Man, 82, charged with strangling girlfriend

May 29, 2009

By PATRICIO G. BALONA 
Staff writer

An 82-year-old Deltona man, upset about how his girlfriend loaded the dishwasher, beat and strangled her unconscious, sheriff deputies said.

Strauch

Joseph Frank Strauch was arrested and charged with battery by strangulation and a judge ordered Strauch not to have contact with his live-in girlfriend, Lillian Keller, 74, court documents show.

Keller called 9-1-1 at 12:56 p.m. Wednesday, reporting she had been beaten up and was bleeding, according to a Volusia County sheriff's report. She was taken to Florida Hospital Fish Memorial in Orange City with cuts and bruises, and redness around the neck, sheriff investigators said.

According to a sheriff's charging affidavit, Keller told deputies that Strauch got angry about her arrangement of the dirty dishes in the washer, so he choked her with his hands until she lost consciousness.

Strauch was being held Thursday at the Volusia County Branch Jail on $5,000 bail.

Court records show Strauch pleaded no contest to battery on a person older than 65 after punching a 68-year-old man. Police said Strauch took the man's grocery bag and when the man objected, Strauch punched him.