Alex Zivojinovich intervened as deputies were escorting his son off the property, and tried to push his son in an opposite direction.
The situation then escalated.
As a deputy was using a stun gun to subdue Justin Zivojinovich, Alex Zivojinovich charged up a stairwell to go to the aid of his son. A deputy acknowledged that he then punched Alex Zivojinovich in the face to stop him from assaulting another officer.
Alex Zivojinovich is accused of pushing a female deputy down the stairwell onto a concrete floor, causing her head injuries that required medical treatment.
Justin Zivojinovich, who is facing a third-degree felony assault charge, gave a much different account of the fracas in a telephone interview with the Naples Daily News the day after the incident.
He said his father had his nose broken by deputies, and as he was spitting out the blood from the injuries, deputies assaulted him again. He also said his father didn't push the female deputy down the stairs as stated in arrest reports. Instead, Justin Zivojinovich said, the deputy tumbled down the stairs as she pushed him down the stairwell. He said he was just trying to have a joyous New Year's Eve when he got onto the stage.
"I was singing Happy New Year's, that's all I was doing, singing to the whole crowd. That's all I said, 'Happy New Year,'" he said. "Everyone was enjoying themselves." Those ARE rather drastically different accounts, aren't they? I would guess that a plea may still be in order - I'm sure the defense is trying to get the felonies reduced to misdemeanors and no additional jail time. The guy has hardly been a hellion in the past.
I took at look at Rush's The Spirit Of Radio: Greatest Hits 1974-1987 here.
Article comments
1 - Grotto
More stories about American police goons, and their desire to be able to treat people like the US military tortured Iraqi's in Abu Gharib concentration camp, errrr Prison, yea, thats it, prison.
"The home of the free" I think not.
2 - Eric Olsen
cops get out of hand from time to time everywhere, and the defendants hardly seem to be free of blame here - to go from this foolishness to terrorist interrogations seems a bit of a stretch
3 - Chris
Police abuse stun guns. They are potentially lethal, high voltage dangerous electric shock that disables the victims nervous system.
Police use this to get compliance to commands on unarmed persons. This is wrong. They were originally supposed to ba an alternative to deadly force, not a control mechanism for use on drunk kids.