Man, woman charged with assault for 'racist rant' Man, woman charged with assault for ‘racist rant’

On July 29, around 2 p.m. a salesman knocked on Wiley and Pyle’s door in an Orange County neighborhood to sell solar panels. The couple reportedly yelled racial slurs at the salesman, who filmed the incident and posted the video to TikTok. On Oct. 24, Steven Edwin Wiley, 51, and Cheryl Ann Pyle, 55, were charged with the assault of the salesman, with a prosecutor saying they intentionally and unlawfully threatened by word or act to do violence to him.

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – A husband and wife were charged in connection to a viral verbal assault involving curse words and racial slurs that took place in July. 

Steven Edwin Wiley, 51, and Cheryl Ann Pyle, 55, were charged Oct. 24 with the assault of Antavis Tyrone Johnson. 

What we know:

Orange County court documents said that Wiley and Pyle intentionally and unlawfully threatened by word or act to cause violence to Johnson. 

State Attorney Monique Worrell said Wiley and Pyle intentionally selected Johnson as a victim based on his race, color, ancestry, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, mental or physical disability or advanced age. 

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Cheryl Pyle and Steven Wiley were charged with assault in connection to a July 2025 verbal fight with a Florida salesman.

The backstory:

On July 29, around 2 p.m. a man – later identified as Johnson – knocked on Wiley and Pyle’s door in an Orange County neighborhood, reportedly to sell solar panels. Pyle answered the door and told the salesman that they were not interested, according to an incident report filed with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.

Johnson recorded this interaction on his cell phone, authorities said, which was later uploaded to TikTok, where it had racked up more than 400,000 views and more than 40,000 comments before it was taken down by the social media platform.

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“Take your Black [expletive] out of here before you get [expletive] up,” the homeowners allegedly said in the video, according to the report.

“Come back again I’m gonna [expletive] hang your [expletive],” was another statement in the video, the report said.

Due to the graphic and charged language in the video, FOX 35 has decided not to show the video.

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What they’re saying:

After speaking with Pyle on July 30, the Orange County Sheriff’s office said Pyle told them a man – Johnson – knocked on her door selling electrical services. After Pyle told him she wasn’t interested, Johnson cursed at her, Pyle alleged. 

Johnson denied those claims to FOX 35. 

Pyle and Wiley then got into a verbal fight with Johnson before he left, an OCSO incident report said. 

The next day, Wiley and Pyle received threatening messages and phone calls. They filed this incident with the sheriff’s office. The sheriff’s office redacted what the messages said. 

One of the messages contained a link to a TikTok video, showing Wiley being “verbally aggressive” and making “racially charged comments” to Johnson, the sheriff’s office’s incident report said. 

During the deputy’s investigation, Wiley made multiple racially charged statements, the report said. 

Salesperson: ‘I was afraid for my life’

Johnson told FOX 35 that he was in the neighborhood going door-to-door to talk to homeowners about solar panels.

“I had my binder, had the notice, but before I was able to pull out my notice, she called her husband down and that’s when everything just turned left and, [expletive], get out of my house [expletive]  get out of our neighborhood,” he said.

 He said once the situation escalated, he began to fear for his life and decided to record the situation. 

 “I just pulled my phone out to, you know, because I was, I was afraid for my life that, like I was so scared,” he said.

Unrelated arrests and charges

Pyle was arrested on Oct. 2 for the aggravated abuse of an elderly adult and Wiley was arrested for an outstanding warrant, the Orange County Sheriff’s office said. The sheriff’s office also charged Wiley with domestic battery. 

The Source: Information in this story was sourced from an Oct. 24 Orange County court charging document and a July 30 Orange County Sheriff’s Office incident report. 

Orange County NewsCrime and Public Safety