An Ocala man known for smiling in his jail mugshots who once donned a pink bra while panhandling on a busy roadway is back behind bars.
Marion County sheriff’s deputies were called to the intersection of SW Hwy. 200 and SW 80th Avenue on Thursday and when they arrived, a man told them he had been in the median when he was pushed from behind by 41-year-old Christopher Todd Piscitelli. He claimed he was almost knocked to the ground and wanted to press charges, a sheriff’s report states.
An eyewitness told deputies she saw Piscitelli push the man from behind when he wasn’t paying attention. Piscitelli said he only remembered giving the man $6, the report says.
Piscitelli told a sheriff’s lieutenant that he only wanted “one or two days of fun and then he would be off the streets.” He was taken into custody and transported to the Marion County Jail, where he was charged with battery. He is being held on $5,000 bond and is due in court Jan. 29 at 8 a.m. to answer to the charge.
Piscitelli is no stranger to the Marion County legal system, having been held in the jail 25 times since May 2008. During those arrests, he’s faced charges – some more than once – of panhandling, disorderly intoxication, trespassing, littering or illegal dumping, disorderly conduct, possession of marijuana not more than 20 grams, disturbing the peace, open container, criminal mischief, petit theft, obstructing or hindering traffic in order to solicit, domestic battery, resisting an officer without violence, driving under the influence, knowingly driving with license suspended or revoked, felony battery and soliciting within a roadway with receipt of money.
Piscitelli, who has been arrested six times in 2019, also was arrested on Nov. 19 and charged with two counts of littering or illegal dumping, disorderly intoxication (causing a disturbance in a public place), a probation violation on a previous trespassing charge and an outstanding warrant for trespassing in a conveyance or structure after warning.
Piscitelli, who lives at 9488 SW 80th Ave. in Ocala, also found himself behind bars in October, twice in April and again in February. In October 2018, he was jailed after he was caught panhandling on SW Hwy. 200 while shirtless and clad in a pink bra with white trim and blue shorts.