Wife alleges Grayson shoved her; he denies it
A judge has granted a temporary protective injunction against U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson after his wife filed paperwork accusing the Orlando congressman of shoving and injuring her during an incident this past weekend.
Lolita Grayson’s petition for the injunction, dated Monday, says her husband pushed her against a door, causing her to fall to the ground, during a confrontation Saturday at their home on Oak Park Road near Windermere.
In a statement, Alan Grayson’s press secretary, Lauren Doney, wrote that the allegations “are absolutely false, completely unfounded, and clearly designed to vilify and harm Congressman Grayson.”
“Congressman Grayson firmly denies Ms. Grayson’s frivolous accusations,” the statement said.
The incident comes just less than two months after Lolita Grayson filed a divorce petition stating that their marriage of nearly 24 years was “irretrievably broken.”
Asked about the incident, Orange County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Angelo Nieves said in a written response that the agency “is currently conducting a Domestic Violence investigation which is open and active at this point.”
A heavily redacted Sheriff ’s Office document released Tuesday identified Lolita Grayson as the victim in the incident and listed the offense under investigation as domestic-violence battery.
Grayson was not arrested in the incident and is not currently facing any criminal charges.
According to the petition, Lolita Grayson was preparing to take the couple’s two youngest children to a play date when Alan Grayson “showed up, unannounced” and asked to speak with her inside.
After she refused, retrieved his mail and asked him to leave, Alan Grayson “then deliberately and with force pushed [Lolita Grayson] very hard against the front door, causing [her] to fall to the ground as a result,” the petition states.
She told her husband not to touch her, then pushed him in the face and kneed him in the stomach “in order to protect and defend herself” before calling 911, her petition says.
As she was talking to the operator, Alan Grayson told his wife, in the presence of their children, that she “would receive nothing” in their divorce and would be left “in the gutter,” the petition states.
Photos filed by Lolita Grayson’s attorneys with the petition show large bruises to her left leg and left shoulder.
Her complaint alleges that “from time to time” in the past, her husband “has battered [ her] and the parties’ minor children,” though she has not previously sought an injunction against him.
The petition says she now fears for her safety, citing the latest incident and his