A member of one of Sumter County’s most prominent and influential families has been ordered to seek a substance abuse evaluation after she was kicked out of a bar earlier this year.
Summer Yoder, 46, of Wildwood, pleaded no contest Tuesday in Marion County Court to charges of battery on a law enforcement officer, trespassing and resisting arrest. A charge of disorderly intoxication and a second charge of battery on a law enforcement officer were dismissed as part of the plea arrangement.
Judge Timothy McCourt ordered Yoder to seek a substance evaluation and follow any recommended treatment. She was also ordered not to consume or possess alcohol. She has been placed on probation for two years and has been ordered to perform 200 hours of community service at a rate of 16 hours per month. However, she was granted the option of “buying out” of community service at a rate of $20 per hour.
Yoder was found to be “highly intoxicated” when law enforcement was called at about 1 a.m. May 19 to the Dallas Inn on U.S. 301 in Summerfield, according to an arrest report from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. A bartender asked that Yoder, a member by marriage of the Yoder family that operates the T&D family of companies that includes concrete, pools and stucco, be removed from the premises.
Yoder, a former fitness trainer at what was then known as MVP Athletic Club in The Villages, refused to cooperate with law enforcement, after she was told more than 15 times she needed to leave the Dallas Inn. She was also told that due to her level of intoxication, she would need to get a ride or walk. She refused to leave and headed for the bar.
A deputy attempted to place handcuffs on Yoder, a martial arts enthusiast. She pulled her arms apart and “spun her body towards” the deputy, the report said. A second deputy was summoned to assist with handcuffing Yoder, who continued thrashing and resisting the deputies, knocking a body camera off one of the deputies. Even after she was handcuffed, she kicked a deputy in the shin with her shoe.
The deputies wrangled Yoder into a squad car, but she was able to slip out of her handcuffs. She “yelled profanities” at the deputy as she was driven to the Marion County Jail. She used her feet to kick the plexiglass in the squad car, “with such force” that the plexiglass hit the headrest behind the deputy’s head.
During the booking process at the jail, Yoder broke free from four correctional officers, before she was finally shackled.
In 2020, Yoder was arrested after she was found behind the wheel of a Chevrolet SUV on County Road 105 not far from the Goodwill Superstore in Oxford. A search of her purse turned up 5.3 grams of leafy marijuana and a pipe with the residue of marijuana. She also had 32.7 grams of THC oil. Yoder hired defense attorney Jaimie Washo Spivey who was able to get the case dismissed.
In January of this year, Yoder was ticketed on a charge of speeding, but the charge was dismissed after she went to traffic school. She had also received a ticket for an expired license plate and paid a $113 fine, according to Sumter County Court records.
As a result of the plea deal reached this week, Yoder is barred from returning to the Dallas Inn.
