A former resident of The Villages with a spate of recent arrests was jailed without bond over the weekend after an alleged attack on an elderly person.
Scott Robert Kerster, 45, also known as “Scott Fudge,” was arrested Friday by Sumter County sheriff’s deputies on a Marion County warrant charging him with a felony count of battery of a person over the age of 65. He was transferred Saturday to the Marion County Jail.
Details about the warrant were not available over the weekend.
Kerster had been arrested last month after taking an Uber to a Winn-Dixie in The Villages in violation of his community control sentence which requires him to remain at home. He lives with his mother at the Lake Sumter Reserve Senior Apartments at County Road 466 and Cherry Lake Road.
He was released Feb. 27 to his mother, a former resident of the Village of Chatham, after a judge agreed to free Kerster on his own recognizance. He had been jailed on a probation violation Feb. 23 after he was taken into custody by Sumter County sheriff’s deputies at the apartment.
Kerster had been arrested after his mother had been taken by ambulance Feb. 9 from the apartment complex. A neighbor went to the hospital to check on the mother and was surprised that Kerster was not there with her. Instead of accompanying her to the hospital, Kerster called an Uber and went to the grocery store.
In addition to the Feb. 9 food run to Winn-Dixie, Kerster had his mother call a cab on Feb. 16 to take him to Publix and he was gone for more than two hours, according to a violation report on file in Marion County Court.
“Scott goes out shopping and to restaurants often. Scott pressures his mom to take him out to eat and to shop,” a neighbor told Kerster’s probation officer.
The officer went to Kerster’s apartment on Feb. 18 and was met at the door by his mother. She said her son went to fill up her car with gas and to purchase food. It was apparently after the Feb. 18 visit that the probation officer sought the warrant for Kerster’s arrest.
Kerster was placed on community control after his conviction in a 2020 incident in which he stole money from a tip jar at Little Joey’s Italian Restaurant at Baylee Plaza in Summerfield.
At the time, he already had multiple convictions for grand theft, theft and burglary.
