Man arrested for making racial taunts at Green Cove Springs Pier

GREEN COVE SPRINGS – A man already out on bond for what police said was an alcohol-fueled disturbance at the City Pier was arrested on Oct. 23 and charged again with disorderly conduct and trespassing after a warning after several citizens complained of a man taunting Blacks with racial slurs.
Mark David Morgan, 53, of Green Cove Springs, was taken back to the Clay County Jail after the Clay County Sheriff’s Office Marine unit arrested him on the St. Johns River.
Sheriff Michelle Cook posted the following statement about Morgan’s arrest on her Facebook page:
“If you had to endure the screaming obscenities and racial slurs by this fella during the GCS Food Festival and/or while fishing on the pier, on behalf of both the City and our County I want to say that we have no tolerance for that terrible behavior….
“And today, after some excellent police work by Green Cove Springs PD and Deputy [Bill] Maher from CCSO we were able to apprehend the perpetrator on a couple of warrants.”
According to the Green Cove Springs Police Department, families with children on the pier said the man used profane language toward Blacks from his boat. He was able to evade GCSPD by boating away, but he eventually was caught by a deputy on a CCSO boat. According to the arrest report, Morgan was arrested because “whoever commits such acts as are of a nature to corrupt the public morals, or outrage the sense of public decency, or affect the peace and quiet of persons who may witness them.”
Morgan also was arrested for boating under the influence, disorderly intoxication, resisting arrest and refusing to take blood alcohol test on July 18 after he jumped into the St. Johns River at the pier in Spring Park trying to elude GCSPD and CCSO deputies. He posted a $752 bond and was released.
Ticketed on Sept. 3 for not having a white light at night while underway.
Morgan, whose next court appearance is scheduled for Dec. 9, was released after posting a new bond of $10,004.

Trio arrested following drug stakeout on Fleming Island

FLEMING ISLAND – Three people from Middleburg went to jail on Oct. 23 after a Clay County Sheriff’s Office deputies caught them with drugs during a stakeout.
Bailyn Taylor Vinson, 24, was charged with possession of fentanyl; Benjamin Stephen Anthony Fleming, 24, was charged with possession of methamphetamine; and, Rebecca Sam Pond, 46, was charged with possession of fentanyl and suboxone after a deputy saw a passenger leave a parked car on the edge of the Home Depot parking lot and enter the store. He approached the car and found the driver asleep at the wheel. He also saw a foil packet on the center console. It later tested to contain a gram of fentanyl.
When the passenger, Fleming, came out of the store, deputies found a half-gram of methamphetamine in his hat.
Shortly after that, Pond, who owned the car, left the store. She removed a baggie with one gram of fentanyl and three suboxone pills from her bra when she was approached by deputies.
Each was being held on a $5,003 bond.

CCSO: Woman climbs through window, fights with boyfriend

ORANGE PARK – An outraged woman was arrested on Oct. 25 after she admitted entering her former boyfriend’s house through a window and engaging in a physical confrontation with him.
Lindasha Diona Davis, 25, of Jacksonville, was charged with assault and battery during a burglary and vandalism after the Clay County Sheriff’s Office responded to a disturbance on Firethorn Avenue.
According to the arrest report, Davis came to the home to return the boyfriend’s dog. When he didn’t answer the door, she climbed through a window. Witnesses said she began punching and biting her boyfriend.
The report also said she left through the window and locked herself in her car to keep the boyfriend from getting his dog. Then she got out and struck his parked car in the garage with a “blunt” object.
Davis’ bond was set at $80,759.