Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Woman charged in marina incident

An Oldsmar woman turns herself in to Pasco County sheriff's deputies who say she struck the marina owner with a Mercedes.

By CAMILLE C. SPENCER
Published March 31, 2006

After hitting the marina owner two weeks ago with her silver Mercedes, the bikini-clad woman drove off; a SpongeBob SquarePants doll lay in the car's back window shelf.

Merle Carroll, owner of Anclote Village Marina, had been thrown onto the car's hood before hitting his head on the ground and being knocked unconscious.

On Wednesday, Dina Mansour turned herself in to Pasco County sheriff's deputies with a lawyer in tow. She was booked on aggravated battery, a felony, at the Land O'Lakes jail. She bonded out a few hours later.

"She mentioned to someone that she was involved in a similar incident, and that person read about it in the paper and notified a detective," said Kevin Doll, sheriff's department spokesman.

On March 19, Mansour, 24, of 4823 Augusta Ave. in Oldsmar, was with a group of friends when she walked down the dock at the marina and climbed into a pontoon boat with a couple of guys, according to a sheriff's report. When none of the employees at the marina, 1029 Baillee's Bluff Road in Holiday, recognized the group or their boat, Carroll got involved.

He went to the vessel and asked if they had parked on the private property. The group said they it didn't have any vehicles on the site. Carroll, 51, warned that illegally parked vehicles could be towed from the property, which sometimes took in overflow parking from nearby Anclote River Park.

The group members disappeared.

They returned at 6 p.m. and headed for Carroll's parking lot, threatening him if he "touched" their Volkswagen beetle, according to a sheriff's office report.

Mansour and friends got back into the pontoon boat and left. They returned about an hour later as a tow truck arrived to remove the Volkswagen, which wasn't Mansour's car. The Volkswagen belonged to a restaurant patron.

"The Volkswagen owners were witnesses," said Carroll's 18-year-old son, James. "As the tow truck pulled up, that's when it happened."

Mansour allegedly climbed into the Mercedes and drove toward Carroll.

He tried to move to the side away from the car, the report said, but was struck in the knee by the passenger side headlight. He rolled over the hood and fell on the ground unconscious, the report said.

"I thought she was trying to cause me bodily harm, but I am glad she has been apprehended," Carroll said Thursday. "It's important that she be brought to justice."

James Carroll said his father is still sore from the accident.

"I was surprised that they found her," James Carroll said. "We didn't know anything about her, just what she looked like. (That day) I heard all this noise and he (Merle Carroll) was lying on the ground. She sped off immediately. It was pretty crazy."

[Last modified March 31, 2006, 06:47:25]