Crime & Safety
Man Charged for False Imprisonment
Deputies said man drove from Sarasota to Venice refusing to let woman and child out of his van.
A man is being accused of taking a child and her mother against their own will and driving off from Sarasota to Venice where he was later arrested.
Sarasota Sheriff's deputies said that Melvin Hoar, 37, went to Block Hayden Boulevard in Sarasota Tuesday to pick up Jotanna Freed's child to have custody for the day, but when he returned around 10 p.m., he refused to give her up, according to a sheriff's office report.
Deputies said Freed then got into the van and Hoar drove off and refused to stop letting both the mother and child out.
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He ended up in Venice where deputies located the van and Hoar and charged him with two counts of false imprisonment.
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