A Gainesville man was arrested Sunday after police said he urinated on an officer and equipment at the jail.
Raymond Edward Lawhorn was driving east on Northeast Eighth Avenue when he ran into a curb, according to a Gainesville Police Department report. Lawhorn then tried to turn left but was blocked by a median, so he kept driving and almost hit a marked police car.
Gainesville Police Officer Fred Melaragno pulled him over, and Lawhorn immediately said he didn’t have a valid driver’s license.
When Melaragno took him to the Alachua County Jail, Lawhorn “pulled his penis out of his pants and began urinating on the floor, an X-ray machine and a detention officer,” according to the report.
The unfortunate officer was Jeremy Ranslow, who works for Alachua County Sheriff’s Office.
Lawhorn was arrested on charges of battering a detention facility staff, resisting an officer without violence and driving with a permanently-revoked license. As of press time, Lawhorn was in the process of being released after he posted bail of $10,000.
GPD spokesman Officer Ben Tobias said the incident was unusual.
“I have been on the department for almost nine years, and that’s the first for me,” he said.
Contact Kelcee Griffis at kgriffis@alligator.org.
