Fort Myers Mother Arrested After Deputies Say She Kicked a 13-Year-Old During a Youth Football Game Brawl

A youth football Saturday at Brooks Park ended with a parent in the Lee County Jail. Renee Lambert, 34, was arrested Saturday on charges of child abuse without great bodily harm and resisting an officer without violence after deputies say she charged onto the football field and repeatedly kicked a 13-year-old player during a brawl at a Southwest Florida Panthers Youth Football game, according to the Lee County Sheriff's Office in an ABC News report of the case. The charges are allegations; Lambert has not been convicted of anything.

At least two on-duty deputies were already at the park on patrol when the altercation broke out, according to the probable cause statement, and the sheriff's office released body-camera video showing deputies detaining Lambert near a concession stand after witnesses pointed her out. The 13-year-old told deputies he was kicked in the leg; no visible injuries were detected, the sheriff's office said. Lambert claimed she had been struck during the altercation — a claim the sheriff's office said it has found no evidence to support. After complaining of head pain following her arrest, she was taken to a hospital to be examined before she was booked into the Lee County Jail.

Sheriff Carmine Marceno, speaking to ABC affiliate WZVN in Naples, called it sad that such violence occurred at a youth football game. The case is the second child-abuse arrest at a Lee County youth setting to cross this station's public-safety file in a week, and it lands on the ordinary machinery of a Saturday league: volunteer coaches, patrolling deputies, and a concession stand a few yards from where the video was recorded. What happens next is the court calendar — a first appearance and, in time, the state's decision on the charges as filed.