He talked about her mama. She talked about him as a father. He wound up in jail
A Vero Beach roommate argument over cleaning a bathroom ended with a 250-pound man arrested on an assault with a deadly weapon charge, according to an arrest report.
The deadly weapon: a mop.
Richard Savage, 44, posted $3,500 bond after Monday afternoon’s arrest by Indian River County Sheriff’s Office.
The report said Savage’s roommate of three months, Corinne Joseph, told IRCSO deputies that they began arguing about rent not being paid. Joseph said she asked Savage when he would finish cleaning the bathroom, as he was supposed to do last month as part of payment for lodging.
“(Savage) began calling her mother a money-grubbing whore who flat backs with her husband because she pays the bills and he doesn’t, which further provoked the argument back and forth,” the report said.
“(Joseph) told (Savage) that he has no right to talk about her family and that DCF should take his kid because he doesn’t provide or act like a father.”
That’s when he got the mop, the report said.
But not to clean the bathroom.
After Savage took a couple of threatening swings that landed within 2 feet of Joseph, the report said he “told her that he was going to smash her m-----------g head in.”
Joseph told the deputy she was on her bed without a way out of the room and “she was in fear for her life.”
The report described Savage as 5-foot-10, over 250 pounds and “very muscular.”
“(Savage) exited the room briefly, came back without the mop and acted like he was going to hit her with his fist,” the report said. “The incident was captured on home surveillance, which I viewed and corroborated the victim’s statement.”
Savage told the deputy there had been an argument, but he didn’t remember threatening Joseph or grabbing a mop.
This story was originally published June 21, 2020 at 2:42 PM.
