Stalking charge dropped against school board member
A misdemeanor stalking charge against Gulf County School Board Member Dennis McGlon was dropped in Bay County Court last month, nine months after his arrest in Lynn Haven.
McGlon’s initial arrest resulted after he allegedly waited for a 29 year-old Lynn Haven woman at her workplace, then followed her to her home on Aug. 12, 2022.
According to records of the case on the Bay County Clerk of Court’s website, the stalking charge was dropped due to a lack of information required for the state to build a case against McGlon.
“Although probable causes exists for stalking, to prove stalking, the State would have to show more than one incident of harassing behavior,” read a document filed with the court by the prosecution.
“The victim stated that this was the first time that Defendant approached her at her home and told him to leave in which he soon after left. Without more than one incident of harassing behavior, the State would be unable to prove the crime of Stalking beyond a reasonable doubt. The State is also unable to prove Trespass because the Defendant soon left after being told to leave.”
McGlon, who had been chair of the school board at the time of his arrest, resigned from the chairman post, but he did not resign from the school board.
He appeared at the school board’s May 23 meeting, the first meeting he had participated in in nine months.
Meet the Editor
David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.
Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.