A Umatilla man was arrested after calling law enforcement 14 times to harass operators and ask deputies to bring his daughter to him.
A deputy responded to a Mount Dora residence, located at 845 Ruby Court, regarding a wellbeing check on 34-year-old Eddie Lee Tuff and his daughter around 9:45 a.m. Sunday, according to an arrest report from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office. Prior to arrival, the Lake County Communication Center received a call from Tuff who stated that he had not seen his daughter since school let out, and a woman was keeping his daughter from him.
Once at the scene, the deputy met with the woman who stated that Tuff was welcome to come and sit on the front porch with the juvenile to spend time with her. She advised that she had to block Tuff’s phone number due to the sheer volume of harassing calls that he constantly makes. She also informed deputies that he constantly called her a “whor*” and a “hoe” during their phone and text exchanges. The woman was not comfortable letting Tuff take the juvenile away from the residence due to his erratic behavior, the report said.
Deputies then contacted Tuff over the phone to inform him that the woman was not keeping him from seeing the juvenile, and he was able to come see and sit with her on the front porch. Deputies proceeded to leave the area and closed out the call, the report said.
At about 10:15 a.m., Tuff called back on the non-emergency line and stated that he was in a verbal altercation with the woman who was not letting him see the juvenile. Hecontinued to call 911 several times to ask why deputies were not there yet despite them being on their way. When they arrived at the corner of Golden Isle Drive and Ruby Court, a deputy met with Tuff who was immediately verbally hostile and tried to talk over deputies when they questioned him, the report said.
Tuff demanded that deputies go to the house, remove the juvenile from the lawful custody of the woman and bring her to him. He then started to use racial slurs and insults toward the deputies when they did not comply. He would repeatedly call them names when they would try to speak with him to de-escalate and provide assistance. He then demanded a sergeant be enroute as he wanted to file a report against the deputies that were currently on scene, the report said.
While waiting for the sergeant, deputies witnessed Tuff repeatedly use expletive and verbally abusive language toward a customer service representative for a cell phone provider. He became more agitated and began riding his bike toward the woman’s residence. Deputies drove past him to the house and resumed contact with him at the front of the residence, the report said.
Tuff knocked on the door, and the woman exited her house to him yelling that he had “legal rights to his daughter.” He also said that he was going to take her to live with him. The woman tried multiple times to talk to deputies and explain Tuff’s hostile and erratic behavior when he came to the residence after deputies’ previous visit, the report said.
Tuff would not let her speak and kept shouting insults at her, repeatedly calling her a “whor*” and a liar. Deputies then separated the two to try and de-escalate Tuff. He instead used his phone to record the deputies while they again tried to explain the legal process to go through to put a custody arrangement in place, the report said.
However, Tuff continued to become more agitated and then rode away on his bicycle after the homeowner informed deputies that she wanted him trespassed. As he rode away, he continued to taunt deputies and stated that he would just wait for them to leave before he came back to the residence. Deputies tried to explain to him that he was now trespassed from the premises and would be arrested if he returned, the report said.
Shortly after Tuff left the residence, the sergeant came across him as he was repeatedly calling 911 to call the operators “hoes” and using profanity against them. He informed Tuff that if he continued to call, then he would be arrested for misusing 911. Tuff rode away on his bicycle, but the LCSO Comm Center advised that he was calling into 911 again and proceeding to use profanity toward the call takers, the report said.
Deputies began to canvas the area to find Tuff as a result. They found him riding northbound on the sidewalk on the west side of Eudora Road just south of Brown Avenue. They proceeded to place Tuff in handcuffs and removed him from his bicycle, the report said.
While attempting to search Tuff, he started resisting deputies without violence. He kept tensing up and would not comply with directions. He was placed in the back of a patrol car where he proceeded to start kicking the inside of the passenger side rear door, the report said.
Deputies then removed Tuff from the back of the car and assisted him to the ground. While trying to place him in leg shackles, deputies had to use the minimal amount of force necessity to place his left leg in the leg shackle as he continued to tense up his legs. Deputies then secured the other end of the shackle to the chain of the handcuffs behind Tuff’s back. He was then strapped into the back seat of a patrol car, the report said.
While enroute to Lake County Justice Center, Tuff continued to use racial slurs and profane insults toward deputies. When they arrived at LCJ, correction deputies removed Tuff from the back seat of the patrol car. He was still being non-compliant, and when deputies were attempting to remove the leg shackle and handcuffs, he looked back and stated that he wanted to find the deputies out of uniform “on the streets” and “whoop” them. Corrections deputies then secured Tuff and took custody of him, the report said.
The report noted that Tuff called 911 eight times and the non-emergency line six times for 14 non-emergency telephone calls.
Tuff was ultimately charged with public order crimes use 911 or E911 false alarm or info, emergency communication (misuse), resisting officer without violence and two counts of threats toward a public official. Bond was set at $8,000.
