A homeless man with a long criminal history is back behind bars after being caught trespassing with drugs in his pocket.
Officers responded to a call on Flora Drive in Leesburg around 11 p.m. Monday and found 29-year-old Derius Lashane Dabney hiding behind a fence on the property. Dabney put his put his right hand in his right pocket and did not react when told to remove his hand, according to an arrest report from the Leesburg Police Department.
An officer detained Dabney by grabbing his right hand, which revealed a clear plastic bag with a white crystal-like substance in his front-right pocket. A subsequent search of Dabney turned up a glass pipe used to smoke narcotics with white residue inside, a lighter, and two small clear plastic bags with a white crystal-like substance that tested positive for 2.4 grams of methamphetamine, the report said.
Dabney refused to identify himself multiple times to the officers. The man who called the police said he did so because he knew Dabney did not live on the property. The property manager arrived and said he had seen Dabney in the past and he had Dabney trespassed from the property.
Dabney finally identified himself while on the way to the police station. He was charged with trespassing, possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine) without a prescription, and possession of drug equipment.
Dabney has multiple prior arrests, with the most recent in May when he was found sleeping on a bench in The Villages with drugs in his pocket. He was also arrested in January 2022 for assaulting a nurse while under a Baker Act at UF Health-Leesburg.
Dabney is being held in the Lake County Jail on $4,000 bond.
