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Highlands Today

Three Cleared In Alleged Tenant Beating

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By JOE SEELIG

Highlands Today

Published: October 26, 2008

SEBRING - A landlord and his two friends who were accused by a tenant on May 26 of entering his mobile home and beating him, had the charges against them dropped, according to the clerk of courts office on Thursday.

Landlord and business man, Thomas Gordon Ramsey, 46, of 2542 State Road 17, Avon Park; and his friends Donald Dewayne Shaffer, 36, of Avon Park; and Paul Michael Barnes, 29, each faced felony charges related to an "alleged-victim's" accusations.

Their legal problems began when Ramsey's tenant, Roger Ray Vickery, 36, of Sebring, told sheriff's investigators that he was in his Blue Lagoon home when he saw his landlord and three other men pull up to collect rent; money he apparently did not have.

A fourth man was there, and was listed as a witness, but was not arrested.
Vickery told deputies he told his roommate to tell Ramsey that he was not home, while Vickery went to the back end of the trailer to avoid him, the arrest report stated.
Vickery claimed the three men entered his home and beat and kicked him, taking his cell phone.

That's not the way it happened, said Ramsey on Friday in a telephone conversation with Highlands Today.

"I was there to see if he'd pay me or move," he said.

Ramsey's been advised by his lawyer to not get into any of the specifics of the arrest because the charges were no-billed (dropped by the state's attorney), rather than having been found not guilty by a jury.

Ramsey said he's not really angry, but he is disappointed because people who know him know him as a good person.

"It's been pretty tough, pretty tough, and the financial costs," he began. "I'm also a business owner (masonry).

"For the people who know me (the arrest and following newspaper coverage) didn't affect (relationships with them) a lot. Anybody that knows anything about me knows I'll help anybody I can."

Ramsey said he spent three days in jail without bond, before the court finally granted him a $25,000 bond.

Between paying the bondsman and legal fees it cost him and his family about $18,000, and he won't ever see a dime of that money back, he said.

None of what Vickery told the investigating sheriff's deputies happened the way he said it did, Ramsey said.

"When they got there, they weren't there to help me, or to know the truth," Ramsey said of the deputies.

"Everything in the place is mine," said Ramsey, including right down to the furniture and dishes.
Vickery had lived there close to a year, according to Ramsey, so he was a tenant, albeit perhaps a troubled one.

Ramsey referred to Vickery's arrest history in Highlands and Hardee counties, which included an arrest for methamphetamine possession in June of 2006. But that charge was dropped.

According to the Florida Department of Corrections' Web site, Vickery spent a year and a day in prison in 2002 on a Polk County resisting with violence case and a year and a day in prison in 1999 for a Highlands County grand theft case.
Vickery was in prison again in 2003 and 2004, according to the clerk of courts office. The Department of Corrections site shows the incarceration period but does not state why.

"That guy's got more problems than you can say," Ramsey said. "I helped the guy plenty of times before whenever I could. I knew his stepfather."

In the middle of June, Vickery contacted Ramsey in a plot to extort $3,000 from Ramsey in order for Vickery to drop the charges against them.

Prosecutors were made aware of an attempted extortion by Ramsey's lawyer and were able to record an arranged conversation between the men.
Vickery pleaded guilty to charges in the attempt to extort money from Ramsey and was sentenced Sept. 18, to 30 months in prison.

During Ramsey's arrest on May 26, a sheriff's patrol dog alerted to some pills that were found inside Ramsey's truck.

Charges of possession of controlled substances without a prescription against Ramsey and Shaffer were dropped almost immediately on June 16. Also dropped were charges of harassing the victim, filed against all three men.

Ramsey couldn't talk about the pills, on the advice of his attorney, or if there were prescriptions found, other than to say the charges were dropped.

He said his truck was impounded that night, but it has been returned to him.

The other charges of robbery and burglary with battery were dropped on July 9, according to the clerk's office.

"I would just say that through it all the judge was the one who had more common sense than most," he said.

The judge was aware of Vickery, considering it when he allowed bond.

Ramsey said he's got a wife, a daughter, two sons and good friends.

"I've always tried to do the right thing for everybody," he said. "The good part about it is friends and family stick by you."

A family friend of Ramsey was critical of the arrests.

"Had the law officers used any degree of intelligence on the night these arrests were made, they would have seen that the charges were completely bogus, but that was not the case and these men were put through hell for absolutely no good reason," said a family friend in an e-mail communication with Highlands Today.

"That is why I have been so irate from the start. These men have paid dearly, and I think thevery least we can do for them is attempt to give them their good name back."

Barnes has reportedly left the state and Shaffer could not be reached for comment.

Attempts to reach Assistant State's Attorney Steve Houchin for comment were not successful.

Joe Seelig can be reached at 863-386-5834 or jseelig@highlandstoday.com.

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