A Villager who apparently lost it over a longstanding parking dispute in his villa community scored a legal victory in court.
James William Coats, 76, who lives in the La Cresenta Villas in the Village of Santiago, had been arrested April 11 after arming himself with a claw hammer and threatening the owner of an oversized work truck which has been at the center of a long-running parking dispute.
Earlier this month in Sumter County Court, Coats’ attorney J. Scott Herman was successful in getting the charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon reduced to a less serious charge of improper exhibition of a weapon.
The former Eaton Rapids, Mich. resident remains free on bond.
Residents of the villa community spoke out in January about the truck which they claimed had been a problem for a year. They complained before the Community Development District 2 Board of Supervisors that the truck’s owner was running a business out of his home. They also claimed that the truck was noisy and spewing diesel exhaust. Coats was one of those who took to the podium.
Things obviously reached a boiling point in April when Coats grabbed the claw hammer and started down the driveway. Coats, using an expletive, threatened to kill the truck’s owner, who lifted his shirt and exposed a pistol. That prompted Coats’ wife to seize the hammer from her husband. The truck’s owner had a valid concealed weapons permit, the report noted.
