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Former Tamarac City Commissioner Elberg Mike Gelin has been criminally charged with battery for allegedly roughing up former colleague Elvin Villalobos outside a polling place in October, according to court records.

Prosecutors on April 14 charged Gelin, 50, with one count of simple battery – a misdemeanor – for allegedly intentionally touching or striking Villalobos as Villalobos filmed him during an Oct. 24 altercation outside the Tamarac Library at 8701 W. Commercial Blvd, an arrest form dated March 25 states.

Gelin has been issued a summons in the case to appear in court – the legal equivalent of a misdemeanor arrest. He will come before a judge to face the battery charge during a future court date, court filings indicate. No court date was listed in the records.

Gelin did not immediately respond to a text message from Tamarac Talk seeking comment. It was unclear whether he had an attorney in the case.

A BSO Public Corruption Unit detective who completed the arrest form laid out an initial case against Gelin, calling him and Villalobos “political adversaries” who got into an argument before Gelin knocked Villalobos’ phone out of his hand.

Three witnesses told BSO investigators they saw Gelin make physical contact with Villalobos before the latter’s phone was knocked to the ground, the affidavit states.

Gelin’s case is being investigated and prosecuted by Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle. The veteran prosecutor was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to replace Broward State Attorney Harold Pryor in Gelin’s case, after Pryor alerted DeSantis to a potential conflict of interest due to his “personal relationship” with Gelin, court records show.

Gelin, a Tamarac resident and political ally of Tamarac Commissioner Marlon Bolton, was among a group of Bolton supporters standing outside the Tamarac library when the incident with Villalobos became physical.

Villalobos told investigators Gelin grabbed him around his neck during the battery incident. That alleged part of the incident was not captured on video.

Villalobos told investigators his breathing was not impeded when Gelin’s hands were allegedly around his neck, the arrest affidavit states.

Before the incident turned physical, Villalobos is heard on the video he recorded asking Gelin: “What were you saying, Mike?”

Gelin, who served as Tamarac’s District 2 city commissioner from 2018 to 2022, is heard on the recording stating: “That’s fine. I’m speaking the facts.”

“What were you saying?” Villalobos asked again.

“You’re a wife beater,” answered Gelin.

“And where’s your wife and your girlfriend?” asked Villalobos.

“You were arrested. You were arrested,” Gelin said.

“And your wife. Your wife knows?”

Moments later, Gelin stated: “I don’t want to be recorded.”

“I already told you I was recording,” Villalobos said, stepping backward as Gelin appeared to reach for his phone.

“Don’t touch my … I already told you were being recorded.”

“Don’t record,” Gelin said.

The footage then appears to show Gelin striking the phone with his hand.

“Dude! I already told you,” Villalobos said.

“Fuck with me, fuck with me, fuck with me,” Gelin is heard repeating.

That’s when the camera lens shifted away from the action. The device, which was allegedly knocked to the ground by Gelin, failed to capture what happened next.

Villalobos said the unseen part of the incident included Gelin placing his hands around his neck.

Villalobos, elected to the commission in 2020, was defeated in November by current Tamarac Commissioner Krystal Patterson.

Gelin was previously arrested in July 2015 on a charge of resisting/obstructing an officer without violence. Gelin at the time had been recording an incident in Tamarac when a BSO deputy took exception to his documenting the event, eventually leading to Gelin’s arrest.

Prosecutors in that case said the audio on the recording didn’t support the deputy’s account in his arrest affidavit, and they later dropped the charge against Gelin.

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Author Profile

Kevin Deutsch

Kevin Deutsch is an award-winning journalist and author of two nonfiction books. He covers general assignment news and Jewish community issues for Talk Media. He has also worked as a staff writer at The Miami Times, the Rio Grande SUN, the New York Daily News, Newsday, The Miami Herald, The Palm Beach Post, The Riverdale Press, and Bronx Justice News.