Teh One Who Knocks
05-26-2011, 02:40 PM
By ANDREW GANT, Daytona Beach News-Journal Staff writer
http://i.imgur.com/BQJpd.jpg
Virginia Graham's new partial dentures felt like they were slicing and scraping her gums raw. So, on Tuesday, she took them to her dentist.
She got a few more cuts and bruises when she got there.
Graham, 85, and her Deltona dentist scuffled Tuesday afternoon in a dental "tug-of-war" that ended in the dentist's arrest on four felony charges, including false imprisonment. Volusia County deputies said he kept the Orange City woman at his office when she wanted to leave.
Dr. Michael G. Hammonds, of Elkcam Dental on Deltona Boulevard, went to jail as Volusia County sheriff's deputies sent Graham home with her son, who came along to get his teeth cleaned Tuesday.
"I look like I butchered a hog," Graham said Tuesday night, several hours after the incident that left blood splattered on her blouse and across her hands and arms.
Sheriff's deputies said the skirmish began just after noon when an adjustment of Graham's painful lower partial dentures didn't go as planned. Hammonds, 57, was adjusting the teeth when Graham started screaming in pain, sheriff's spokesman Brandon Haught said.
"She yanked them out and flung them at Hammonds, demanding a refund," Haught said. Hammonds told deputies she climbed out of the operating chair and tried to knock him down.
When Hammonds refused the refund, Graham reached to grab back her $900 set of teeth -- which the dentist had caught.
"Hammonds held on to the partials as Graham tried to pull them away from him and a brief tug-of-war ensued," the responding deputy, Paul Mele, wrote in Hammonds' arrest report. Hammonds, as he tugged, was screaming in Graham's face, she said.
"He was right down in my face, I mean right down in my face, saying, 'Get out of here and don't you ever come back! We don't want nothing to do with you!' " she said. "He said, 'Your momma should have whupped you 100 times when you were little, because you're crazy.' I said, 'Don't bring my momma into this.' "
The tug-of-war continued as the pair scuffled down the dentist's hallway. Finally, with a sharp piece of the dentures "digging into her finger," Graham bit Hammonds' hand to make him let go. Then she headed for the exit and opened the door to leave.
Hammonds pushed it shut, scraping her leg with the edge of the door, she said. He wouldn't let her leave, instead holding her in the office to wait for deputies and paramedics. "Whenever she reached for the door handle, he grabbed her arms," Haught said. Graham said Hammonds told her he was going to have her arrested.
An employee called 9-1-1, telling a dispatcher: "I have a patient that just bit one of the doctors, and I need an officer over here."
Graham climbed on a receptionist's desk, hoping to escape through a window, before employees convinced her to come down.
When two deputies arrived at the office, Graham told one she was so afraid she thought she might have a heart attack. Later Tuesday night, when she heard Hammonds was arrested instead, she said she felt "wonderful."
The dentist -- charged with false imprisonment, both battery and assault on a person older than 65, and grand theft -- was booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail, where he posted $4,000 bail and was released Tuesday night. He could not be reached for comment.
Graham, whose painful $900 dentures are now sitting on a desk in her house, said she hopes to find another dentist who can help her.
"For a man to pick on an 85-year-old woman -- what in the world could I do to him?" she said. "Other than put that little bite on him."
http://i.imgur.com/BQJpd.jpg
Virginia Graham's new partial dentures felt like they were slicing and scraping her gums raw. So, on Tuesday, she took them to her dentist.
She got a few more cuts and bruises when she got there.
Graham, 85, and her Deltona dentist scuffled Tuesday afternoon in a dental "tug-of-war" that ended in the dentist's arrest on four felony charges, including false imprisonment. Volusia County deputies said he kept the Orange City woman at his office when she wanted to leave.
Dr. Michael G. Hammonds, of Elkcam Dental on Deltona Boulevard, went to jail as Volusia County sheriff's deputies sent Graham home with her son, who came along to get his teeth cleaned Tuesday.
"I look like I butchered a hog," Graham said Tuesday night, several hours after the incident that left blood splattered on her blouse and across her hands and arms.
Sheriff's deputies said the skirmish began just after noon when an adjustment of Graham's painful lower partial dentures didn't go as planned. Hammonds, 57, was adjusting the teeth when Graham started screaming in pain, sheriff's spokesman Brandon Haught said.
"She yanked them out and flung them at Hammonds, demanding a refund," Haught said. Hammonds told deputies she climbed out of the operating chair and tried to knock him down.
When Hammonds refused the refund, Graham reached to grab back her $900 set of teeth -- which the dentist had caught.
"Hammonds held on to the partials as Graham tried to pull them away from him and a brief tug-of-war ensued," the responding deputy, Paul Mele, wrote in Hammonds' arrest report. Hammonds, as he tugged, was screaming in Graham's face, she said.
"He was right down in my face, I mean right down in my face, saying, 'Get out of here and don't you ever come back! We don't want nothing to do with you!' " she said. "He said, 'Your momma should have whupped you 100 times when you were little, because you're crazy.' I said, 'Don't bring my momma into this.' "
The tug-of-war continued as the pair scuffled down the dentist's hallway. Finally, with a sharp piece of the dentures "digging into her finger," Graham bit Hammonds' hand to make him let go. Then she headed for the exit and opened the door to leave.
Hammonds pushed it shut, scraping her leg with the edge of the door, she said. He wouldn't let her leave, instead holding her in the office to wait for deputies and paramedics. "Whenever she reached for the door handle, he grabbed her arms," Haught said. Graham said Hammonds told her he was going to have her arrested.
An employee called 9-1-1, telling a dispatcher: "I have a patient that just bit one of the doctors, and I need an officer over here."
Graham climbed on a receptionist's desk, hoping to escape through a window, before employees convinced her to come down.
When two deputies arrived at the office, Graham told one she was so afraid she thought she might have a heart attack. Later Tuesday night, when she heard Hammonds was arrested instead, she said she felt "wonderful."
The dentist -- charged with false imprisonment, both battery and assault on a person older than 65, and grand theft -- was booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail, where he posted $4,000 bail and was released Tuesday night. He could not be reached for comment.
Graham, whose painful $900 dentures are now sitting on a desk in her house, said she hopes to find another dentist who can help her.
"For a man to pick on an 85-year-old woman -- what in the world could I do to him?" she said. "Other than put that little bite on him."