A disagreement over how a pickleball event should be played at Ave Maria's Oasis Club turned physical earlier this month, ending with a 73-year-old man arrested on a battery charge after he allegedly shoved a woman and grabbed a slow cooker off a nearby table. Steven DeMaio was taken into custody Oct. 21, nearly three weeks after the confrontation at the Del Webb community's resident-only club.
The dispute unfolded Oct. 3 at a pickleball event at the Oasis Club, according to a Collier County Sheriff's Office arrest report cited by gulfcoastnewsnow.com. DeMaio reportedly showed up with paperwork laying out his preferred format for the event, and he grew upset when the group rejected it. When the woman who had dismissed his proposal turned her back on him, the report says, DeMaio shoved her from behind.
Shove Sent Her Into a Bystander
The force of the alleged shove knocked the woman into a witness who was standing nearby, per the same account relayed by gulfcoastnewsnow.com. DeMaio then grabbed a slow cooker from a table and advanced toward the woman in what the report describes as an aggressive manner, according to the outlet.
When deputies interviewed DeMaio, he offered a partial version of events. He admitted to grabbing the slow cooker but denied pushing the woman or hitting anyone, the arrest report states, as reported by gulfcoastnewsnow.com. Boston's ROCK 92.9 also picked up the account, noting that the woman told deputies she had a dispute with a man over how pickleball was being played that day.
Battery Charge Filed Nearly Three Weeks Later
DeMaio was arrested and now faces a charge of battery, the arrest report confirms. Florida law defines battery as intentionally touching or striking another person against that person's will, or intentionally causing bodily harm, according to the Florida Legislature. Unless another provision applies, the statute classifies battery as a first-degree misdemeanor, though the law also notes that a person with a qualifying prior conviction who commits a subsequent battery can face a third-degree felony.
The Oasis Club at Del Webb Naples is a 55-plus community in Ave Maria with 12 pickleball courts, open only to residents, according to thekitchenpickle.com. The site covers pickleball news nationally and has tracked other confrontations breaking out on courts around the state this year.
Not the Only Court-Side Confrontation in Florida
Elsewhere in Florida, a pickleball dispute near Port Orange also ended in a courtroom this month. Anthony Sapienza, 64, was found guilty of misdemeanor battery on Oct. 15 as part of a plea deal tied to a brawl back in February, per thekitchenpickle.com. Prosecutors had dropped two felony battery counts involving a person 65 or older and reduced an aggravated battery charge down to the misdemeanor as part of that deal.
Sapienza was sentenced to 12 months of probation and an eight-hour anger-management course, and he's now barred from the Spruce Creek Fly-In courts where the fight happened, the site reports. Whether DeMaio will face a similar resolution in the Ave Maria case has not been reported.
