GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The incident that led to a Gainesville man being arrested earlier this week on charges of kidnapping and battery after an 8-year-old girl was reportedly taken inside his apartment against her will did not occur, according to the Gainesville Police Department.
Police said further investigation and interviews with other witnesses allowed them to determine Donald Mobley, 61, did not kidnap the girl.
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Police said there were discrepancies in the girl's original story, and other physical evidence recently obtained proves Mobley's innocence. Police said they are now 100 percent certain that Mobley did not attempt to kidnap or harm the girl in any way.
They said she voluntarily went inside his apartment, and the door was open the entire time she was inside. Police said she left on her own accord after her friends threatened to tell her family where she was.
Police said they've completed paperwork to the State Attorney's Office documenting this new development and a recommendation of Mobley's release from the Alachua County jail.
According to the original report, police said Mobley became upset that two girls, ages 6 and 8, were playing on the steps in front of his apartment in Gardenia Gardens on Eighth Avenue. They said he kicked the younger girl in the leg and invited the other into his apartment to play on his drums. Police said when she declined, he became angry, grabbed her arm, pulled her inside and began to close the door.
Police said Friday all of that was unfounded.
Mobley was arrested 13 years ago on a charge of lewd and lascivious act, but he later reached a plea agreement on a misdemeanor count of indecent exposure charges. He spent less than two months in jail and remained on probation for six months. There are no records of any arrests since until this week.