An Ocala man was arrested Sunday night after he called deputies for help following an altercation at his home on SW 5th Place.
Melvin James Robbins, 59, was taken into custody after Marion County Sheriff’s deputies spoke with several people at the home.
Robbins claimed that a man he told to leave his home became “very verbal and was threatening to beat him up.” He said the man also “grabbed him by his throat and tried to choke him” before pushing him to the ground, where he cut his elbow.
But a witness at the house told deputies that Robbins had been drinking alcohol and was being “very belligerent and was yelling at her.” She said the man who got into the altercation with Robbins was just trying to calm him down.
The woman also told deputies that Robbins told the man to leave before grabbing him by shirt and trying to push him out of the residence, a sheriff’s office report states.
The woman said the man pushed back against Robbins in self defense and then they “began to wrestle back and forth, eventually falling to the ground,” the report says. The woman said the man did not strike or choke Robbins.
The man involved in the altercation also told deputies that Robbins pushed him into something outside the home that resulted in a small scratch on his right calf.
A short time later, Robbins was transported to the Marion County Jail and charged with battery. He was being held on $500 bond and is scheduled to appear in a Marion County courtroom July 25 at 1 p.m.
