Today, Gales Point resident Austin Meyers walked into the Hattieville police station to turn himself in. That's after this wanted poster was issued. But Meyers says he didn't commit the crime he's accused of. In fact, he says that while he's wanted for a stolen boat, he was busy planting mangroves in Gales Point Manatee when the incident happened. He says he's being targeted and harassed by the police.
We spoke with him and his attorney today.
Austin Meyers, Claims Police Harassment
"They already picked me up for something I didn't do and have me there for 3 days at the station and they don't have any evidence about the boat that's missing. I don't know anything about that because I wasn't planting mangroves that whole week, me and my colleagues, they just want to frame me for something I didn't do."
"It affected me very bad because the thing that I do, I show the kids what to do in Gales Point Manatee with mangroves to grow. I had about seven or eight kids with me planting mangroves."
"It couldn't continue, caused some of my mangrove to die because I have to water it nearly everyday in that time."
"I'm asking for peace from the police."
Norman Rodriguez, Attorney
"The situation normally is that they would detain people and in some instances they don't charge, I don't know what the position is because I have not been able to reach any police officer from Hattieville. The one person I spoke to wasn't too polite and there are some officers that would give a little information to assist the attorneys in making a decision how to move but this one wasn't so cooperating. So that is the position where we are, he has to turn himself in and they will surely detain him and he understands that they want to charge him for something but he says he know he has not committed any crime or offense and the one involvement with the police he has had so far was that they detained him for a certain period of time and released him and he believe that is the same reason they want to detain him again."
Lionellie Meyers, Sister
"The issue here for me personally is that Austin isn't just my brother, he's my worker and practically the face of my business and we do tourism. The impact of having a wanted poster for the face of a small business, it's extreme, it's very terrible. The tourism industry is already not great and something like that really deters clients."
"The issue with the stolen boat, I really don't see it as something Austin is capable of but beyond that, it has been very hard to get information from the police department in regards to what the charges are. It's either contradicting information or no information at all."
We'll let you know if and when he is criminally charged.
