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Judge berates man for lies told in courtBy CARY DAVIS © St. Petersburg Times, published March 8, 2001 NEW PORT RICHEY -- It wasn't Jeffrey Crouch's past that angered the judge. It was the lies. After finding Crouch guilty Tuesday of violating his probation on a misdemeanor domestic battery conviction, an obviously disturbed Pasco County Judge Marc Salton pondered the sentence. Not part of the judge's deliberations was Crouch's notorious history: The Port Richey shrimper had once been charged in his wife's slaying and still is a suspect in the 1998 death of his son. "I don't consider (those cases) . . . because you've never been convicted of any those offenses," Salton said. Salton said he was frustrated that each time Crouch has been arrested and accused of crimes against his girlfriend, Melissa Uhr, the story changes by the time it gets to court. "What's distressing is that (Uhr), and obviously with your knowledge, comes in here and lies about it," the judge told Crouch. After a stern lecture, Salton sentenced the 45-year-old Crouch to 30 days in the county jail and then issued a stiff warning: "Mr. Crouch, let me tell you, don't come back here for violating your probation again. . . . Good luck." The judge found that Crouch violated his probation by ignoring a court order that said he was to have no contact with Uhr. Salton had placed him on six months' probation in November after Crouch pleaded no contest to dragging Uhr out of a car, slapping her face and pulling her hair. He was arrested on the probation violation charge on Nov. 29 after a Port Richey police officer saw Crouch and Uhr walking down the street together, apparently holding hands. In court Tuesday, Uhr testified that she unexpectedly ran into Crouch when she went to his house on Regis Avenue to get her belongings. Crouch, in his defense, said he had done everything in his power to honor the no-contact order. "For three months, I let her stay at my house," he said. "I stayed on the shrimp boat (at the dock) to honor the no-contact order. . . . I'm trying to make sure that she's taken care of." The judge said the charge, "though not in itself a very significant one, becomes more significant when you come in here and try to come up with -- concoct -- some story about this just bumping into each other, which I find to be totally unreasonable." Tuesday marked the third time Uhr had testified in court as the alleged victim of a crime involving Crouch. Each time, she has testified that Crouch was not at fault, even though twice her complaints were the basis of the charges. Port Richey police say Crouch remains one of two suspects in the Jan. 17, 1998, death of his 20-month-old son, Travis. Police say Crouch and his then-girlfriend, Anna May Becker, were the only two in the house when Travis suffered the blow that killed him. In January 1987, Crouch was arrested on first-degree murder charges after the body of his wife, Jean, was found on Green Key Beach. Prosecutors eventually dropped the murder charge after a judge ruled that an alleged confession could not be used in court.
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