A financial advisor in The Villages has been arrested on an intimidation charge.
Arthur “Skip” Eugene West, 74, of the Village of Osceola Hills at Soaring Eagle, was booked without bond Sunday night at the Sumter County Detention Center on a Marion County warrant charging him with intimidation. He was taken into custody at a home in the Village of Dunedin. Details of the warrant were not immediately available.
West had been placed on probation earlier this year as the result of a 2022 incident at the Wolfgang Puck restaurant at the Brownwood Hotel & Spa. It was after hours and West, founder and CEO of the West Financial Group, was still at the restaurant, according to an arrest report from the Wildwood Police Department. He was “too intoxicated to put his own shoes on,” and a waitress who was familiar with him attempted to provide assistance after he had fallen. He was helped to his feet and the waitress was walking him to the men’s room where he could clean up.
“You are pretty for a black girl and you are coming home with me tonight,” West told the waitress.
She informed him she was married and had no interest in accompanying him home.
He attempted to pull her into the bathroom with him.
“You are coming in here with me,” he told her.
He clamped his arm around her neck, “completely cutting off her breathing,” the report said.
Once in the bathroom, he grabbed the woman’s hand and placed it on his crotch.
A co-worker grabbed West’s arm and the waitress was able to get away.