OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — A Vietnam veteran is suing the Osceola County Sheriff's Office on claims that he never should have been arrested. Harvey Rothman told WFTV he was just defending his home in 2009 when he pulled a gun on a woman his wife thought was trying to rob them, but two months later he says he was hauled to jail.
RAW INTERVIEWS: Rothman Couple | Alpha Lacy
"I was frightened. It was someone I didn't know and didn't recognize," Sheryl Rothman told WFTV (watch interview).
Together 45 years, Sheryl says her husband has always been her protector.
"He's always been there for me," she told WFTV, crying.
And that's what Harvey says he was doing when he grabbed his .45-caliber and held Alpha Lacy at gunpoint.
"All of a sudden he comes up like this and says, 'Get on the F-ing ground," Lacy told WFTV (watch interview).
Lacy is a process server. She entered the Rothman's property to serve them a subpoena.
"I said, 'This can't be happening. I just came to do my job. This can't be happening,'" Lacy explained.
She says she showed Rothman her ID, but he wasn't convinced.
"My fear was that this was someone trying to do a home invasion, that she had an accomplice in the car or hiding around the house," Harvey told WFTV.
Sheryl called 911, but it was Harvey that ended up under arrest for pulling the gun on Lacy. Months later, a judge dismissed the felony charges against him, ruling that Rothman had a right to protect himself.
There isn't just one no trespassing sign on the Rothman's property; there are a total of four the process server ignored when she went through an opening in the gate. By law, only government workers and emergency personnel are allowed to go beyond the signs.
"If I had known I had no right to go on his property, I wouldn't have gone," Lacy told WFTV.
She still says Harvey deserved to be arrested, but he and his attorney feel quite the opposite.
"This is a fundamental, American right. These are rights to private property," Rothman's attorney said.
"I think I should be commended for the restraint I showed, because I didn't shoot her," Harvey told WFTV.
The Osceola County Sherriff's Office told WFTV they were only acting on orders from the State Attorney's Office.
WFTV
