[PHOTO CREDIT: iStock / demaerre]
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[Original Publish Date: 10/02/19]
FRUITLAND PARK, Florida – A 35-year-old Lady Lake man sent profanity-laced threats to his 13-year-old stepdaughter’s boyfriend, according to an arrest affadavit. Concerned Lake County parents contacted police when their juvenile son received a series of text messages which police traced back to Jared M. Weingarten, stepfather of the juvenile’s 13-year-old girlfriend. Weingarten, 35, was arrested last week on a charge of written threats to do bodily harm due to the nature of the texts themselves.
According to the probable cause affidavit in Weingarten’s case, John and Christina Kimer’s juvenile son, Micah Kimer, “has been in a dating relationship” with a female juvenile whom he met “via a mutual friend on the Apple iPhone Facetime feature.” The juvenile victim told police that his girlfriend’s stepfather “did not know about the relationship and that he had been told by [his girlfriend] that if her [step]father found out then her [step]father would be mad about the relationship.”
The police report reveals the boyfriend thought he was exchanging text messages with his girlfriend, however “the text messages he was receiving were strange and out of character for the normal conversations” that the couple would typically share. The juvenile victim was able to show police a screenshot of Weingarten’s eventual written tirade, an excerpt of which is: “Hello Micah. I’m Tiana’s father. You’ve been texting me for the past hour. If you contact my daughter ever again, on her phone, on her friend’s phone, through email, snap, any social media, send a letter, or see her by chance at a store or anywhere I will beat your [double-expletive].” The reported threatening text continued to rant: “I have your address and I take it Tiana didn’t warn you about me but I’m a very bad person who has a lot of bad friends who can and will visit your home and do unspeakable things to the people you love for [expletive phrase].”
Before ending his message with, “Have a nice night”, Weingarten made it clear to the boyfriend that if he ever finds out the boyfriend exposed himself during the relationship, “I will cut it off myself slowly.” Additionally, the text revealed that Weingarten was “going to wait for a reply from you acknowledging and agreeing to what I said, if I don’t get a reply I will take that as you wanna move forward with me acting a [expletive] fool.”
Weingarten’s affidavit states that the month-long relationship came to light when he asked to see his stepdaughter’s phone the same night he ended up impersonating her via text; he admitted to police that he had possession of his stepdaughter’s phone, he tried to “wipe it and retained possession of it” – but was going to “plead the fifth” as to whether he recognized the actual text messages the police had encountered.
Weingarten was transported to the Lake County Jail and released on $5,000 bond.
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James Hope is a Florida Bar Board Certified Criminal Trial Lawyer who has been practicing criminal law in Tavares, Florida, since 1987. He has also been the Publisher and Executive Editor of Lake Legal News since 2009. He may be contacted at LakeLegalNews@gmail.com, or through his website at www.AttorneyJamesHope.com. [PHOTO CREDIT: Bonnie Whicher]
