An Illinois snowbird was arrested after allegedly attacking a police officer at a town square in The Villages.
A bartender at Spanish Springs Town Square shortly after 7 p.m. Tuesday flagged down a police officer and reported that “an intoxicated male” had entered her drink hut and also attempted to step on stage at the Gazebo, according to an arrest report from the Lady Lake Police Department. The bartender had asked the officer to remove the man, identified as 66-year-old Douglas Raymond Behrens of Beecher, Ill., for the night.
The officer asked Behrens to speak with him and step away from the crowd. Instead, Behrens balled up his fists, pushed the officer in the chest and took a swing at him. The officer attempted to handcuff Behrens, who stands 5 feet 11 inches and weighs 191 pounds, who pulled away from the officer. The officer took Behrens to the ground, but Behrens continued to struggle with the officer, who suffered a laceration to the head. Even after he was handcuffed, Behrens continued to resist arrest. It took three officers to secure him in the backseat of a patrol car.
Behrens, who owns a home in the Callahan Villas in the Village of Osceola Hills but receives his tax bill at his home in Illinois, was arrested on felony charges of battery of a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest with violence as well as a misdemeanor charge of disorderly intoxication. He was booked at the Lake County Jail and released after posting $10,500.
