Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Joel Eric Batchler, 35, of Orlando, was arrested on Tuesday after allegedly entering an occupied house in the Duck Pond area and then spitting on a paramedic. He was booked into the jail yesterday.
At about 11:16 a.m. on November 5, a Gainesville Police Department officer responded to a house in the 700 block of NE 7th Avenue, where the owner said Batchler had entered her house without being invited. The victim said she asked him to leave and told him she was calling 911, but he continued into the house, entered a bedroom, and locked the door.
The responding officer found the victim outside her house and found the bedroom door locked. Batchler was reportedly found in the bedroom and allegedly resisted efforts to place him in handcuffs. Batchler was transported to a hospital and allegedly spit on an Alachua County Fire Rescue paramedic in the ambulance.
Batchler has been charged with burglary of an occupied dwelling, battery on a paramedic, trespassing in an occupied structure, and resisting an officer without violence. Batchler’s criminal history is unavailable, but he has not served any prison sentences in Florida. Judge Adam Lee set bail at $20,000.