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Woman charged in attempted assault with car
By JAMIE MALERNEE © St. Petersburg Times, published January 24, 2001 As Tabitha Pettry pushed her 13-month-old daughter down the street in a stroller, a small parade of stepchildren and relatives followed her Monday, one of them pulling a wheelbarrow full of toddlers. At the end of the street, Pettry noticed her neighbor, Sheilah Alderman, 42, sitting at a stop sign in her baby blue Dodge four-door. The woman was trouble, Pettry said, and she hurried to get the children home from their evening walk along Cooper Terrace. That's when it happened. "She came squealing out, completely across the other side of the road, and into the grass, running us into a ditch," Pettry said Tuesday. "I thought she was really going to hit us. If she had just turned a hair, she would have." Alderman of 9218 Rock Drive east of Brooksville now faces eight counts of aggravated assault with a motor vehicle. Authorities say she tried to hit Pettry, her teenage niece and six other children not once, but three times. According to a Hernando County sheriff's report, the woman sped toward the group, missed, turned around and drove toward them a second time, missed, and started backing up toward them again when a neighbor intervened. "I thought she was crazy. Just plain nuts," said Joshua Monroe, who said he saw the incident, jumped in his truck and blocked Alderman's path with his vehicle. "I was worried about the kids. They're pretty young and don't know how to get out of the way." No one was injured, but Alderman was arrested and later released from the Hernando County Jail late Tuesday on $1,000 bail. She could not be reached for comment, although a report said she denies the incident took place. But Pettry said Monday's incident is the most violent twist to a series of neighborhood feuds involving Alderman. Pettry claims Alderman is bent on revenge after Pettry helped black neighbors call sheriff's deputies when Alderman yelled racial slurs at the family and threatened to run them out of the area with the help of skinheads. "Everyone around here is scared to death of her," Pettry said. According to Pettry, the story began with a simple phone call. It was Dec. 16, and a black couple had just moved into the area east of Brooksville. Alderman, who is white, immediately took a disliking to them, Pettry said. "You n-----s won't stay in that house for long because I'm going to have some of my skinhead friends run you off," Alderman yelled at Mertis McGee and Norris Colbert, according to a report the couple filed with deputies. The couple had no phone at the time, so they asked to use Pettry's to report Alderman to authorities. And Pettry, who is white, let them. "I'd help any neighbor who needed it," Pettry said Tuesday. When deputies showed up, Alderman denied threatening the couple. No arrests were made, although the woman was warned to stay off their property. McGee and Colbert did not return calls for comment Tuesday. From that incident on, Pettry said Alderman has had it in for her, calling Pettry's home on Hebron Street to harass her. McGee and Colbert have filed no more reports against Alderman. But authorities were called back to Pettry's and Alderman's homes three more times in December. When a deputy went to investigate more complaints on Dec 23., Alderman lunged at him, a report said. After a scuffle, Alderman was pepper-sprayed, put in handcuffs and hauled off to jail on charges of assault on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest. The incident only served to hone Alderman's anger, Pettry said. "She told me I cost her $525 (in bail money), and she was going to get me," said Pettry, who is two months pregnant. Now, Pettry, 21, is not sure what to do. Before Alderman bailed out of jail Tuesday evening, the young mother went out and got a restraining order. Pettry said it makes her feel a little more secure -- but not much. "She can't come near my house or my husband's work or my relatives. But I'm afraid it's not going to stop her," Pettry said. "I can't take my walks anymore, because they can't restrain her from driving down a public street. It's real scary."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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From today's Hernando Times |
