Gunfire leads to a tangle of legal cases

Ex-vice mayor of Ocean Ridge the first to go to court

Late one night in the seaside town of Ocean Ridge, sounds of gunfire suddenly interrupted the quiet.

Three local officers hurried to investigate the 911 calls, eyeing a few homes as the possible source of the shots.

Then they walked up to the house at 5 Beachway North where they saw a man with a loaded .40 caliber Glock pistol on his lap.

Here was Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella, a gun collector who owned the estate. His guest on the back patio? Another familiar face: Police Lieutenant Steven Wohlfiel.

Cops say it was obvious the two had been drinking, and rather than an exchange of pleasantries, tempers flared and quickly escalated into a violent encounter before 9:30 p.m. Oct. 22, 2016.

While no one was shot before or after the cops arrived, what happened that Saturday night is now the focus of three court battles. The first trial, concerning criminal charges against Lucibella, is likely to be scheduled during a hearing Wednesday.

Lucibella — who resigned after the incident — has refused prosecutors’ offers to resolve the case without any time behind bars.

“My client is not interested in a plea deal,” attorney Marc Shiner said. “He maintains his innocence to all the allegations and he intends on clearing his name.”

No one has admitted firing the shots that prompted the police response. What is clear: In additon to Lucibella stepping down, Wohlfiel got fired, one of the responding officers sued Lucibella over her injuries, and Wohlfiel sued the town.

Ocean Ridge, meanwhile, has cleared the three responding officers of any wrongdoing.

The court cases

Lucibella’s defense has announced plans to call 50 witnesses for the upcoming trial before Circuit Judge Meenu Sasser. The list includes virtually all town officials, plus police and medical first-responders, experts on guns, police practices and police use of force, Lucibella’s doctors, and other friends who were at his home that night.

It’s part of a strategy to shift the blame to the cops, by framing it as a case of excessive force.

“The officer jumped the gun … made a false arrest,” Shiner said, calling it a lot of “fishy stuff.”

But Chief Hal Hutchins, who led a two-month investigation of the incident, determined there was no misconduct by the responding officers Richard Ermeri, Nubia Plesnik and Sgt. William Hallahan, who has since retired.

Hutchins, however, called for the firing of Lucibella’s friend, Wohlfiel, 49, who had risen in the ranks through a decade on the force.

Town Manager Jamie Titcomb explained in a letter to Wohlfiel that cops “need to exhibit conduct above reproach, they are held to a higher standard” and Wohlfiel failed to do so.

Rick King, a police union attorney who is helping Wohlfiel challenge the firing in a civil lawsuit, did not return a call left with his assistant. Hutchins said he stands by the investigation.

Lucibella’s defense says the charge of using a gun while under the influence will never hold up, because there is no proof he was drunk or fired any shots.

Lucibella’s requests for blood and breath tests for alcohol use that night went unanswered, Shiner said, noting that the lack of “scientific evidence” is more significant than the officers’ testimony.

The jury will see a video of Lucibella in a holding cell after his arrest.

“He’s clearly not intoxicated,” Shiner said. “The evidence also will show 100 percent that Lucibella did not shoot a firearm.”

Prosecutors have not filed any responses in the court file. The State Attorney’s Office will not comment on the case outside of court, spokesman Mike Edmondson said.

The confrontation

The cops say that right away it was apparent Lucibella and Wohlfiel were drunk, based on their “demeanor and behavior,” and beer and cocktails observed on the patio table. And they noticed spent and live .40 caliber rounds.

Wohlfiel, who was offduty, cursed at his fellow officers to get lost, and at one point during the episode advised, “Nobody’s going to jail. There are no charges here,” according to an investigation.

Lucibella then tried to sit on the Glock, perhaps in an attempt to conceal it, but soon handed it over. He also gave up a second gun from his back pocket upon request, records show.

Officers say that’s when Lucibella became uncooperative and “belligerent” and attempted to enter his home — he said he needed some booze.

The cops say he ignored orders to sit down, and seemed to be itching for a fight.

Officer Ermeri said he then put his hands on Lucibella’s shoulders, blocked the door, and explained he wasn’t about to let Lucibella have access to more firearms believed to be inside the home, then valued at $3.8 million.

Lucibella is the publisher of the nationally distributed weapons report called “S.W.A.T. Magazine,” which is touted as a guide for “the shooting industry” of police, military personnel, and “private citizens committed to home and personal defense.”

In addition to his gun interests, Lucibella is the CEO of a Boynton Beach-based physicians’ network called Accountable Care Options, which seeks to deliver highquality care for Medicare recipients.

The former vice mayor says he lightly poked Ermeri and asked the cop to take his hands off of him.

When Lucibella allegedly tried to push his way past Ermeri and Officer Plesnik, the officers managed to get him on the ground and place him in handcuffs. Lucibella suffered three broken ribs and an injured left eye in the scuffle, according to medical records supplied by his lawyer.

He’s charged with battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting an officer with violence — felonies punishable by a total of 10 years in prison. And he faces a misdemeanor count called using a firearm while under the influence of alcohol.

Police, in consultation with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and prosecutors, decided not to arrest or charge Wohlfiel, who privately owned the Glock pistol held by Lucibella when the officers entered his patio.

But less than three months later, Wohlfiel was out of a job for what his supervisors said were “numerous violations of agency policy.”

Lucibella served on the Ocean Ridge commission for three years. He stepped down six weeks after the incident, announcing, “it would be impossible for me to effectively discharge the duties of my office.”

Along with the criminal case, Lucibella is also defending himself in a civil lawsuit by Plesnik over injuries she says she suffered making the arrest. Her attorney, Richard Slinkman, did not return calls about the claim, which accuses Lucibella of being “physically combative.”

In Lucibella’s response, he argues he’s not at fault because the cop is the one “guilty of negligence and carelessness.”

Lucibella