A woman headed to the Sumter County Sheriff’s Annex to report being choked by a beer-tossing man.
The woman showed up at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the annex at Morse Boulevard and County Road 466 and said she had gone home with another woman and 58-year-old William Thomas Joyce, who all work together in maintenance at Water Oak, the 55+ community on U.S. Hwy. 27/441 in Lady Lake. The woman said she was being put in charge while their boss was away. The arrangement prompted an argument with the other woman and Joyce, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. During the argument, the woman was ordered to leave but said she wouldn’t because she helps pay bills at the home. Joyce was holding a can of beer and threw some of it on her. He got into her face and was slapped. Joyce responded by grabbing the woman’s throat with one hand and pushing her backward over a couch. She spit in his face, got loose and ran into her bedroom. She phoned her boyfriend, who took her to the sheriff’s annex.
When deputies went to the home, the address of which was redacted from the arrest report due to the domestic nature of the case, Joyce appeared to be intoxicated.
He was arrested on a charge of battery by strangulation. He was booked at the Sumter County Detention Center where he was initially held without bond.