A Villager found himself behind bars early Tuesday morning after a nasty battle with his lady friend at a grocery store.
A Marion County sheriff’s deputy was called to the parking lot of the Publix at 8780 SE Mulberry Lane and when he arrived, a woman told him she had been struck in the face by 60-year-old Ted Reese Stevenson, a sheriff’s office report states.
The woman said they had been arguing about her cell phone and Stevenson had “ordered” her to step out of the vehicle. She claimed he then struck her in the face with a closed fist as she attempted to exit the vehicle, the report says, adding that the woman’s face was bleeding and her lip was swollen.
The woman told the deputy that she doesn’t live with Stevenson in his Village of Piedmont residence but “stays with him periodically so she can finish moving her things from inside of the home,” the report says.
The deputy then made contact with Stevenson at his residence in the 17600 block of SE 84th Peyton Court in the Chadwick Villas. He first said nothing physical had taken place then claimed both he and the woman were reaching for the phone and he believed that was when she might have been struck, the report says.
Stevenson was taken into custody and transported to the Marion County Jail, where he was charged with battery. He was released Tuesday night on $1,000 bond and his next court date hasn’t yet been set, jail records show.