After his wife and daughter were allegedly attacked earlier this month, a Lady Lake police lieutenant is requesting permission to go home. At his residence in Minneola, Nelson Vargas, 50, was taken into custody on August 13 in the early hours. Domestic assault and child abuse are the allegations brought against the former New York police officer. He is still free on a $3,000 bond, but he is still unable to enter his house. He entered a not guilty plea in the matter.
In order to get the court’s approval to let Vargas go home again, an attorney for Vargas filed a request in Lake County Court on Monday. According to the court filing, the victim has no objections to Vargas’ return. According to an arrest complaint from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, he had been messaging his wife on the evening of Aug. 12 while she was out to dinner with a friend. “Vulgar in nature” describes the texts. The article said that Vargas’ wife banned his messages.
Vargas was consuming beer and listening to loud music on the couch when she got home. Vargas was requested to lower the music. Vargas used coarse words and told her to go to sleep when she came back downstairs after going upstairs. She took his beer and emptied the contents down the kitchen sink. He pushed her and seized her arm. Their daughter, age 11, saw what was happening and ordered Vargas to stop.
The report claimed that he shoved her while telling her to “mind her own business.” She bolted the door after running, sobbing, to a bedroom. Vargas pushed her mother into an adjacent bathroom after she tried to enter the bedroom. When the daughter came out of the bedroom, she saw her mother on the floor sobbing. There was a 911 call made. Vargas began working for the Lady Lake Police Division in February 2017.
In June 2018, Vargas was promoted to the rank of corporal and appointed a field training officer, responsible for instructing fresh recruits for the department. He was elevated to the position of lieutenant in 2019. Vargas worked as a police officer for 23 years in his birthplace of East Hampton, New York, before joining the Lady Lake force. Prior to his retirement in 2015, he earned the rank of sergeant. He graduated from West Chester University in Pennsylvania with a degree in criminal justice.
