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88 Kick Off The New Year With Criminal Charges

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By MARK DOUGLAS

mdouglas@wfla.com

Published: January 2, 2009

CLEARWATER - Pinellas County Circuit Judge Thane B. Covert began New Year's Day listening to the sad, strange and sometimes moving stories of 88 men and women who are among the county's first offenders of 2009.

Forty-nine people were booked into jail between midnight and 8 a.m. Most of the charges were related to fighting or domestic violence, followed by driving offenses, drug charges and disorderly conduct. One man spent the night locked up for relieving himself in public.

Chester Melanson's wife said she was enjoying a fine New Year's Eve celebration at Shephard's Beach Resort on Clearwater Beach when things started to go wrong because her husband had too much to drink.

According to police reports, at 11:40 p.m., Melanson head-butted an employee at Shephard's who was trying to remove him from the club.

Melanson's wife - she didn't give her name - told the judge she and her husband are employed as teachers. She said a Clearwater police officer allowed her husband to cool down in the back of a patrol car for more than an hour and agreed to let him go home without an arrest.

Police records say that Melanson sneaked back into Shephard's at 1:35 a.m. and "yelled profanities and homophobic slurs, interrupting several people and disrupting the proceedings of the evening."

He ended up in jail charged with battery, disorderly intoxication and trespass after warning. At noon, Melanson's wife was still trying to bail him out of jail and worried his arrest might endanger his job teaching mentally disabled children.

Another defendant who called himself Charlie Brown - court records list his last name as Lowry - told Covert that police got it all wrong when they arrested him for battery.

"I'm the victim," Brown said.

Covert responded: "Uh, oh. The police got it wrong."

Brown then went on to say he is a former prisoner of war who had been abducted from a hospital while on his way to Italy. Brown also said Abraham Lincoln was his "forefather."

"Why ... do I need an attorney for a $2 fine," he asked the judge.

The judge explained he wasn't facing a fine and ordered a mental evaluation.

Later that day, Covert said this year's first offenders are fairly typical in terms of nature and numbers compared with his past New Year's Day cases.

Several offenders begged for breaks on bail because of unemployment and the faltering economy. Covert said he understands tough times, but he's heard it all before.

Another defendant acknowledged that he gave his date a "light smacking" on New Year's Eve: Paulin Batra said he speaks only Albanian and required a translator in court. Covert set his bail at $2,000.

News Channel 8 reporter Mark Douglas can be reached at (727) 536-9603.

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