Mindy McCready is turning her legal troubles into a family affair.
The arrest-prone country star was picked up Saturday night and charged with battery and resisting arrest after a dispute at her mother's home in North Fort Myers, Florida.
According to the Lee County Sheriff's Department, McCready's mother, Gayle Melody Inge, phoned authorities just after 1 a.m. Saturday, complaining that the 31-year-old songbird, fresh from a late dinner out, had returned to the family home intoxicated and was causing a disturbance.
Department spokesman Sergeant Larry King (no relation) said McCready and Inge had been playing a game of Scrabble when a dispute of an unknown nature broke out, and Inge was left with a scratch along the side of her face.
Deputies who arrived at the home said they could smell alcohol on McCready's breath and that the singer, who was holding her 15-month-old son Zander at the time, told them they were not needed.
King said the deputies carried on with the arrest, claiming McCready was out of control and refused to let them handcuff her. A female deputy wrestled McCready to the ground and cuffed her.
McCready, however, disputes the allegation.
"I was holding my baby at the time," she told the North Fort Myers News-Press Sunday. "They tackled me. They didn't give any directions. They just tackled. There was no reason for it. To take down a woman holding a baby, it's just not right."
McCready did acknowledge that a second deputy had taken Zander as she was tackled, to avoid injuring the child. McCready claimed she suffered a broken nose and sustained bruises all over her body following the fracas. Her booking photo showed a large gash on the left side of her nose.
At 2:28 a.m., McCready was booked into the Lee County Jail. However, during the booking process, she again, per King, proved to be uncooperative and refused a deputy's request to either settle down or be put back into handcuffs. Deputies wound up subduing McCready with a substance similar to pepper spray.
McCready insists the deputies who cuffed her at her mother's home had assured her that she was not being arrested and subsequently refused to tell her why they were confiscating her personal belongings.
"It's been a nightmare," she told the News-Press.
McCready was eventually released from the county jail Saturday night at 7:05 p.m., after posting $1,000 bail.
The trouble-plagued singer has had more than her share of legal setbacks in recent years, beginning with a conviction for fraudulently obtaining the prescription painkiller OxyContin. The "Ten Thousand Angels" singer initially claimed the pills were not hers, but later pleaded guilty to the charge.
In May 2005, just one week after McCready was arrested for drunken driving and driving on a suspended license—she was eventually acquitted of the former charge but found guilty of the latter. Then, her former boyfriend and Zander's father, Billy McKnight, was arrested and charged with attempted murder of McCready after a domestic dispute turned exceedingly brutal.
In August 2005, McCready was arrested and held for 10 days after a warrant was issued in her name for two outstanding parole violations, one of which was the driving on a suspended license charge. During a court appearance the following month, McCready revealed that she had attempted to commit suicide after finding out she was pregnant with McKnight's child after being hospitalized for an overdose of drugs and alcohol.
The singer, who has not released an album since an eponymous album in 2002, is due back in court on Aug. 14.