A Lady Lake police lieutenant has been allowed to return home following his arrest earlier this year after an alleged altercation with his wife.
Nelson Vargas, 50, has been granted permission to return to his home in Minneola following his arrest there on Aug. 13 on charges of domestic battery and child abuse. Vargas is no longer facing the child abuse charge as it has been dismissed. He is still facing the domestic battery charge.
A judge has granted a motion from Vargas’ attorney allowing Vargas to return to the residence from which he had been banned after his arrest.
His return comes with some conditions set by the judge:
• He must enroll in couple’s counseling.
• He and his wife cannot discuss the criminal case unless a counselor is present.
• He must enroll in Alcoholics Anonymous and attend weekly meetings.
Hours prior to his arrest, Vargas had been texting his wife while she was out to dinner with a friend, according to an arrest report from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office. The texts were “vulgar in nature.” The wife blocked Vargas’ messages, the report said. When she arrived home, Vargas was sitting on the couch, drinking beer and playing loud music. She asked Vargas to turn down the music. She went upstairs, but when she returned downstairs, Vargas used vulgar language and ordered her to go to sleep. She took his beer and poured it down the sink in the kitchen. He shoved her and grabbed her by the arm. Their 11-year-old daughter witnessed what was happening and told Vargas to stop. He pushed her and told her to “mind her own business,” the report said. She ran crying to a bedroom where she locked the door. Her mother headed for the bedroom, but Vargas shoved her to the floor of a nearby bathroom. The daughter emerged from the bedroom and saw her crying mother on the floor. A call was placed to 911.
The prosecutor’s office announced in September the child abuse charge was being dismissed. In a court document, the prosecutor’s office indicated that it had no choice but to drop the child abuse case because Vargas’ wife refused to allow their daughter to be interviewed directly by a member of the prosecutor’s office.
Vargas joined the Lady Lake Police Department in February 2017. Vargas was promoted in June 2018 to the rank of corporal and became a field training officer, training new members of the department. In 2019, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. Prior to joining the force in Lady Lake, Vargas served as a police officer for 23 years in his hometown of East Hampton, N.Y.
He remains free on bond and is on administrative leave from the Lady Lake Police Department.
