Prosecutors to pursue charges against Ocean Ridge official

The town of Ocean Ridge’s vice mayor will face criminal charges for allegedly holding a Glock pistol while drunk at his home in October, the prosecutors’ office confirmed Thursday.

Richard Lucibella is charged with firearm use while under the influence of alcohol, resisting an officer with violence and battery on a law enforcement officer, said Mike Edmonson, spokesman for the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office.

Lucibella has pleaded not guilty to all three counts.

An Ocean Ridge police officer responded to Lucibella’s Old Ocean Boulevard home the night of Oct. 22 after someone reported shots were fired nearby, according to a police report.

The officer found Lucibella, 63, and Ocean Ridge police Lt. Steven Wohlfiel, 48, who both were “obviously intoxicated” in the back of the home, according to the affidavit.

Police say Lucibella was holding .40-caliber Glock loaded with a magazine that had seven rounds, which an officer later grabbed.

After officers seized another handgun that had been in Lucibella’s back pocket, the vice mayor became “belligerent” and wanted to go inside his home, where officers knew he had more firearms, police said.

Lucibella poked an officer in the chest multiple times and a scuffle ensued, according to the report, resulting in the Ocean Ridge official’s arrest.

His attorney, Marc Shiner, has accused police of using excessive force, which he said left his client with three broken ribs and his eye severely injured.

Shiner said Thursday that the Ocean Ridge officers who responded to Lucibella’s house have given three different descriptions of what took place. “There’s some fishy stuff going on here,” Shiner said.

Ocean Ridge Police Chief Hal Hutchins said Thursday that Wohlfiel is under an ongoing internal review, and has “been given an alternate work assignment” in the meantime.

Lucibella