that incident.
