A Villager is free on bond after a brawl with her husband over pickleball.
Lan Nguyen Augustus, 61, of the Village of Charlotte, was arrested at about 3:30 a.m. Monday on a felony charge of battery on a person over the age of 65, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.
Her husband had been lying in bed in the master bedroom when the couple got into an argument over a pickleball clinic being offered in The Villages. The couple went into the living room where “things began to escalate” and Augustus, who is 5 feet tall and weighs 110 pounds, punched him in the face, the report said. They moved to a bathroom where his Vietnamese-born wife punched him again.
The husband went back to the master bedroom, took pictures of his face and went to bed. He slept for about an hour before Augustus came into the bedroom to gather some of her things. She went to another bedroom and locked the door. Her husband tried to talk to her through the door. Augustus, who has participated with her husband in a prominent dance competition in Florida’s Friendliest Hometown, opened the door and pushed him back. She punched him and went to an office in the Designer home the couple purchased in 2014 for $367,300. She picked up a cup and “fearing for his safety,” he took it away from her, the report said. He wrapped his arms around her and placed her on the floor until she “calmed down.” They discussed the possibility of her going to a hotel for the night.
While Augustus, who is an artist, was seated on the floor, she picked up a small metal easel and struck her husband’s foot two times. He went back to the master bedroom and called law enforcement.
When interviewed by a deputy, Augustus also said their argument started over pickleball. She said she left the bedroom and her husband followed her, trying to talk about the pickleball issue. She said she went into the garage to pick up a container so she could give herself a pedicure, but her husband blocked her re-entry into the home. She made her way into the home but when she went to get some water, he chest bumped her again. She finished her pedicure and went into the bedroom where her husband was sleeping. She wanted to retrieve her cell phone and personal items so she could sleep in another bedroom. Her husband came to the door of that bedroom, which she opened. That’s when “another verbal altercation began at the threshold of the door that escalated into a physical altercation in the front hallway, where the victim chest bumped the defendant,” the deputy wrote in the report.
Augustus was booked at the Sumter County Detention Center where bond was set at $5,000. She was released at 12:34 p.m. Monday.
