Man caught on camera driving erratically outside jail

The Hernando Sheriff's Office would like to alert those visiting the county jail: the walkway leading up to the visitor's entrance is not a suitable place to park.

Deputies say 31-year-old Michael Lee Roberts, has now used that sidewalk twice, according to arrest reports. Most recently he took it a step further by cutting a few ruts in the jail's lawn.

Monday around 7:00 p.m. deputies said Roberts drove right up to the front door and parked.

Once inside, a correctional officer asked him to park the car in a parking space.

"He said no, he wasn't going to move it. So [the officer] escorted him outside and asked him to move the vehicle -- and again, he said no," said Hernando County Sheriff's Office Spokesperson Denise Moloney.

As a patrol deputy arrived, he convinced Roberts to move his car.

As he backed up, deputies say Roberts slammed into a bench, and instead of continuing in reverse, he gunned it forward taking out some bushes and part of an officer's memorial.

Roberts wasn't done there.

"He just started racing around the jail lawn," Moloney added.

Jail surveillance cameras captured video of the car circling the lawn. After two passes and nearly hitting the patrol deputy's car, Roberts smashed into a flag pole where the car finally stopped.

"That was his final resting spot, and that's when they removed him from the vehicle," Moloney told FOX 13.

Deputies swarmed the car and arrested Roberts charging him with criminal mischief and two counts of resisting an officer with violence.

As of now, no one -- except Roberts -- knows why he parked in the walkway.

"He didn't want to talk. He didn't want to talk to us," Moloney said.

Nine years ago, the night after Christmas, arrest records show Roberts parked in the same spot, ran inside the same way, and demanded his uncle be released from jail.

Deputies arrested him then, and he admitted to an unrelated hit-and-run crash and smoking an ounce of marijuana that day.

In all, the sheriff's office estimates there is about $1,000 in damage to a bench, the flag pole, some landscaping and the officer's memorial.

Roberts is spending his 31st birthday in the Hernando County Jail.

His bond was set at $4,000.