Former state Rep. Mike Horner accused of battery against Osceola school board member (2024)

St. CLOUD, Fla. – A lobbyist and former Florida state representative has been arrested, accused of assaulting an Osceola County School Board member who’s running for the Florida Senate.

Mike Horner, 56, faces a charge of battery on an elected official and was given a $2,500 bond at his first appearance Saturday morning in Osceola County court. He was arrested via warrant and was ordered to have no contact with the alleged victim, according to the judge.

Horner was accused by Osceola County School Board District 3 member Jon Arguello, who posted a video to social media that he recorded during the incident, said to have taken place Friday at a barbeque restaurant in St. Cloud.

The video begins with Arguello and Horner both in frame, starting some ways through a statement Arguello appeared to be making — “Who would have ever thought that an attorney general...,” Arguello said, gesturing to Horner with his thumb — before Horner is seen rising from his seat and heard demanding that Arguello stop recording him. Horner says, “Hey, get the (expletive)- don’t video me. You little (expletive), don’t video me,” as Arguello repeatedly responds, “What are you gonna do?”

Horner then reaches for the camera, the video shows, after which Arguello says, “You touched me, that’s assault, that’s assault, you just touched me, that’s assault.”

Arguello, whose website describes him as the “Only conservative School Board Member in Osceola,” is running in the Florida state Senate race for District 25.

Of two Facebook pages connected to Arguello, one of them is dedicated to his role on the school board while the other appears to serve as a platform for messaging in his state Senate race. Arguello posted the video to the latter and further used the page to post the following statements related to the incident:

Today I was assaulted by a dirty lobbyist. His buddies on commission and council. May have gotten him out of getting arrested.

Posted 10:02 p.m. Friday, May 17, to facebook.com/ArguelloforSenate25

A crime took place Fat Boys BBQ 3/17. I provided notice to retain video evidence. They said they don’t have cameras. See below. Why lie?

Posted 12:35 a.m. Saturday, May 18, to facebook.com/ArguelloforSenate25

Slimy lobbyist Mike Horner arrested at 1 AM.

Posted 9:09 a.m. Saturday, May 18, to facebook.com/ArguelloforSenate25

Anthony Sabatini, an attorney and former Republican Florida state representative for District 32 from 2018 to 2022, said on social media that he would represent Arguello in a lawsuit against Horner. Though a screenshot of the allegedly prepared lawsuit lacks a case number, the document appears to claim that Horner punched, scratched and even choked Arguello, “causing neck whiplash” and resulting in Arguello’s “pain and suffering.”

As Arguello seeks a state Senate seat, Sabatini himself is running for election in the 2024 race for District 11, challenging incumbent Republican Rep. Daniel Webster.

Horner served as a Republican member of the Florida House of Representatives from 2008 to 2012, serving District 79. He ran in the 2012 election for the District 42 representative’s seat, yet he dropped out of the race and resigned from the Osceola County Chamber of Commerce when his name appeared on a list of clientele which surfaced during an investigation into an alleged brothel in Orange County. He was not arrested or charged in the investigation.

Horner was the president of the Kissimmee/Osceola County Chamber for more than 15 years and conveyed apologies when speaking with News 6 about the case.

“Right now my focus is on my family and really just trying to rebuild my family and make amends to the community,” Horner said in 2012. “I just wanted to apologize to my family, most importantly my wife for the pain that I’ve caused that she certainly does not deserve.”

Horner is a lobbyist representing Osceola County and Sea and Shoreline LLC, according to FloridaLobbyist.gov.

News 6 is working to obtain the legal filing, as well as any reports or other court-filed documents related to the case.

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