LAKELAND, FL -- The mother of the so-called ringleader in the infamous videotaped teen beating case was arrested for beating up her daughter, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies arrested 35-year-old Christina Garcia, the biological mother of Mercades Nichols, Saturday night.
According to the Sheriff's Office, yesterday deputies responded to home Nichols shares with her grandmother in Lakeland.
Garcia lives at a different home in Polk City.
Detectives allege that after the alleged assaults, Garcia asked her mother asked her to remove all the home so Mercades couldn't call the Polk Sheriff's Office.
But when she returned home, Garcia did call the Sheriff's Office, alleging that she was the victim.
But according to investigators, during 2 separate fights that took place at 4 and 5 pm, Christina grabbed Mercades by the hair, kicked her several times, and spit on her.
Mary Nichols intervened, breaking up the first fight, detectives said. She also broke up the 2nd fight with the aid of two other people, including Zachary Ashley, one of the alleged lookouts in the beating case who later had his charges dropped.
Mercades told detectives she wasn't aware the authorities had been called until they showed up at her door.
Christina Garcia is charged with 2 counts of domestic battery. She bonded out of jail this afternoon.
Nichols pleaded guility last month to battery and tampering with a witness for her role in beating up Victoria Lindsay in April 2008. She was one of seven teens accused of luring Lindsay to Nichols' home and assaulting her while one of them videotaped it.
She is facing up to 3 years probation for those charges.
Detectives said the girls planned to post the video on internet sites such as YouTube. The video was later released by the Polk Sheriff's Office and received national attention.
