Man admits he illegally dumped 900 lbs of storm debris in Englewood East

A man was arrested Thursday after deputies say he illegally dumped 900 lbs of storm debris on a property in Englewood East in November.

According to the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office, Latherio Leonard, 28, was arrested after deputies went to an address on Winchester Blvd. at around noon on Nov. 26 after being called with an illegal dumping complaint. A man told deputies that someone had dumped around 900 lbs. of both exterior and interior residential debris on his property the night before.

Deputies searched through the debris and located and photographed a correspondence addressed to a woman at a home on Partridge Avenue in Englewood. A man doing carpentry work on the home told deputies that two men had been hired to remove debris from the front driveway the night before and had loaded it into a U-Haul truck. They were paid to remove trash from the house and several other homes in the area.

Another neighbor on Partridge Avenue told deputies which trash removal company was responsible: Just Like New Trash Disposal, owned by Latherio Leonard, who the neighbor could describe.

A deputy called Leonard on Thursday and asked to meet me at a vacant residence on Oriole Boulevard in Englewood to give me an estimate on storm debris removal. When confronted there by deputies, Leonard confessed to dumping the debris on Winchester Boulevard, saying he didn’t mean any harm and would clean it up himself.

Leonard was arrested and taken to the Charlotte County Jail. He faces a felony litter law (commercial) charge.