Accused road rage suspect apologizes

BELLEVIEW, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - A Marion County man, Leonard Coon, was thrown in jail, accused of road raging on a woman and slapping a woman right in the face. It all went down at the Diamond Oil gas station on Highway 301. Police say two drivers confronted each other and a woman ended up getting "walloped."

When you track down someone accused of road rage, they don't usually offer any apologies, but Coon did.

“I'm sorry the whole incident happened,” he said in his rural Marion County home, after bonding out of jail.

The police report is a he-said-she-said between Coon and another driver, Nancy Simmons. They blame each other, but the bottom line, according to police, is that a witness saw them arguing, with Coon slowly trying to leave, but blocked by Simmons who was standing behind his car. Then, the standoff turned violent.

“I get out of the car and she comes towards me like this,” Coon says, holding up his fists in a fighting stance, “and I thought she was going to belt me. So I smacked.”

He admits he's scared about what might happen next. “I've got to hire a lawyer. I have no idea what that's going to cost, but you can look around and see I'm not King Midas.”

With 20/20 hindsight, Coon wishes the whole incident had turned out differently.

“I'm so sorry this whole thing happened, I can't find the words to express it. But yeah, if I had to do it over again I wouldn't even look at her. I'd have kept straight on going, which is what I should have done in the first place,” he says, “I admit it.”

Coon is charged with simple battery.  He says he is due in court on December 28.