How a séance and a football game led to a Florida man getting kicked in the groin, cops say
This was one seance where the cliche, “the devil made me do it,” wouldn’t be a surprising utterance.
According to Charlotte County Sheriff’s deputies, Kenneth Drake wanted to watch “Monday Night Football” on TV after visiting the Veteran’s Memorial in Punta Gorda during the day with his son and his fiancee.
The trio picked up a table and some chairs at a friend’s house to watch the game and then went to Drake’s house in Englewood in Charlotte County, Florida.
That’s when Kristie Leigh Johnson turned up, according to an arrest affidavit, and began doing séances with them on the dining room floor. Drake’s fiancee, Beverly Byrum, told detectives later that Johnson had been drinking straight out of a bottle she’d pulled out of a cupboard.
After the séance, Drake wanted to watch the game. So he went to the living room while his son, Dakota, went to his bedroom, and Byrum went into the kitchen.
Shortly after, Dakota heard a commotion coming from the living room and saw Johnson grabbing his dad’s head and “slinging him down in the hallway,” according to the arrest report.
Drake later told deputies he was hit, bit, grabbed by the hair, and kicked in the testicles by Johnson. He told them his head, back and neck were hurt in the attack.
“He said that she had taken two of three big drinks from the bottle, so he knew that it was going to be a bad night because she gets out of control when she drinks alcohol,” the affidavit said.
According to deputies, Drake said Johnson had taken the TV’s remote out of his hand, said that it belonged to Byrum, and when he tried to get it back from her, that’s when the 45-year-old woman began to beat him.
Drake blacked out when his head hit the floor and he came to as his son helped him get up. He wanted to call 911, the arrest report said, “but Byrum did not want him to because Kristie was her best friend’s daughter and she has six children,” according to deputies.
Byrum separated Drake and Johnson and Drake went outside on the lanai “to avoid further confrontation.”
Dakota told detectives his dad slept on the lanai the rest of the night and Johnson slept on the couch. She was gone when he woke around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Johnson’s mother, Jacqueline Lee, told detectives she had a visit from her daughter and her grandchildren earlier that day after Johnson told her she had had a fight with her husband on Monday before the incident at the Drake house.
Lee didn’t ask her daughter any more questions “because she is afraid of Kristie when she drinks due to her rage,” the affidavit said.
“Lee said that when her daughter drinks alcohol she becomes hateful, argumentative, and wants to fight,” the arrest report said.
Drake was treated Tuesday by Charlotte County Fire Rescue paramedics and taken to Sarasota Memorial Hospital Trauma Unit for his injuries, according to deputies.
Johnson was arrested and charged with battery by intentional touch or strike and booked into Charlotte County Jail on Tuesday.
In March, Johnson was charged with child neglect without great bodily harm by Charlotte County Sheriff’s deputies.
On Wednesday, a second charge was added — violating of probation or community control — because of the child neglect incident in March.
This story was originally published November 16, 2019 at 12:48 PM.
