A 53-year-old Ocala man was jailed recently after he was caught driving at night with no headlights and then had a confrontation with Marion County sheriff’s deputies.
Deputies stopped a black 2018 Jeep in the 3500 block of S. Pine Avenue and when they approached the driver, 53-year-old Timothy Semmelmayer, he appeared to have slurred speech, bloodshot eyes and a strong presence of alcohol emitting from his breath. He refused to perform field sobriety exercises and was placed under arrest, the report says, noting that Semmelmayer was “verbally aggressive” and “irate.”
A sheriff’s deputy transported Semmelmayer to the Marion County Jail and while en route, he started banging his head on the cage in the back seat of the patrol vehicle. The deputy reported that Semmelmayer also started tensing up and attempted to “impede” the efforts to book him into the jail.
Semmelmayer was then transported to AdventHealth for treatment of a laceration to his head he sustained from hitting his head on the patrol vehicle’s cage. He refused to walk through the parking lot of the emergency room and later tried to walk out of the hospital. He then had to be restrained and slapped a deputy’s wrist while saying, “I already have a felony. I might as well get more,” according to the report.
Once Semmelmayer was medically cleared, he was taken to the jail and charged with battery on a law enforcement officer, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and resisting an officer without violence. He was being held on $7,000 bond and is due in court April 27 at 9 a.m.