Broward official acquitted of keying car in homeowner association dispute

A well-known top official in the Broward Property Appraiser’s Office has been acquitted of a charge that he keyed a car as revenge against the president of a Weston homeowners association where his stepdaughter lives.

The long-running squabble, which revolved around complaints that his stepdaughter walked her dog without a leash, has had accusations of hair pulling and biting, and there have been requests for restraining orders.

A jury took less than an hour Thursday to acquit Ron Cacciatore of the misdemeanor vandalism charge.

Cacciatore, who is a fraud investigator in the appraiser’s office, was previously a captain in the Broward Sheriff’s Office and was the righthand man to the late Sheriff Nick Navarro.

Two deep scratches were etched into a 2003 Ford Focus owned by Jacqueline Puglisi, president of the Village Homes at Country Isles association. A surveillance video showed Cacciatore standing between his car and hers in a parking lot on Oct. 13, 2015, when the keying allegedly occurred.

Cacciatore said he did not scratch the car; he had merely gone back to get a bottle of water from his car.

Cacciatore and his stepdaughter, Christine Lynn Ragsdale, have been involved in a bitter battle with association leaders going back at least five years.

“It’s terrible when you’ve been framed for something you didn’t do,” Cacciatore said after the jury’s decision.

Puglisi could not be reached for comment Monday.

While Cacciatore is glad the jury acquitted him, he said its decision is not the end of the case.

He said he is filing an internal affairs complaint against the sheriff’s detective who investigated the case, who he said never interviewed him about the case. He also said he’ll sue Puglisi to pay his attorney’s fees.

The case, originally investigated as a felony, was handled by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office because Broward State Attorney Mike Satz knew Cacciatore too well.