A Villager is poised to escape prosecution on a charge of battery after completing an anger management class.
Darren Louis Epstein, 56, of the Village of Waters Edge, has been allowed to enter into a pre-trial intervention contract in order to avoid prosecution on a charge of battery. One of the terms of the contract was for him to complete an anger management class, which he has done, according to documents on file in Sumter County Court.
The New York native was arrested on the night of Dec. 23 at his home on Tippett Trail.
The first officer on the scene heard what sounded like a physical altercation coming from the open garage at the home, according to an arrest report from the Wildwood Police Department. The officer spotted Epstein as he was shoving a woman “multiple times.” The force of the interaction broke the strap on the woman’s pink purse. The woman was crying, and Epstein was yelling at her to leave the residence.
Interviewed separately, the woman told police that Epstein had picked her up earlier in the day to celebrate her birthday. An argument broke out when Epstein asked the woman for help spelling a word. Rather than providing help, Epstein felt the woman was “disrespecting” him. He demanded an apology.
Epstein began recording the woman with his phone. He threatened to turn the footage over to her employer. She pushed a Christmas tree and overturned patio furniture in frustration over being recorded.
The woman told police that she and Epstein had been in a romantic relationship for three months.