An Ocala man was arrested recently after his lady friend claimed he battered her and smashed her $200 cell phone.
The victim said 31-year-old Matthew Stephen Beach was “visually aggravated” with her and became angry when she asked him to speak with her. She said he left the residence and she followed him in her vehicle and attempted to get him to speak with her again, a sheriff’s office report states.
The victim said Beach reached through the driver’s side door of her vehicle and attempted to grab her phone out of her left hand. She said she attempted to hide it but Beach grabbed her arm, took the phone and smashed it on the ground, the report says.
Beach then tore the passenger-side door handle off the vehicle, causing about $1,000 in damage, the report says. The victim said he climbed into back passenger side of her vehicle without her permission and she drove back to the residence, where Beach became angry and left on his bicycle, the report says.
Deputies located Beach in the 1900 block of N.E. 28th Street and after being read his rights, he said he didn’t mean to break anything. He at first said he accidentally broke the victim’s phone but then said he didn’t break it. He then said he and the victim had come to an agreement about him paying her back for the phone and the only reason she called law enforcement was because she was mad at him for leaving, the report says, adding that Beach denied touching the victim or entering the vehicle by the driver’s-side window.
Beach was placed under arrest and transported to the Marion County Jail, where deputies discovered that he had been convicted of criminal mischief on March 29, felony battery on March 16, 2017 and domestic battery on Sept. 6, 2016. He was then charged with criminal mischief, battery (second or subsequent offense), larceny/petit theft and a violation of probation on a previous charge of criminal mischief. He was being held on $5,500 bond on the new charges and no bond on the probation violation and is due in court May 24 and June 1, jail records show.