By Austin L. Miller
Ocala Star-Banner
MARION COUNTY, Fla. — The Marion County Sheriff’s Office has released video showing inmate Michael Sonneman, 34, trying to grab a corrections officer’s gun after a visit to a doctor on Monday.
The officer, Matthew Bowen, quickly wrestles Sonneman to the ground, then calls for backup.
Marion County Jail inmate Michael Sonneman said it wasn’t the first time corrections officer Matthew Bowen had escorted him from the jail to an outside appointment.
On a previous occasion, Sonneman said, the two talked and he doesn’t have a problem with the corrections officer.
Outside the barbed wires, chain-link fences, walls and rigid rules at the jail, Sonneman, 34, said he is emotional and often cries.
“Maybe it has to do with my illness, or it’s I just want to go home,” said Sonneman during an interview Tuesday at the jail. He had his hands chained near his waist and his legs shackled.
As for what occurred on Monday, Sonneman said that was strange. It might be weird to him, but to law enforcement officials, it is scary.
The inmate -- being held pending a trial on interference with child custody and lewd and lascivious battery on a child -- was re-arrested Monday on charges of battery on a law enforcement officer and depriving an officer of means of protection/communication. Deputies say he tried to grab Bowen’s side arm as the two were returning to a vehicle that would transport them to the jail.
Bowen told Deputy Travis O’Cull he had taken Sonneman to a doctor’s appointment, according to an arrest report. They were walking to the vehicle when Sonneman “lunged toward his gun with both hands.”
Sonneman’s hands were handcuffed in front of his body. The corrections officer said the two struggled, but he was able to secure his weapon and detain Sonneman. He then called for backup.
The corrections officer had scrapes on his right forearm and right knee, the report states. An eyewitness told O’Cull a similar story, and surveillance video confirmed their accounts.
Sonneman told the deputy he didn’t remember what happened. He denied trying to take the corrections officer’s weapon.
During the jailhouse interview, Sonneman said he remembered waking up, and going to the doctor’s office. Then it was dark, he said, and when he awakened, he was on the ground.
“I don’t remember anything about that at all,” Sonneman added. He said he is paranoid schizophrenic.
“It seems insane,” he said of the allegations. “I’m trying to get out of one thing and not get into anything else.”
In 2015, Sonneman was picked up in Tacoma, Washington, on two charges involving a teenage girl. Back then, sheriff’s detectives said, Sonneman’s family had met the teen through mutual friends at a house warming party in April or May of 2015. In August, the juvenile ran away.
Sheriff’s detectives suspected the two were together in Tacoma and asked officials there to check on Sonneman. Tacoma officials found them together, and Sonneman was arrested.
Sonneman told the Star-Banner reporter he didn’t do anything to the girl and that she is lying.
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