Can I Bum a Smoke?

A woman arrived at her home on Marco Island, Fla., at 6:00 a.m. on January 30, 2010, and Travis J. Ballenger, 29, was waiting for her. He allegedly asked if they could "hook up," police reports say, and she turned him down.

Ballenger allegedly didn't take no for an answer, and pushed her onto a sofa and started to undo her pants. Understandably, the woman screamed, and a male friend, Bernard Victor Cushman, 30, came into the room and ordered Ballenger to leave. When he didn't, Cushman allegedly started beating Ballenger, and then another friend, John William Purkey, 28, allegedly also came into the room to assist in the beating.

Police arrived and arrested all three men -- Ballenger was charged with battery, sexual battery, and assault on a law enforcement officer. Cushman was charged with battery and aggravated assault, and Purkey was charged with battery.

Cushman and Purky were also charged with (cough) attempting to smuggle contraband into the jail -- "jail deputies found they had shoved cigarettes up their rectums to sneak the smokes inside," the Naples News report notes. Got a light?

Ballenger:

Cushman:

Purkey:

Source: Naples News

Update

On 21 January 2011, we received this letter purporting to be from Ballenger, posted from Slidell, Louisiana:

To whom it may concern,

I was arrested and wrongfully charged on Jan 31st 2010. All charges were dropped and state never filed charges because the whole thing was a cover up to protect the others involved to be arrested for what really took place. Anyways, whenever my name gets entered into any search engine your site along with 6 others pop up with my name being smeared all over it with an erroneous charge. I would please like you take this down off of your site. You have no idea what it's like to explain and defend yourself from something as bad as this especially since it's not true and it was a false accusation. If you look into this you will see that the charges were dropped and never filed to begin with. Thank you for your time and helping me resolve this matter without hiring an attorney.

Sincerely,
Travis Ballenger

Make up your mind: were the "charges dropped" or "never filed"? You didn't bother to provide any links to back up your claim, and you threaten to "hire an attorney" ...to do what, exactly? Complain that we summarized the news reports of the case correctly? I've reviewed the source material, and it's clear to me that it was, in fact, summarized by our writers very nicely. We note on the About Us page that it's difficult to get us to take down a post. You did a piss-poor job of convincing us: you can put your threats where your friends put their cigarettes. -RC

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