MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – The ex-husband of a Florida mayor has been arrested in Miami Beach on a domestic battery charge.
Kenneth Retzer, the 48-year-old ex-husband of Cape Coral Mayor Marni Sawicki, was arrested early Saturday after Miami Beach police were called to a domestic disturbance in a room at the Fontainebleau.
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According to an arrest report, officers found the unidentified victim with a swollen eye and red throat, sitting on a bed with blood on the sheets. She told police Retzer hit her.
Police said Retzer was bleeding from his face, and there were punch marks in the wall above the bed and near the window.
The woman told police that she and Retzer had been drinking at the hotel nightclub before getting into a fight in their room. She said she got on the bed and tried to fall asleep, but he straddled her and placed his hands over her throat before punching her in the face. She said she fought back, scratching him on the cheek and biting his finger.
A guest in the adjacent room heard the argument and items being broken.
Retzer, a former Cape Coral Fire Department lieutenant, was treated and released from Mount Sinai Medical Center before being jailed.
The woman told police that she and Retzer had been in an intimate relationship since 2013. She said he has been verbally abusive in the past, but he never physically assaulted before.
Sawicki went to a weekend national mayors' convention at the hotel and attended a Friday news conference there. The Miami Herald couldn't reach her for comment Sunday night.