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By Times staff writers
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 18, 2000
A sexual predator who was supposed to move to Hernando County after being released from prison is missing.
Claude Schirmer, 53, formerly of 7120 Hope Hill Road just outside Brooksville, has not reported to probation officials after he was released in June, a Hernando County sheriff's report said.
He has been convicted of two counts of lewd and lascivious conduct and multiple charges of sexual battery on a child, records show. Schirmer has a tattoo of a motorcycle wheel and a skull on his right arm. He faces a count of violating his probation and failing to register his residence.
A man is suing a Spring Hill Winn-Dixie, saying store employees injured him when they detained him for questioning in September 1997.
The lawsuit does not indicate why store employees stopped Ariel Hernandez, but records with the Hernando County Sheriff's Office show that the day before his alleged injury, Hernandez was issued a trespass warning at another Winn-Dixie branch after officials said they found him switching prices on packages of meat.
Hernandez says in his lawsuit that employees of the store at 11092 Spring Hill Drive seized him and detained him against his will for an unreasonable amount of time. He is asking for more than $15,000 in damages for false imprisonment, battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress. Store officials could not be reached for comment.
Sheriff's spokeswoman Deanna Dammer said she has no record of Hernandez reporting the alleged battery to law enforcement. The lawsuit was originally filed in Pasco County in 1999 but transferred to Hernando on Thursday.