In her second arrest this year, the Atheists of Florida's legal coordinator was jailed Sunday on a charge of simulating a sex act in the presence of a 10-year-old boy.
Ellenbeth Wachs, 48, of Lakeland, is accused of purposely making noises from inside her home March 13 to pretend as if she were having sex while the boy and his father overheard, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office.
Wachs made the noise in an effort to make the boy stop playing basketball outside her house on Lake Victoria Drive, a complaint affidavit says. She told him to stop shooting baskets because she was trying to sleep.
A Polk County sheriff's detective began investigating after the boy's father, Otto Lehman, filed for an injunction for protection against Wachs in April.
A complaint affidavit says the boy played basketball near Wachs' home about 8:30 a.m. and she yelled through an open window for him to stop.
Lehman and his son, Forrest, returned later and she started to yell "Oh John," repeating it "over and over again and kept increasing the volume until it was a loud scream," according to the complaint affidavit.
Wachs was also moaning and making other sounds that "sounded like a woman experiencing sexual gratification in an extremely loud fashion," the affidavit says. She continued until the father and son left.
On March 3, Wachs was jailed on a charge that she posed as a licensed lawyer. She remained at the Polk County Jail on Tuesday without bail for being arrested while on bail for the previous charge.
John Liguori, a lawyer representing Wachs, said he would schedule a hearing to argue that his client should be released. Wachs, who has multiple sclerosis, requires several types of medication, and her medical needs cannot be properly met while in jail, Liguori said.
He said the State Attorney's Office is using a dispute between neighbors to further prosecute Wachs.
She was trying to get rest after having chemotherapy when she asked the boy to stop playing basketball, Liguori said. He said Wachs was calling to a friend inside her home for help with taking medication.
"There is no simulation of a sex act here," he said. "The kid didn't see anything. Moaning is not a sex act. There is no evidence that a sex act was occurring."
He accused Assistant State Attorney Brad Copley of targeting Wachs on behalf of those who oppose her personal, religious and political views. "For him to deal with something like this is just an extraordinary waste of resources," Liguori said.
In court Monday, Copley denied that Wachs' beliefs were at issue. "We certainly live in a society where a little boy can go outside and shoot hoops," Copley said.
Attempts to reach the Lehmans were unsuccessful.
