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Taxi Driver Beaten

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By HERNANDO TODAY STAFF

Published: January 28, 2009

SPRING HILL - A taxi driver was beaten early Saturday morning by the intoxicated man who had called for a ride home from a bar.

The cab driver went to the Mermaid Lounge on Commercial Way around 2 a.m. to pick up his fare. After collecting his rider, Kevin Benstead, the two walked outside and the driver asked Benstead where he was headed, according to a sheriff's report.

Benstead responded with a profanity, then began to slide off the bench where he was sitting.

When the cab driver moved in to keep the suspect from falling to the ground, Benstead became "extremely violent" and began pummeling the cab driver with his fists, according to a report.

The bartender stepped outside to break it up and Benstead, 49, was arrested on a misdemeanor battery charge.

Man Charged With Resisting Arrest

MASARYKTOWN - A ride in the open bed of a pickup truck turned into a trip to the county jail for two men on Sunday.

A deputy patrolling Benes Roush Road around 11:20 a.m. recognized Thomas Smalley in the bed of a black Ford F-150 and pulled the truck over. The deputy asked Smalley's companion, Michael Mendoza, for identification and Mendoza reportedly gave the deputy a false name.

As the deputy attempted to get an accurate name, Mendoza took off running on foot into the nearby woods, according to a report. Mendoza got about 100 yards before he was brought down by another deputy, a report shows.

Mendoza, 26, was charged with resisting arrest without violence and arrested on an outstanding warrant for violating probation; Smalley, 23, was also arrested on a warrant.

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