A Vero Beach man who told deputies he believed a woman was possessed by the devil was sentenced Thursday to nine months in jail after pleading no contest to false imprisonment and battery charges stemming from a struggle at a Highway 1 motel. Frank Joseph Lagola had already spent 297 days in custody awaiting the outcome of his case, more than enough to satisfy the sentence under Florida law.
According to WPEC, Indian River County Sheriff's Office deputies responded to the Econo Lodge at 950 U.S. Highway 1 on December 23 after a witness reported hearing a woman screaming for help. That witness told deputies they saw a man restraining a woman in the hotel doorway and preventing her from leaving, and separately heard a woman yell, “Stop, rape, help me,” before watching a man appear to drag her back into the room.
Woman Says She Was Pinned Down and Struck
The woman, identified by the station as Coppeto, had been staying at the hotel for about a week and told deputies she wanted to leave the room. She alleged that Lagola threw holy water on her and physically restrained her, telling her she was not going anywhere. Coppeto told deputies Lagola pinned her down and struck the top of her head, and said she screamed for help because she had no cellphone and could not physically get away from him. Deputies found the woman visibly wet and shaken when they arrived, the station's report states.
Lagola's own account, laid out in the arrest affidavit as described by the outlet, differs sharply in motive but not in the physical details. He said he believed Coppeto was possessed by the devil after she began speaking in Latin, and said he was trying to perform an exorcism, admitting he held her down while reading Bible passages. He was arrested on charges of false imprisonment and battery and held at the St. Lucie County Jail until sentencing, since Indian River and St. Lucie counties both fall under Florida's 19th Judicial Circuit, which according to the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida also spans Martin and Okeechobee counties under a shared judicial system.
How the Charges and Sentence Fit Florida Law
False imprisonment under Florida Statute § 787.02 covers forcibly, secretly, or by threat confining or restraining another person against their will without legal authority, and it is classified as a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in state prison and a $5,000 fine, per The Florida Senate. Simple battery under Florida Statute § 784.03 involves intentionally touching or striking another person against their will or causing bodily harm, and is a first-degree misdemeanor carrying up to a year in county jail and a $1,000 fine, the Senate's statute also shows.
Unlike kidnapping under Florida Statute § 787.01, a first-degree felony carrying up to life imprisonment, false imprisonment involves the same kind of physical restraint without requiring prosecutors to prove specific intent such as holding someone for ransom or to terrorize them, according to the Brancato Law Firm, P.A. That distinction helps explain why prosecutors pursued the lesser charge despite the severity of the allegations.
False imprisonment is also categorized as a Level 6 offense scoring 36 primary points under Florida's Criminal Punishment Code, meaning a state prison sentence isn't statutorily mandatory and trial judges retain discretion to impose probation or county jail time instead, the Sammis Law Firm explains. That discretion is what allowed a judge to resolve Lagola's case with a nine-month jail sentence rather than a prison term.
Nearly a Year Already Served
Florida Statute § 921.161 requires sentencing judges to grant criminal defendants full day-for-day credit against their final sentence for all time spent in county jail before formal sentencing, per the Senate's statute on the matter. Because Lagola had already accumulated 297 days in pre-trial detention, well beyond the roughly 270 days that make up a nine-month term, his sentence was effectively satisfied the moment it was entered.
The Econo Lodge where the incident unfolded is a 66-room, two-story limited-service hotel along U.S. Highway 1 in downtown Vero Beach, roughly 2.4 kilometers from the city center, according to Travel Weekly. It isn't the first time deputies have been called to that address over a report of someone being physically restrained: in November 2019, Indian River County Sheriff's deputies responded to a domestic disturbance at the same property after a woman reported a man yelling and forcibly preventing her from entering her vehicle, according to Vero News.
