A Key West high school student said he threw water on his stepmom. Both landed behind bars

A woman running for the Key West City Commission was arrested Tuesday, along with her stepson, after police were called to their home about a family argument two nights earlier.

Kimberley Denney Highsmith, 52, and Thomas Highsmith, 18, were each arrested on a misdemeanor charge of battery and taken to the county jail on Stock Island.

She is in a runoff election Nov. 8 with Lissette Cuervo Carey for the District 4 commission seat, left wide open after the incumbent Greg Davila said he wouldn’t seek a second term.

The arrests came two days after Thomas’ father and stepmother were arguing throughout the night. He tried to intervene and she “became extremely physical with him,” he told police.

The Sunday night family dispute escalated when Thomas said he threw water directly onto his stepmother — and she slapped, punched and scratched him in return, according to the arrest reports.

The two criminal cases began Monday morning, after Kimberley Highsmith called police to the family’s home after her husband and Thomas’s father, attorney and Monroe County School Board member Bobby Highsmith, put the family’s dogs in his vehicle, and said he was “dropping them off at the SPCA,” police said.

Police said she “appeared to be extremely emotional,” while speaking with them.

Bobby Highsmith returned home with the dogs and put them in the fenced yard while police were still speaking with his wife. He asked officers if he needed to speak with them and one replied, “No, sir.”

Police told Kimberley that an issue with the family pets would be a civil matter, legally.

Thomas was at school Monday morning.

Kimberley Highsmith said Thomas threw water on her and that “she defended herself,” and that he may have gotten some small scratches on his neck as a result, police reported.

She described her relationship with Thomas as “volatile” and “aggressive” at times. She later declined to speak further with police.

Thomas, a Key West High School student, first met with officers at the school, 2100 Flagler Ave., on Monday as he was leaving class. He wouldn’t answer their questions or say how he got at least two scratches, each about a half-inch long, on his neck, the reports say.

Officers said Thomas “appeared to be very distraught and emotional” during the brief time they spent talking with him.

The next day, Tuesday, he told police his scratches “were a consequence of him throwing water on her,” the report said.

Thomas was arrested at about 1:40 p.m at the high school and taken to jail in handcuffs.

His stepmother was arrested at 5:15 p.m. at the Key West Police Department headquarters on North Roosevelt Boulevard, after she said she wouldn’t speak with them and said she would get an attorney. They immediately put her in handcuffs.

Both were released from jail at about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, without having to post bond. Each has a court date set for Sept. 30.

Bobby Highsmith declined to comment when reached by an FLKeysNews.com/Miami Herald reporter via text Wednesday. He said both family members have attorneys: Hal Schuhmacher is representing his wife and Michael Halpern is representing his son.

Reached by phone separately, Schuhmacher and Halpern each said they wouldn’t comment at this time.

Campaign trail

Kimberley Highsmith and Carey have been actively campaigning to become a member of the 7-person city commission.

In the August primary, Highsmith came out on top of a four person race, taking nearly 46% of the vote.

But that wasn’t enough to win outright, so the top two vote-getters will meet in the Nov. 8 election.

Carey, a Key West native and former City Hall employee, was right behind her with almost 30%.

Only voters who live in District 4, which is made up of neighborhoods in the New Town area that includes the three major grocery stores and several retail chain locations, will decide the commission race.

Candidates for commission don’t run by party. But during the campaign Highsmith called herself “a Democrat married to a Conch Republican,” saying she knows how to compromise in politics.

People born in Key West call themselves “Conchs.”