By MICHAEL A. SCARCELLA

 

 

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BRADENTON -- Ronald Keith Zerr recently left the county jail a free man, some six months after he was arrested for wiggling his tongue at some girls at a bus stop.

The tongue gesture scared the girls and got Zerr, 40, locked up on the charge of lewd or lascivious exhibition in front of a minor.

Prosecutors say Zerr simulated oral sex.

But Circuit Judge Ed Nicholas has ruled there wasn't enough evidence to conclude that the tongue-wagging violated state laws. Nicholas dismissed the case in late March.

"There was no crime here," said Zerr's attorney, Laurence Eger, an assistant public defender in Manatee County.

Zerr had been in the county jail since his arrest. He was looking at a possible 15-year prison sentence if convicted.

He has been arrested on burglary and drug charges but never for a sex crime.

Zerr, a convicted felon, was pedaling past the girls on his bike in September when he said something about "my girls." He stuck out his tongue to the group, prosecutors say.

Eger said Zerr rode past the girls and didn't confront them.

Zerr's attorney said Wednesday that the whole incident lasted "a total of two seconds."

Prosecutors said in court recently that the criminal charge against Zerr should be taken in context with what he reportedly told sheriff's deputies after his arrest Sept. 20 in the 200 block of 57th Avenue West in Bradenton.

"I should have raped her," Zerr is quoted as saying in sheriff's reports.

He also reportedly told deputies he would come back and hurt the girls when he got out of jail.

State prosecutor Jeff Quisenberry said the tongue gesture frightened the victims -- three girls who range in age from 12 to 14.