A Villager was transported by ambulance to Ocala Health ER at Trailwinds Village after crashing his SUV.
Daniel Lee Messerschmidt, 65, of the Village of Bonita, had been driving a tan GMC Arcadia in the wee hours Saturday when he was involved in a crash on Morse Boulevard, south of Bonita Boulevard, according to an arrest report from the Florida Highway Patrol.
When a trooper went to interview the Memphis, Tenn. native at the emergency room, it appeared as if he had been drinking. He failed field sobriety exercises and provided breath samples that registered .105 and .100 blood alcohol content. He was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence and booked at the Sumter County Detention Center. He was released after posting $1,000 bond.
The former Village of Poinciana resident was arrested earlier this year on warrants charging him with burglary and criminal mischief. He had been free on $12,000 bond.
Messerschmidt had gotten involved in the Christian program, Dads for a Day, and began mentoring a Summerfield boy, according to an arrest affidavit from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
After he was introduced to the boy and the boy’s mother, “I decided I would go the distance with them. Withholding nothing, without hesitation or reservation.” In a letter in which he resigned from the Dads for a Day program, he wrote he made a “mistake” when he “committed” to the boy’s mother.
In a subsequent interview with a Marion County sheriff’s deputy, Messerschmidt said he, “became close with her,” but she, “cut if off.”
The woman came home and found clothes had been scattered on the back steps of her residence. Her iMac computer was on the floor of the kitchen with the screen shattered, the arrest report said.
A neighbor reported seeing a vehicle similar to Messerschmidt’s tan GMC Arcadia at the woman’s residence. The neighbor had previously seen Messerschmidt’s vehicle at the home.
