Official’s arrest triggers claim of excessive force
Vice mayor charged with resisting arrest, firearms violations.
OCEAN RIDGE — Ocean Ridge Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella was arrested Saturday after police say he fired shots from a gun, then violently resisted officers.
But Lucibella’s attorney says it was the arresting police officer who committed the crime, using “excessive force” that resulted in three broken ribs and a black eye for the vice mayor.
Ocean Ridge Police Chief Hal Hutchins said his office is conducting an internal investigation, but not on the arresting officer. Instead, a probe has begun on the actions of a second man, Ocean Ridge police Lt. Steven Wohlfiel, who was with Lucibella and, according to the arrest report, “obviously intoxicated.”
Wohlfiel, one of two lieutena nt s i n t he de pa r t ment who report directly to the chief, will be assigned unspecified “alternate duties” during the investi- gation, Hutchins said.
The vice mayor is facing charges of resisting arrest with violence, firing a weapon in residential or public property and using a firearm under the influence of alcohol. He was released from the Palm Beach County Jail after posting a $3,000 bond.
Police were called Saturday about 9 p.m., to the 5700 block of Old Ocean Boulevard, north of Woolbright Road, after reports of shots fired. Officers checking the area found Lucibella, 63, outside his home sitting on patio chairs alongside Wohlfiel, the report said.
As officers approached, Lucibella placed a handgun on a chair and sat on top of it, the report said.
Several spent shells were found in the area.