NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. – The daughter of the world’s most influential evangelist, the Rev. Billy Graham, was arrested a week ago in the parking lot of a discount store, accused of domestic battery against her husband.
Virginia Graham Foreman, 59, spent a night in jail after New Smyrna Beach police said she physically abused her husband, Chad, on July 1 in the parking lot of the Kmart store on State Road 44. She was released on her own recognizance the following day.
Witness David Hill of Edgewater, Fla., told police that night that he and wife Mary saw Virginia Foreman choke and push her husband. Then, after he walked away and hid behind a furniture truck, she followed in their gold-colored Ford Mustang.
“She was mean,” Hill said in an interview Thursday night. “I guess she started pushing him and grabbed him around his throat.”
Hill said police had to chase Foreman in the store’s parking lot to catch her. Police determined that choking and pushing her husband was domestic violence and placed Foreman under arrest, to her husband’s disapproval.
Volusia County Judge Mary Jane Henderson, who presided over Foreman’s first appearance hearing, said Chad Foreman told police that witnesses had “just misunderstood what was going on between them.”
“He really tried to get the officer not to make an arrest,” Henderson said.
Two other witnesses to the incident would not comment Thursday night, but police records show they described events unfolding similar to Hill’s description.
At the police station, Foreman showed officers a bruise on her upper thigh that was “very dark in color.” She was surprised at her arrest.
A man who answered Foreman’s telephone hung up without comment.
Henderson said the situation was probably “very embarrassing” for the Foremans but didn’t appear to be a serious case of spousal abuse.
“I will be surprised if this one gets prosecuted,” Henderson said.
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