A Villager has been ordered into anger management after an attack on a fellow dog owner at a dog park earlier this year in Florida’s Friendliest Hometown.
Kenneth Frischman Rudlin, 69, of the Village of Osceola Hills at Soaring Eagle, was arrested April 14 at the Atlas Canine Dog Park on Moyer Loop in the Village of Pine Ridge. He had faced a felony charge of battery on a person over the age of 65.
Rather than face prosecution, Rudlin has been allowed to enter into a pre-trial intervention contract. The terms of the Oct. 8 contract require Rudlin to complete 12 hours of anger management training and have no contact with the man he attacked. If Rudlin successfully completes the terms of the contract, the charge will be dismissed.
On the day of the attack, another Villager had taken his two dogs to the dog park and one of his dogs took a ball from Rudlin’s dog, according to an arrest report from the Fruitland Park Police Department. Rudlin, a native New Yorker, hit the other man’s dog with a two-foot long Chuck It ball launcher. The other man tried to break up the fight between the dogs when Rudlin “turned his attention to him” and began striking the other man with the ball launcher.
When officers responding to a 911 call arrived on the scene, they found that the Villager had three large welt marks on his back. They were “raised and swollen.”
Several witnesses provided statements to police.
Rudlin said he struck the man “out of instinct.” The Chuck It ball launcher was seized as evidence.