VENTURA – Sometimes the challenges of using public transportation can simply be overwhelming. When those are compounded by the outrageous and confrontational behavior of our fellow travelers, some of us just “lose it.”
By all appearances, that may be the underlying circumstance leading to the arrest of 55-year-old Ventura resident Mark Lemmon just after the noon hour of December 5th.
According to the report of the Ventura Police Department Watch Commander’s Office, it was at 12:05 p.m. when 911 Emergency Dispatch received a witness call reporting “a man and a woman fighting at the bus depot located at 3300 Telegraph Road,” with the further indication that the woman had been hit in the head with a cane.
Responding VPD patrol officers discovered someone with whom they had familiarity as a local area transient, 36-year-old Kristen Kleider, who indeed complained of being struck about the head by a cane which officers observed to be in the possession of Lemmon.
The ensuing investigation revealed that Kleider and Lemmon had become engaged in a verbal exchange that had little to do with wishing each other a joyful holiday season; rather, it was a raging argument between the two, reportedly initiated by Kleider.
It was during the course of the argument, apparently, that Lemmon had heard enough and, according to the Watch Commander’s report, “struck Kleider in the head with his cane.”
As Kleider complained of some head pain, Lemmon was taken into custody and transported to Ventura County Jail, where he was indeed on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon.
