LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – A Lake County man is recovering from several injuries after Lake County Sheriff’s Deputies said he was attacked on a golf course while out on a walk with his wife on Sunday.
The victim, Joseph Sivak, said he and his family have a long road of recovery ahead of them, not just physically, but mentally too.
“I can’t believe it,” Sivak said. “That it’s happening and happened. You know, it’s like a living hell. It’s like a nightmare. And I just, I want it to stop, you know?”
[INSIDER EXTRA: Hear more of Joseph Sivak’s story]
Sivak said he is recovering from broken ribs, a ripped ear which required nearly 40 stitches, and several facial fractures after Lake County deputies said Eddie Orobitg beat Sivak with a golf club.
“I got three fractured ribs,” Sivak said. “Three different ribs are broken.”
Sivak and his wife were walking on a path along a golf course path in their neighborhood when Sivak says he heard someone yelling at them from behind.
“And then I hear, get the f–off,” Sivak said. “They’re really angry and swearing at us. I turned around like ‘we’re getting off sorry’, and continue swearing at me.”
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Orobitg, a Lake County dentist, was golfing that Sunday with his son when the altercation happened. According to the arrest report, he told Sivak and his wife to get off the path because it was meant for golf carts.
Deputies said the two men got into an argument that turned physical when Orobitg allegedly hit Sivak in the leg with a golf club, to which then Sivak reportedly hit Orobitg with his plastic water bottle.
“My wife was yelling stop, stop, let’s get away from him, we’ve got to get away from him,” Sivak said. “He lunges at me – this happened twice, like with the golf club. I’m like, ‘stop it, stop it. You can’t hit me. You know, when we’re walking away.’”
Sivak said he and his family have a long road of recovery ahead.
“I never knew it, she [Sivak’s wife] just told me this today, I had the same thought, she said this is how I’m going to lose him,” Sivak said.
Orobitg was charged with aggravated battery and has since bonded out of the Lake County Jail. News 6 tried to stop by his dental practice to hear his side of the story, but a sign that read “No media beyond this point” was placed in the front door.
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