A snowbird has been allowed to take a six-hour online anger management class to avoid prosecution in a golf cart road rage incident.
Frank Diliddo, 62, who was staying in the Kelsea Villas in the Village of Dunedin, pushed a woman during an altercation on the evening of Jan. 5 after he apparently became enraged because he thought a pair of golf carts had been traveling too slowly, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. A couple had been traveling in two separate golf carts in the Quartz Avenue area of the Village of Dunedin. They were passed by Diliddo, who later slammed on his brakes and began following the couple. The couple stopped their golf carts in the middle of the roadway and Diliddo pulled ahead and used his golf cart to block the path of the other golf carts. Diliddo and the other man “began exchanging words” and pushing each other. The woman stepped in between the two men to try to break up the argument. However, Diliddo, who stands 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighs 240 pounds, pushed the woman to the surface of the roadway, causing an abrasion to her elbow. Diliddo got back in his golf cart and drove away. He drove back by a short time later, but did not stop. A dog walker who witnessed the incident backed up the couple’s account of what had transpired. Diliddo, who had a Massachusetts driver’s license, was arrested on a charge of battery.
The prosecutor’s office offered to dismiss the case if Diliddo completed a six-hour anger management course, which he was allowed to take online. He also paid $660 in restitution to the woman he pushed to the ground.
