A 32-year-old Palm Bay woman dropping off her mother for medical treatment faces charges she attacked and spit on a patient during a dispute over parking in front of a hospital emergency room.
Sharmaine Richardson was charged with violation of probation and battery after Palm Bay police reviewed the incident that was recorded by hospital surveillance cameras of a disturbance at Palm Bay Hospital,1425 Malabar Road.
Police said the victim, who was checking out of the facility and in a wheelchair after g knee surgery, was rolled out of the hospital Thursday by a family member to a waiting car when Richardson pulled up to the emergency room entrance.
Police said Richardson honked the horn and was acting erratically as it came up behind the car belonging the victim’s mother.
Police said Richardson cursed the victim as she demanded that the car be moved because her mother was having a medical emergency. Richardson went inside the hospital to get help for her mom but returned to argue with the victim, who had gotten out of the wheelchair so that Richardson’s mother could use it, reports show.
Police said Richardson first swung at the woman but missed, then spit on her and struck her in the upper chest before getting into her car and driving off. Police talked to several witnesses and reviewed the security camera footage before taking Richardson into custody.
Richardson, who was released Tuesday from the Brevard County Jail Complex after posting a $1,500 bond, will have a June 25 hearing on the charges.
