LANCASTER - Police arrested a home improvement contractor for assault and bodily injury after investigators said he struck a woman who said she would mail final payment to him for a job rather than hand it over in person.
"He grabbed me," said Keisha Pope, the alleged victim. "He grabbed my arm."
It all unfolded on her front porch.
"He said, 'You better get your black [expletive] back in your house before I kick it'" she recalled. "I'm standing here like I'm in the "Twilight Zone." I can't believe this man is saying this to me."
Police arrested Jeremy Burkett, 33.
Pope hired the company he works for several months ago after a toilet upstairs overflowed and damaged her ceiling on the first floor.
"It was wet and had mildewed," she said.
But Burkett showed up unannounced Monday, Pope said. When she told him she would mail his final $1,315 payment, Pope said Burkett called her the "N" word.
"When I turned around, he reaches back and punches me upside my head and in my eye," she said.
Pope claims Burkett hit her five to six times in her front yard as neighbors watched.
But the contracting company told News 8 that she started the fight by attacking him.
Burkett spent the night in jail and told WFAA on Wednesday that he wanted to get an attorney before telling his side of the story.
He did not return calls to News 8.
Lancaster police charged Burkett with assault and has done nothing to Pope.
"Being a realtor, I know that he could have sought relief in other ways if he thought I was trying to evade a bill," she said. "He could have put a lien on my property."
Pope is swollen and bruised and faces more doctor's appointments.
E-mail: jwhitely@wfaa.com
