A 62-year-old Village of Hillsborough man has been sentenced in connection with an incident involving a woman at the Pinellas Neighborhood Pool.
Sumter County sheriff’s deputies had arrested Frank Festo on Aug. 10 on a charge of battery.
Festo and a female companion had been traveling in a vehicle when an argument began and Festo, who was driving the vehicle, threatened her, according to an arrest report.
She said that while they were still in the vehicle, Festo punched her in the face. She said she struck back at him in self-defense.
When a deputy arrived on the scene, the woman was lying on a lawn chair at the pool and Festo was “stumbling” out of the pool and yelling at the woman, the report indicated. Festo immediately became “confrontational” with the deputy.
Festo initially said the altercation had been purely verbal, but later said the woman had hit him. At one point, Festo admitted the woman’s version of the story was true.
The report noted the woman was intoxicated.
On Oct. 10 in Sumter County Court, Festo pleaded no contest to the battery charge. He was placed on one year’s probation.
