The criminal case centers on what police say happened when a tenant returned home after a medical examination and tried to regain access.
DAVIE, Fla. — When a Davie tenant returned from a medical facility, police say one thing about his home had already changed: The code to the lock no longer let him inside.
What happened when he tried to return is now the basis of a felony battery case against his landlord, Lennie Joseph Dufrene Jr., 58. The tenant told investigators that Dufrene came out of the residence, punched him until he lost consciousness, continued hitting him after he awoke and then choked him until he blacked out again. Doctors later diagnosed multiple facial fractures. Dufrene was arrested and released on bond, and an outside state attorney has since been assigned to handle the prosecution.
The changed lock is a factual part of the police narrative, but the criminal records reviewed for this story do not settle the separate civil issues that can arise in a landlord-tenant relationship. The reports do not say whether an eviction case had been filed, whether either party had sought a housing-related court order or whether access to the residence was already in dispute before police became involved. The criminal charge does not itself decide those questions.
Instead, investigators focused on the alleged physical attack and the injuries that followed. According to accounts of a probable cause affidavit, Dufrene repeatedly struck the tenant in the face as the man tried to get back into the property. The tenant said he lost consciousness and later awoke face down with Dufrene on top of him, striking the back of his head. He then accused Dufrene of choking him until he lost consciousness a second time.
Those allegations came after an earlier police response to the same residence. Dufrene had contacted Davie police and told officers the tenant was destroying the property. Police met with both men. The reporting reviewed here does not explain whether officers found evidence supporting Dufrene’s property-damage claim or whether any charge resulted from it. The immediate outcome was instead that the tenant was transported to a medical facility for an involuntary mental health examination under Florida law.
The Baker Act, as Florida’s involuntary examination law is commonly known, permits certain people experiencing a mental health crisis to be taken to a receiving facility when statutory requirements are met. Among the criteria are circumstances involving possible serious harm or an inability to recognize the need for an examination. Public accounts of this case do not state which particular observations or facts led officers to use the law. Nothing in the reports reviewed establishes that the tenant’s transport amounted to a criminal arrest.
While the tenant was away, police say Dufrene made statements that sharply changed the nature of their response. He allegedly told officers that he would kill the tenant after the man got out of the hospital. According to the police warrant as reported by Local 10, officers warned Dufrene that doing so would send him to prison. Police said he then indicated that he would beat the tenant instead. Officers warned him again that he would go to jail if he attacked the man.
The alleged threat is relevant not merely because violence was discussed, but because investigators say officers heard the statements themselves before the tenant returned. The warrant account therefore does not rely only on the tenant to describe that part of the encounter. The officers’ earlier presence became part of the probable cause narrative after police say the threatened violence was followed by an actual assault.
The tenant was released from the medical facility at about 2:30 p.m., Local 10 reported. When he returned to the property, he discovered the changed access code. The alleged beating followed. After regaining consciousness, the tenant left the residence and wandered in the area, according to investigators. He later told police that he thought Dufrene was trying to kill him.
The next police contact did not occur at the residence. Employees at a Wawa at 2500 Davie Road contacted authorities about a man who had remained on the premises for an extended period and appeared to have been badly hurt. When officers arrived, they recognized the tenant from the earlier dispute involving Dufrene. He then gave a sworn statement describing the alleged assault.
Police arranged for the tenant to be taken to HCA Florida University Hospital. Medical staff found a fracture involving the floor of his left eye socket and multiple nasal fractures, according to the probable cause account. The injuries became important to the type of criminal charge detectives sought because Florida distinguishes felony battery from lesser forms of battery in part by the level of harm caused.
Section 784.041 of the 2026 Florida Statutes says felony battery occurs when someone intentionally touches or strikes another person against that person’s will and causes great bodily harm, permanent disability or permanent disfigurement. The offense is a third-degree felony. An arrest under the law means investigators and a judge found sufficient probable cause for the case to proceed; it does not mean prosecutors have proved the allegation beyond a reasonable doubt.
The tenant’s statement also includes an accusation that Dufrene choked him. Florida law separately describes domestic battery by strangulation for qualifying family, household or dating relationships, but the public reports reviewed here identify Dufrene’s charge as one count of felony battery. No separate strangulation charge was located in those sources. Describing the reported choking as part of the alleged conduct avoids assigning Dufrene an additional charge the available records do not support.
Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Dufrene at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport after authorities obtained a warrant. A Broward judge found probable cause and set his bond at $15,000, Local 10 reported. He was no longer appearing in Broward jail records when the station checked on July 29. Bond permits a defendant to be released from custody under court requirements while a case continues; it is not a determination of guilt or innocence.
The prosecution later moved outside the Broward State Attorney’s Office for a reason unrelated to any finding about the evidence. In an Aug. 21 executive order, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Broward State Attorney Harold F. Pryor had advised him that the alleged victim is related to a former employee of Pryor’s office. Pryor voluntarily disqualified himself to avoid a conflict of interest or an appearance of impropriety and requested that another state attorney be assigned.
DeSantis appointed Alexcia Cox, state attorney for the 15th Judicial Circuit, to handle the investigation, prosecution and all related matters involving Dufrene in the 17th Judicial Circuit. The executive order gives Cox and prosecutors or investigators she designates authority to perform those duties in Broward County. The assignment lasts through Aug. 21, 2027, with an earlier deadline for requesting additional time if needed.
The reassignment provides the newest official status of the case, but it does not resolve the factual dispute at its center. Dufrene has not been shown in the material reviewed here to have pleaded guilty or been convicted. Prosecutors working under Cox’s authority will still have to evaluate the evidence, determine how to proceed with the filed charge and meet the applicable burden of proof in court.
Reporting on the incident also contains a conflict over timing. Local 10 wrote on July 29 that Davie police said the attack took place the previous Wednesday. Law&Crime’s July 31 report, citing the probable cause affidavit, gave June 22 as the date officers first responded to Dufrene’s residence. Because the published dates do not align, this article does not state a single date for the underlying confrontation as established fact.
The discrepancy does not change the main sequence described in both accounts. Dufrene called police about the tenant. The tenant was taken to a facility for an involuntary examination. Dufrene allegedly threatened him in front of officers. The tenant returned to a residence whose access code had been changed. Police say Dufrene attacked him. The tenant was later recognized by officers at the Wawa and hospitalized with fractures, and detectives obtained the warrant that led to Dufrene’s airport arrest.
The result is a case in which a housing dispute, a mental health intervention and a criminal allegation overlap without being legally interchangeable. The tenant’s Baker Act examination does not decide the battery case. The changed lock does not itself prove the assault. The alleged threats do not substitute for proof of the charged offense. Each fact forms part of the chronology, while the felony battery accusation must be resolved through the criminal justice process.
Prosecutorial reassignment is the latest verified official development. The reviewed record does not show a final disposition of Dufrene’s felony battery charge. Cox’s office is authorized to handle the prosecution and related matters while Dufrene remains entitled to contest the allegations against him.
Author note: Last updated September 8, 2026.