A spokesman for Gibraltar Private Bank and Trust, Peter Whalen, just released the following statement about its association with suspected Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein.
The law firm of Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler maintained traditional banking accounts with Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust for law firm operations, including payroll. Gibraltar Private immediately reached out to the court-appointed receiver for the law firm, Herbert Stettin, regarding disposition of the balances of the accounts. Gibraltar Private has not been contacted by any governmental agencies or authorities; however the bank will provide full cooperation.
The Fort Lauderdale Police Department has provided new information on the shooting by its officer yesterday afternoon near the bus station downtown. The man shot has been identified as 20-year-old Jonas Joseph. From the release:
Sergeant Dean Schoen, a 12-year-veteren, received information from a citizen that the suspect, Jonas Joseph was armed with a knife. Sergeant Schoen located and approached the suspect at which time Joseph brandished a knife. According to multiple witness accounts, Sergeant Schoen repeatedly demanded Joseph to drop the knife. Joseph did not comply and instead advanced towards the sergeant. Sergeant Schoen, in fear for his life, fired rounds at the suspect and struck him. Joseph ran away and collapsed in front of the bus terminal. He was rushed to Broward General Medical Center and does not appear to have life-threatening injuries. He will be charged with Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon on a Law Enforcement Officer.
During the incident, a bystander, Luis Redina, 1/1/56, was inadvertently struck. He has been treated and released.
Details remain vague, but Fort Lauderdale Police are investigated a shooting that occurred near the Broward County bus terminal downtown involving an off-duty officer. From the release:
Preliminary investigation has revealed that a Police Sergeant was working an off-duty detail at the Broward County Main Bus Terminal. The Sergeant was advised that there was an armed male at 300 Northwest 1 Avenue. The Sergeant advised via radio that he needed an emergency back-up to his location. A few moments later the Sergeant advised via police radio that shots had been fired and he requested EMS. The suspect, who was shot, ran away on foot southbound towards the main bus terminal. The suspect was apprehended at the bus terminal and was transported to Broward General Medical Center. The suspect is currently in surgery.
A second person was struck at 300 Northwest 1 Avenue. Detectives are currently working with witnesses to determine exactly how that person was shot.
The Fort Lauderdale Police Department will have a press conference in one hour to give information on a shooting that involves a cop. That's all the information that's available at the moment. We'll update when there's more.
Ever since lawyer Scott Rothstein went missing last week, only to return to the country amid allegations of running a $400 million Ponzi scheme, some observers have wondered how this news might affect one of the story's subplots: the March 2008 murder of Melissa Britt Lewis, a young attorney who worked in Rothstein's firm.
In this article by Bob Norman, Rothstein told Norman that Debra Villegas, another employee, handled all of his accounting. Villegas's husband, Tony Villegas, was eventually charged with the murder of Lewis. The motive was supposedly revenge for Lewis's closeness with Debra. As the murder story unfolded last year, Bob Norman described the case as "mind-boggling" and reported how Debra Villegas had given seemingly conflicting statements to separate media outlets.
For four months, the Boynton Beach Police Department has been investigating the Platinum Showgirls strip club on North Federal Highway, and tonight they swooped in. According to a just-issued department release, some 50 police officers have swarmed the club in what spokeswoman Stephanie Slater is calling "an extremely active scene."
When asked about the the coalition's allegations, Maxwell said, "Is there a way to answer this question? It's like the old 'When did you stop beating your wife?' routine? Referring to his alleged association with Stormfront, he said, "I would never knowingly associate with that type of organization. I'm saddened and disappointed that the issues important to the neighborhood are being swept away because those folks choose to talk about something that I have never for a moment brought up in this campaign."
Kudos to the witnesses who stepped forward in the murder case of Junior Cesar. The Boynton Beach Police Department acted on witness tips to arrest Suprinet Augustin, 22. He allegedly confronted Cesar during a basketball game at Pence Park, pistol-whipped him, then shot Cesar three times. Another 22-year-old, Jakenson St. Hilaire, allegedly drove Augustin from the scene in a 1996 Ford Mustang. He's been charged with accessory to murder.
According to the arrest affidavit, St. Hilaire gave a statement to police corroborating witness statements, adding that Augustin phoned Cesar before the shooting and arranged the meeting in the park.
The knife fight that broke out during Holocaust-denier David Irving's speech at the Ritz-Carlton on Manalapan this week appears to be the latest twist in an ongoing spat between two white supremacist factions, according to a watchdog that monitors hate groups nationwide.
"This is just the latest manifestation of a war that has been developing between the Confederate Hammerskins and Volksfront," says Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report. "This is something that's happening in Florida, and this is really the event that has sprung it into public view."
So 30-year-old Junior Cesar had several friends with whom he played basketball but none of them recognized the person who walked up to Cesar, then shot him dead? Really? Here's the latest from the Boynton Beach Police Department:
The victim has been identified as Junior Cesar, 30, of Boynton Beach. Witnesses told detectives that
Cesar was with 6-7 males playing basketball around 7:30 p.m. when numerous shots were fired. Cesar
was shot multiple times and died on the basketball court.
Police know that there were a lot of other people in the area at the time of the shooting and are urging
them to come forward with information.
WPTV reports today that the bus stop across the street from convicted sex offender Alexander Scholling's residence will be moved, thanks to a decision by the Palm Beach County School District yesterday.
Alexander Scholling, the Tequesta man who was arrested in 2005 when he took a computer filled with kiddie porn to a local computer repair store, was released from prison -- only to move into a house directly across the street from a bus stop in Jupiter transporting students to Bak Middle School.
Serial bank robbery was one of South Florida's favorite new sports this summer, and the game turned out to be surprisingly polite and thankfully bloodless.
Police announced today that they've taken one pair of our local Bonnie & Clydes off the street. An unusually calm man, who has now confessed to robbing a dozen banks in Palm Beach County to fuel his Oxycodone habit, is being held at the Palm Beach County Jail. And so is the woman who's acted as his getaway driver.
Glenn Hooper and his girlfriend Kimberly Smith, both in their early 50s, were spotted by a teller this morning who thought she'd been previously robbed by Hooper at the Sterling Bank on Hypoluxo Road in Lantana. Hooper evidently changed his mind, and the pair had made a U-turn to leave the bank's parking lot as bank officials phoned police.
Hooper and Smith, both of Hollywood, were pulled over and apprehended shortly on I-95. We'll update with new info as we get it.
That's last night's CBS 12 report, which tells of two people stabbed at the Ritz-Carlton in Manalapan, where it's believed neo-Nazi author David Irving was giving a speech.
Juice was the first to report that Irving was scheduled to appear in the area, though prospective demonstrators had yet to learn his precise location. That post quoted a protester named Nick, who declined to give his last name and who sent an email to us last night, about an hour before the stabbings occurred.
Defective drywall from China is full of bacteria and fungus and, in at least one case, fecal matter.
That's according to Spiderman S. Mulholland, an expert in building inspections. Mulholland says the drywall is so corroded with bacteria that it's likely causing health issues for those who live in homes built with the defective wall board.
Mulholland announced his findings Sunday at a conference in Orlando for owners of homes with Chinese drywall. He told the hundred or so homeowners that he and his team spent 20,000 hours and about $500,000 testing Chinese drywall.
The defective drywall is in perhaps as many as 100,000 houses nationwide, and
New numbers released today by a journalism industry auditor show that the Sun-Sentinel has won a rare victory in the South Florida media wars: Over the past year, its Sunday circulation surpassed the Miami Herald's.
Preliminary numbers compiled by the Audit Bureau of Circulations show that by the end of September, the Sentinel's Sunday circulation was 239,230, compared to 238,613 for the Herald. Last year at this time, the Herald's Sunday
Sinclair photographing himself; saving time for investigators.
Losing your cell phone is not a crime. If it was, we'd all be locked up! But if you lose your cell phone at a crime scene -- say, a strong-arm robbery -- well, then you might have some trouble. Right, Scano?
Scano Conrade Sinclair is a 28-year-old man from Miramar who Broward Sheriff's Office investigators say tried to rob a Palm Beach County man, failing and losing his cell phone in the process. This is the point where Sinclair probably should have stopped his campaign.
Instead, investigators say Scano and a buddy then sneaked into the bedroom of that man's girlfriend, Lindsey.
This article on a breaking news website claimed that Spirit Airlines Flight 837 originating in Fort Lauderdale crashed near San Juan, Puerto Rico, and that it was the source of an explosion that firefighters are still putting out.
I just got off the phone with Greg Meyer, a spokesman for Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, and he told me, "I have no knowledge of any Spirit Airlines incident." My call was the first he had heard of it.
"I would have been notified if there had been a missing flight," said Meyer.
There actually was an explosion near San Juan, but a more credible news organization says it came from an oil storage facility.
Kids: Do not talk to cars, especially when you're gobbling psychedelics.
Hot off the wire from the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office:
There have been several suspicious incidents in the area of Osceola Creek Middle School, Loxahatchee in the last week or so. We have two vehicles that have tried to stop and talk to middle school children.
Talking cars, eh? Are we sure the kids at Osceola Middle School haven't discovered a taste for mushrooms?
Apparently, this Girl Scout couldn't afford clothes, either, so she improvised!.
The Boynton Beach Police Department has arrested Magaret Ann Willett, a volunteer for the Girl Scouts of America, on suspicion of credit card fraud after a victim picked out Willett from a surveillance video.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Willett is suspected of having gone on a shopping spree with a credit card that belonged to Mary Ann Paris of Boynton Beach. The card was used at Ross Dress for Less, WalMart, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and Target. (A real "frugalista," isn't she?) She scooped up some pet supplies at Pet Supermarket. And then she apparently needed groceries, so she made stops at Publix and WalMart. In all, she spent about $700.
The affidavit says that after confronting Willett, she admitted that she had found Paris' credit card at the office for Girl Scouts of America where they both worked. She blamed the theft on financial trouble.
Two weeks after a suit-wearing man pulled a gun out of briefcase and shot Tobias Barfield of Dania Beach, "Dapper Dan" is in police custody. The Broward Sheriff's Office is reporting that the suspect, John Roger Jenkins, turned himself in this morning. Here's the release.
Investigators have not yet identified a motive in the shooting, and that, of course, is the $64,000 question. We've been fascinated by this strange case since it first broke two weeks ago. The suit, the gun, the nice car, and the way the shooter knocked on the door, identified the target, then pulled the trigger: It was either a hitman's job or a guy who's damned good at impersonating one.
The man who shot and wounded a Fort Lauderdale police officer this weekend before being killed has been identified as Bastiany Georges, a 29-year-old who had an extensive criminal history. The incident occurred following police attempts to make a traffic stop on Andrews Avenue. The Fort Lauderdale Police news release:
The driver refused to stop and finally came to a rest at the 1100 block of Northwest 4th Avenue. It is at that point that a confrontation ensued between the culprit and officers, escalating to the police involved shooting.
If you slapped your spouse around lately, then earned an arrest warrant but wondered where the police were, check your front porch. Broward Sheriff's Office just announced the arrest of 30 offenders in a sweep that concluded this morning and which coincided with the seventh anniversary of the National Family Violence Apprehension Detail.
BSO release is here. It points out that this has been an unusually violent year for Broward couples -- domestic disputes account for 18 murders already, when there were only 12 all of last year.
Sheree Silver is the psychic who, for an episode of the TV series "Wife Swap" left Florida for a week to live with the Heene family in Colorado earlier this year. In that episode, which originally aired in the spring, Silver remarks on camera that the show will be her destiny. Still, she didn't quite expect that the Heenes would make world news yesterday when it was feared that the youngest member of the family, six-year-old Falcon Heene, had accidentally flown off in his dad's makeshift silver balloon. He was later found safe at home and speculation grew that the whole incident had been a publicity stunt. Silver, reached at home in St. Augustine, was gracious enough to answer a few questions: As a psychic, did you predict this at all? Yes. This morning I woke up and felt the need to call First Coast News [the TV station in Jacksonville]. My children had been cast in an Edgar Allan Poe play at the Limelight Theatre. They were all set to put me on the news for that, and within two hours, [I saw on CNN that Falcon was feared to be in the runaway balloon]. But you know, I didn't sense danger; I didn't pick it up. I wasn't panicked.
Did you stay in touch with the Heene family after filming was over? I actually did. I sent presents to the boys, care packages.
People are now speculating that the father, Richard Heene, may have staged a hoax. I wouldn't put anything past Richard...
Audiences were riveted to TV yesterday as authorities tracked a homemade flying saucer across Colorado, believing that a six-year-old boy, Falcoln Heene, may be trapped inside the wayward flying vessel. Later in the day, after the boy was found safely at home, speculation grew that the incident was a hoax -- a publicity stunt staged by an out-of-control father and acted out by kids who have been rewarded for rude and raucous behavior.
A little digging on You Tube yielded some interesting videos of the Heene family. In one (above), the dad says that when the family was chosen by audiences to be on a second episode of "Wife Swap," it was "the best thing that's ever happened to us in our life -- seriously." Richard Heene and his boys -- who are encouraged to curse and act unruly -- disrespect the woman who comes and lives with them for a week -- psychic Sheree Silver of Orlando. Mr. Heene displays a hot temper, screaming often and even throwing a glass of milk on Silver at one point. He comes around only after the woman does a past-life regression workshop with him, his ego clearly boosted when they determine he was once the captain of a spaceship that shuttled aliens back and forth from Earth.
You Tube also yielded three home videos of the boys: one where they are walking down railroad tracks and rapping that they are "not pussified,"; and two videos where the kids make a dessert and "booger soup."
The first ten minutes of the "Wife Swap" episode can be seen above; the rest are here.
And here's the lovely burp- and fart-filled "Not Pussified" home video:
State Sen. Ted Deutch, whose district overlaps with U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler's congressional district, just sent out a news release heralding an "important campaign announcement." Sounds like he's going to announce his candidacy for the Wexler seat.
The Deutch news conference is for 3:30 at his home in Boca Raton.
Boca Raton's Robert Wexler is expected to resign today after seven terms in Congress to join a Middle East think tank, and the group that will miss him the most is TV news producers. That's because Wexler has always found a way to say something so fiery, so lefty that the folks at Fox spend a day talking about an obscure Congressman from Boca.
So below, his top three moments in TV.
3. Calling for Dick Cheney's Impeachment Wexler got national headlines for suggesting that the Bush administration's sith lord face a trial, and now, years later, we can all wonder why nobody listened.
2. Wexler Grills Alberto Gonzales When a top White House official comes before Congress and lies his ass off, some representative ought to lose his shit questioning the guy. And that's exactly what
In addition to the three teenagers who appeared in court today on charges they set fire to Michael Brewer of Deerfield Beach, the Broward Sheriff's Office is now reporting the arrest of two more juveniles: Steven Shelton and Jesus Mendez, both of whom are also 15 years old, like the victim. From the BSO news release:
At 3:14 pm Monday BSO deputies were dispatched to the Lime Tree apartments in reference to a person who suffered a burn injury. Deputies arrived along with Deerfield Beach firefighters and found the victim, Michael Brewer, sitting in a lawn chair near the pool. The teen was burned extensively above the waist. The young victim said that he was splashed with a flammable liquid and then set ablaze. A BSO helicopter transported the victim to Broward General Medical Center. He was later transferred to a burn center in Miami. An intensive investigation by BSO Deerfield Beach District deputies and BSO Aggravated Felonies detectives, plus Crime Scene Investigators, was immediately launched.
A bomb threat has led officials to evacuate Citrus Cove Elementary School on Lawrence Avenue in Boynton Beach. Police are on the scene. More information as it becomes available.
Horrific story coming out of Deerfield Beach. The Broward Sheriff's Office is reporting that a 15-year-old boy named Michael Brewer was attacked at a pool within an apartment complex, then deliberately burned. Here's the BSO news release:
At 3:14 pm BSO deputies were dispatched to the Lime Tree apartments in reference to a person who suffered a burn injury. Deputies arrived along with Deerfield Beach firefighters and found the victim, Michael Brewer, sitting in a lawn chair near the pool. The teen was burned extensively above the waist. The young victim said that he was splashed with a flammable liquid and then set ablaze.
Contributors: Eric Barton, Michelle Centrone, Deirdra Funcheon, Keith Hollar, John Linn, Michael J. Mooney, Bob Norman, Lisa Rab, Nicole Rodriguez, Gail Shepherd.
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