Asst. HS athletic director arrested after dispute with neighbor

LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — Police in Lake County said an assistant high school athletic director was arrested after a dispute with a neighbor turned violent.

Tavares High School Assistant Athletic Director Gavin Jones is on paid leave Tuesday after being charged for an alleged burglary at his neighbor Jarrod Long's house.

Residents in a Tavares neighborhood said the tension with Long and the junk in front of his house has been building for quite a while.

"It's just been one thing after another," neighbor Nancy Hill said.

Neighbors think it looks like Long is running a marina out of his front yard. Hill said it often spills out onto the street, and despite complaints Long has refused to clean it up.

"You get to the point that sometimes you just blow up," Hill said.

Police said Jones was drunk Friday night when he and a friend became mad that Long wouldn't move a big boat that was taking up a large part of the street.

Long told investigators the men burst into his house, threatened to kill him, pushed him around and took down the door on the way in. The assistant athletic director and his friend were both arrested.

But neighbors told WFTV Long had it coming and should've listened when they told him to clean up the boats.

"I think he had every right to do it. I mean, maybe not say he was going to kill him," Hill said.

School district officials said Jones has been suspended pending the outcome of his criminal case.

"It's very disheartening because it's obviously a violent action taken by an employee, off campus, off hours nonetheless, but you do take students' safety into mind," Chris Patton with Lake County schools said.

Jones was released from the Lake County Jail on a $25,000 bond.

WFTV