Prayer Warrior Arrested For Bizarre Battery

DECEMBER 12--Incensed that relatives were “praying to Jesus in her house,” a Florida Woman (via Tehran, Iran) who told cops she “prays using the Quran and does not believe in Jesus” allegedly battered one of the visitors, an attack that landed her behind bars.

According to an arrest affidavit, the verbal praying dispute between Sherri Chegini, 58, and her brother, Peter Chegini, a 63-year-old contractor, turned violent yesterday morning.

Peter told investigators he “was praying with his wife Nahid using their cross” when Chegini “got mad at him” and told him to leave.

Chegini, cops allege, first “picked up Peter’s phone and threw it on the ground destroying it.” When she “then went to attack Peter,” he “put up his arms to defend himself, but Sherri bit his right forearm.”

Seen above, Chegini then “threw Peter’s stuff out of the residence and broke his cross.” At one point, Peter told police, Chegini scratched her own neck and told him, “You’re going to jail now.”

When cops arrived to the Vero Beach residence, Peter had a “bite mark on his right arm which had visible bruising and was bleeding.” His phone, cops added, was “shattered” and “inoperable.”

Peter told deputies that he and his wife were at the home to visit "his mother who is there on hospice care."

During police questioning, Chegini claimed she bit Peter in self defense after he scratched her neck. However, a deputy reported examining Chegini’s fingernails and “found traces of skin under her nails consistent with her scratching her own neck.”

Chegini was charged with two misdemeanors: battery and resisting arrest. The latter count resulted from her struggling with officers when they sought to handcuff her.

A judge released Chegini yesterday afternoon from the county jail on her own recognizance. She is scheduled for a January 14 arraignment. (2 pages)