A Villager arrested after allegedly knocking a MAGA Club member to the ground during a vigil for Charlie Kirk has a long history of erratic behavior.
Courtney Beth Anderson, 56, of the Village of Glenbrook, was released from the Sumter County Detention Center at 2:34 p.m. Monday after posting $5,000 bond. She is facing a felony charge of battery on a person over the age of 65.
Anderson was “yelling and holding up her middle finger to everyone at the event,” according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. The Sunday afternoon event had been organized at Creekside Medical Center at Lake Sumter Landing to honor Kirk, who was killed by a single bullet this past week at a Utah college campus. Kirk had been hosted about a year earlier by The Villages MAGA Club at the Rohan Recreation Center.
Members of the audience at the vigil were shocked when Anderson, who stands 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighs 185 pounds, knocked 73-year-old Valerie Jamieson of the MAGA Club to the ground.
Paige Booth was in crowd and felt Anderson push past her, toward Jamieson. After Anderson knocked Jamieson to the ground, Booth grabbed Anderson’s shirt.
“Don’t you touch her,” Booth ordered Anderson.
Some men in the crowd moved in and also ordered Anderson to stand back.
“It happened so fast,” Booth said in an interview with Villages-News.com.
She said this is not a time for people to stand idly by and fail to take action.
“It’s not OK,” Booth said. “We have to stand up.”
Courtney Anderson’s history of alarming behavior
This past December, Anderson was arrested after leading a Florida Highway Patrol trooper on a chase at 112 miles per hour. During a traffic stop, she admitted she was “a speed freak.” She also complained about being arrested when Hollywood actors are allowed to drive fast in action movies. She served three days in the Marion County Jail as the result of her arrest on a charge of reckless driving.
In 2016, she was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct after she pulled down her pants and showed her buttocks to fellow customers at Best Buy in Lady Lake. Anderson had been “very argumentative” with store staff. She had been asked to leave the store several times, but refused. She was arrested, but the prosecutor’s office opted not to pursue the case because Anderson had previously been found “not guilty by reason of insanity” in a separate criminal case.
In 2011, she had been living at Avenida De Las Casas near Spanish Springs Town Springs when she was arrested on charges of battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest. Lady Lake police had gone to Anderson’s home to investigate a harassment complaint from the Leesburg Police Department. Anderson charged at an officer and pushed him into a wall. She resisted efforts to be handcuffed. Ultimately, the charges were dismissed due to Anderson’s mental capacity.