A Murfreesboro has been arrested for attacking police, which may have given him more arrests on his record than anybody in the state of Tennessee.
You may not know Willie Weesner, but the police sure do. He's been arrested 400 times, and was recently put back behind bars.
Yet, bigger story here is the growing tab taxpayers have been paying to lock him up over and over again.
A quick glance at his criminal file shows enough mugshots to fill a high school yearbook, which is about the time the 52-year-old Weesner began getting into trouble.
"He chooses to continue to engage in this self-destructive behavior and endangering the public," said Sgt. Kyle Evans with the Murfreesboro Police Dept.
Weesner has been arrested hundreds of times dating a back to 1979, mostly for misdemeanor public intoxication.
When we talked to him a few years back, Weesner admitted his priorities after each release. "If I was to get out I'd be honest with you, I'd go get me a beer and a pack of cigarettes," said Weesner in 2008.
"Mr. Weesner has been given every opportunity to be rehabilitated," said Sgt. Evans.
However, Sgt. Evans added that each time Weesner has walked away from rehab and recommits. Most recently this past week, but that time it was felony when an officer tried to stop him from vandalizing a church mailbox.
"The officer told him to stop so he attacked the officer...striking his car and trying to hit the officer with a heavy object," said Sgt. Evans.
The arrest added to the astounding overall cost of Weesner's crimes. Consider roughly 400 arrests - that's $75 each time he's booked and close to 5,000 days served in the jail at about $50 per day.
The tab easily tops a quarter of a million dollars. By now, the guards know him, and Weesner said they greet him this way.
"You back again?" said Weesner laughing.
This most recent arrest was a felony. A typical sentence for Weesner ranges from 30 days to twelve months on a misdemeanor, but if convicted of this latest charge Weesner will likely do much more time.
