As reported by the New York Post
A New Year’s Eve dispute at an upscale Florida country club involving a Long Island attorney escalated into a heated poolside confrontation, according to a report by the New York Post.
Video circulating online shows Ronald David Ingber, 52, at the center of a clash at Wycliffe Country Club in Palm Beach County. The footage, recorded Dec. 31, appears to capture an argument near the pool that culminated in Ingber taking a man’s cellphone and tossing it into the water.
In the video, Ingber is seen confronting two people by the pool, briefly grabbing the younger man’s hand before pulling away his phone and throwing it into the pool. The startled man backs away, shouting, while his companion questions Ingber about the incident. Moments later, the man can be heard asking a nearby swimmer to retrieve his phone and telling staff what happened.
A second clip shows the disagreement from another angle, with the pair arguing with a different poolside guest over allegedly taken lounge chairs. As tensions rose, the woman turned to nearby guests, demanding to know who was responsible for the seating issue. Ingber then stepped in, and the confrontation intensified.
Ingber, a married father of two from Long Island, has previously been named in a federal lawsuit filed in October by a former partner, alleging stalking and other misconduct. Ingber has denied those allegations, which remain pending.
Speaking to the New York Post, Ingber characterized the poolside incident as self-defense, claiming he believed someone approached him while waving an object he perceived as a weapon. “I defended myself,” he told the paper, adding that the club has additional video footage of the encounter. His attorney echoed that account, saying Ingber and his family were not involved in the original dispute and became targets as the situation escalated.
Club officials described the episode as an isolated incident. In a statement, the country club’s general manager said the matter was handled promptly by management, resulted in no injuries, and posed no ongoing safety concerns.
The incident was addressed internally under club and homeowners association policies, according to the statement.