Man faces yet more traffic charges

A deputy pulled the man over for having an expired tag but found his license had been suspended 24 times.

By TAMARA LUSH

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 16, 2001

HUDSON -- Steven John Bartlett shouldn't have been behind the wheel on Sunday morning, for a number of reasons.

The registration tag was expired on the Ford F-150 pickup he was driving, and that's why a Pasco County sheriff's deputy pulled Bartlett over at the intersection of Little and Embassy roads at 8:40 a.m.

Deputy Matthew Kadel asked Bartlett for the truck's registration. Bartlett couldn't provide it.

But when Kadel ran a check on Bartlett's license, he found that the man was driving on a suspended license -- one that had been suspended 24 times.

Bartlett's last suspension happened Sept. 18, 2000, the arrest report said.

It turns out that he is more than a bad driver.

According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Bartlett has a criminal record dating back to at least 1988.

The 43-year-old concrete worker has been arrested in both Pasco and Pinellas counties, with charges ranging from driving under the influence to battery, arson and firebombing.

In January 1998, Bartlett and another man threw Molotov cocktails -- flaming bottles filled with gasoline -- at a mobile home, authorities said. Bartlett believed that the man inside the home had stolen a motorcycle from them.

The arson charge, as part of a plea deal, was reduced to criminal mischief. Bartlett pleaded no contest to criminal mischief and firebombing, and was sentenced to 15 months in prison.

As for Bartlett's driving record, he has been stopped numerous times and in 1994 was charged with a hit and run that resulted in a person's death.

Bartlett of 10318 Hudson Ave., Hudson, was charged with driving with a suspended license-habitual offender and booked into the county jail in Land O'Lakes, where he was being held on $5,000 bail.

- Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report.

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