Country club employees and Villagers will be deposed in a fatal altercation which resulted in the death of an 87-year-old resident of Florida’s Friendliest Hometown.
Virtual depositions will be taken in January by Zoom in the case of 75-year-old Robert Moore of the Village of Polo Ridge, who is facing a manslaughter charge. It is hoped the depositions will shed light on the altercation that caused the death of Dean William Zook. He died July 16, more than two weeks after he was attacked over a fender bender at Glenview Country Club.
Those to be deposed are country club employees and Villagers as well as several members of The Villages Public Safety Department and the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.
Moore was apparently enraged on the evening of June 28 when he walked out of the country club and believed that Zook’s vehicle had struck his black Lexus in the parking lot. Moore allegedly began punching Zook, before realizing it wasn’t his Lexus.
A call was placed to 911 and deputies found Zook and his wife in the country club parking lot. The Villages Public Safety Department also responded to the scene after Zook began slurring his words and stumbled. He was transported by ambulance to UF Health-The Villages Hospital then flown to UF-Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville. At the time, he was “unresponsive.” He was placed on hospice care at Shands on July 15 and died the following day, “due to the trauma he sustained from being punched.” Moore stands 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 210 pounds. Zook was 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed 160 pounds
Moore fled the country club parking lot prior to the arrival of law enforcement.
A detective tracked down the Massachusetts native thanks in part to the now-infamous photo of Moore showing off his hole-in-one at the Tarpon Boil Executive Golf Course, originally published in Villages-News.com. The detective also used surveillance images of Moore in the country club, where he bumped into a server carrying a tray of drinks, knocking a drink onto a patron, sitting at the bar.
Moore remains free on $30,000 bond.