A judge has rendered a decision on a bond request from a Villager accused of setting up a hit on his ex-girlfriend.
Judge Don Briggs last week refused to set bond for 81-year-old Derek Britton of the Village of Santiago. The judge based his decision on an objection from the state attorney’s office, according to Lake County Court documents.
Britton has been held without bond at the Lake County Jail since Aug. 29 after he was arrested at a Cracker Barrel in Leesburg. At the restaurant, Britton was to rendezvous with a lady friend of an inmate Britton had met during a previous stay at the Lake County Jail. Britton thought he had arranged to give the woman $600 to pay the inmate’s bond. Once released, the inmate was to go and injure Britton’s ex-girlfriend at her home in Clermont. The inmate’s lady friend reached out to law enforcement, leading to the arrest of Britton at Cracker Barrel on a charge of conspiracy to commit aggravated stalking. He had been arrested earlier that same month when he showed up in a black ski mask at the home of his ex-girlfriend.
In a filing with the court, Britton’s attorney, Gregory Greenberg, argued that Britton “is not a danger to the community.” The attorney for the native of Ireland also claimed that Britton “suffered a bad fall at the jail” and “is physically unwell.”
