A Summerfield man was arrested Thursday after his lady friend said he rammed his hand down her bra and took $400 she had withdrawn from her bank.
The victim told Marion County sheriff’s deputies that 44-year-old Martin Anthony Hering had returned home and become verbally aggressive toward her. She said he had broken the window on her vehicle on Wednesday when she wouldn’t take him to get drugs, a sheriff’s office report states.
The victim said she and another person – presumably a child – who wasn’t identified in the report spent the night at a hotel because she was in fear for their safety. She said she had received $400 in cash on March 22 and Hering took the money and placed it in his truck. She said she recovered the money, tucked it inside her bra and went back inside the residence, the report says.
The victim said Hering then forcefully shoved his hand down her shirt and took the money before leaving. She said she suffered bruises on her left breast and hadn’t called for help sooner because she was afraid the Florida Department of Children and Families would get involved, the report says.
Deputies made contact with Hering and after being read his rights, he initially refused to speak with them. He then claimed the money the victim took out of the bank was from his stimulus check and he had picked it up and placed it in his pocket. He claimed the victim reached into his pocket and took the money, the report says.
Deputies questioned Hering multiple times about what had transpired between him and the victim and he “evaded answering directly” until he was asked what happened to the money. He then said the victim had it and he didn’t take it back, according to the report.
Hering was placed under arrest and transported to the Marion County Jail, where he was charged with simple domestic battery. His bond also was revoked on previous charges of larceny/grand theft, unarmed burglary of an unoccupied dwelling and dealing in stolen property. He was being held on $17,500 bond and is due in court May 4 and June 30 to answer to the charges, jail records show.
Hering also was arrested in May 2020 after his grandfather called Marion County sheriff’s deputies to report his missing riding lawn mower. He told deputies that Hering has visited him over the Memorial Day Weekend and he next afternoon he noticed that his yellow-and-green John Deere mower was missing. He said he believed Herring had taken the mower “due to his drug addiction,” a report says.