'Drama' leads to fist, shoe making contact with face

From the Charlotte Sun in Florida
Nov. 26, 2007

One of the four men at the pier with the woman punched the victim in the head hard enough to knock him out. The victim also had a shoeprint on his face.


Two men arrested following fight

A man reportedly suffered severe internal head injuries after four people beat him at Spring Lake Park's fishing pier in Port Charlotte, Fla., Charlotte County Sheriff's detectives arrested two men on felony battery charges in connection with the incident, while another two remained at large.

The victim and a woman were arguing around 1 a.m. Friday at the fishing pier at the park, located at 2000 Edgewater Drive, said a CCSO report detailing the woman's statement. Four men arrived and told the couple to "take their drama someplace else," the report said; the man left the pier, but the woman asked the men if she could stay with them because she was afraid of the way the man was yelling at her.

The man returned to the pier and continued to scream at the woman and call her names, the report said. One of the four men at the pier with the woman punched the victim in the head hard enough to knock him out, the report said, and the other three kicked him while he was on the ground. The four men then got into their cars and left. The woman called 9-1-1.

When Charlotte County Fire and EMS arrived, medical personnel found the victim had serious head injuries and a cut to his lower back, which the victim attributed to being stabbed with a bottle. The victim also had a shoeprint on his face, the report said. He was taken by helicopter to Lee Memorial Hospital in Fort Myers.

Before 3 a.m., CCSO deputies stopped a car that matched the description of one of those at the scene. Inside were Luke Joseph Trotta, 23, of Orlando, and Benjamin Gerald James, 19, of 1253 Pike Ave., Port Charlotte. The woman from the pier identified both as people she had seen kicking the victim, the report said, but during interviews at the Sheriff's Mid-County Station, both denied participating in the fight. In separate interviews, they said their friends had been involved, but they themselves had not kicked the victim.

Trotta and James were arrested on a charge of felony battery each. They were released from the Charlotte County Jail after each posted $15,000 bond. The victim was discharged from Lee Memorial Hospital on Saturday.