A Villager will avoid prosecution for a second time after allegedly kicking a police officer involved in an investigation after a disturbance at a restaurant in The Villages.
Pamela Lyness, 48, has graduated from Veterans Treatment Court, allowing for the dismissal of a charge of battery on a law enforcement officer.
Lyness, who had escaped prosecution after a 2020 arrest at City Fire by completing an anger management course, was arrested Oct. 22, 2022 after Wildwood police were called to investigate a fight which occurred at Prima Italian Steakhouse at Brownwood Paddock Square.
The first officer on the scene spotted a red Toyota RAV4 attempting to leave the parking lot. During a traffic stop, a passenger in the vehicle was identified as Lyness, who at the time was living in the Crestview Villas in the Village of Buttonwood. Lyness and the driver were reluctant to admit where they had been, the arrest report indicated. Lyness became “argumentative.”
Officers made multiple requests for Lyness to exit the vehicle, but she refused. An officer reached in to unbuckle her seatbelt, but she tensed up and would not cooperate. She was “escorted to the ground” and handcuffed. Police officers continued to try to question her about the incident at the restaurant, but she was “verbally argumentative.” She was seated on a curb, but fell over. When officers tried to put her back into a seated position, she kicked an officer with her right foot. During her interaction with police, the Biloxi, Miss. native was “yelling obscenities and other abusive language.”
In the 2020 incident at City Fire at Lake Sumter Landing, Lyness claimed a man had been “spreading rumors” about her. Lyness spotted the man at an outside table at City Fire and invited him to “fight” her, the arrest report said. When a deputy attempted to speak with Lyness, she showed “irrational behavior.” She was arrested on a charge of battery.