Watch this video of an assault and car theft that occurred at a BP gas station in Pompano Beach. Maybe I'm jaded, but it's at least a little comical how the man in the wifebeater comes out of the mini-mart, hugging a 12-pack of Corona, only to see that some local toughs were harassing his friend, Jose Rodriguez, who had been waiting behind the wheel in a white Pontiac Sunfire.
For a moment, the wifebeater guy appears to consider whether he should rescue his friend or protect his recent investment in a delicious 12-pack of Mexican beer.
To his credit, he chooses his friend -- though not before putting down the 12-pack.
No, this one didn't involve Scott Rothstein. It was the lonely, forlorn creature to the left, who came to the SunTrust at 501 E. Las Olas this morning, then waited patiently for other customers to leave. This is from the Fort Lauderdale Police news release:
Once he was alone in the bank, the suspect approached a teller and placed a note on the counter stating he had a gun and demanded money. There was no weapon seen but the suspect kept his hand in his pocket as if he did. The teller complied with the demand and gave him cash. The suspect fled on foot and was not located.
The Ritz-Carlton in Manalapan: an unlikely place for a neo-Nazi stabbing.
The stabbings that occurred October 26, during a presentation by a Nazi historian at the Ritz-Carlton were a one-sided affair, it seems. That is, Christopher Nachtman stabbed John Kopko -- multiple times. And now the attorney for Kopko suspects that the Palm Beach State Attorney's Office is considering a charge against Nachtman for attempted murder.
"It was unprovoked and Mr. Kopko was unarmed," says Lee Levenson, the Boynton Beach attorney representing Kopko. "We believe he was trying to kill Mr. Kopko -- right in front of (Kopko's) family."
Barkavius McCray, sporting the shiner he got after his encounter with the Boynton Beach Police.
After arresting a young black man last night in Sara Sims Park, two white Boynton Beach Police officers faced down an angry crowd threatening violence.
According to the incident report, officers were patrolling the park based on its history of drug-related crimes. Around 7 last night, they say they saw a young man reverse his direction as he approached them, then throw plastic bags out of his pocket as he walked away. In doing so, the young man, Michael Taylor, 17, bumped into officer James Cooney. Says the report: "Taylor immediately uttered, "It's not mine, Cooney."
Photo: PBSO
Michael Taylor
But the other cops had witnessed Taylor's having tossed nine bags of marijuana. As officers walked Taylor to a police vehicle, however, they were approached by an 18-year-old named Joshua Kelley and several others. From the incident report:
Kelley was yelling numerous expletives at both officers, continuing to approach them.
It's bad enough to have to work when you're 82 years old. It's worse when you have to work as a greeter at a place like BJ's Wholesale. And it's phenomenally shitty that the job also placed 82-year-old George Sobol in the unenviable position of trying to stop a computer thief. The incident below happened just after 5 p.m., October 30 at the store on Hillsboro Boulevard in Parkland. From the BSO release:
Surveillance cameras were rolling as the suspect is seen casually walking into the store and past the greeter at 5:12 p.m. as he heads straight toward the computer merchandise. A couple of minutes later, the suspect approaches Sobol to ask for his assistance with the computers. He tries to get Sobol to leave his post at the entrance of the store, but Sobol refuses.
The Palm Beach State Attorney's Office is still examining the evidence in the October 26 stabbing at the Ritz-Carlton in Manalapan, but as we wait to see whether prosecutors will file charges, we're learning more about exactly what happened during the speech by Nazi historian David Irving. That altercation involved two men, Christopher Nachtman and
John Kopko.
The following account was provided by a witness who wrote Juice a note without disclosing his or her identity. According to the source:
Mr. Nachtman was invited by David Irving personally because Mr. Nachtman
and
his wife were going to open a bookstore to market David Irving's
material
and other white racialist materials.
Mr. Nachtman is involved in a skinhead group called VolksFront and that
group has an ongoing feud with another skinhead organization called
Hammerskin's. [edit: The Southern Law Poverty Center has made the same allegation, which Juice reported last month]
I think Mr. Kopko is or used to be part of that group,
but I
am not sure.
Tyrone Pinkney, a 23-year-old who was released from prison in September, looks like he'll be heading back. He's been arrested by police and charged in the November 9 shooting of Demetrus Sutton on Seacrest Boulevard.
According to the probable-cause affidavit, Sutton, 32, had been in an argument with two women -- Tomika Roberts and a woman named Keisha, who summoned Pinkney. He allegedly brought a silver handgun to the scene, causing Sutton to turn to leave. That's when Pinkney is said to have pulled the trigger. Sutton was taken to the Delray Medical Trauma Unit. He survived.
Pinkney, who was identified in a lineup by two witnesses, had previously served a year in prison for willfully fleeing and eluding.
Take a swig, Broward bandit... for our sake, please.
Broward police are looking for a bandit with "notably bad breath" who stuck up a bank in Tamarac Monday. The man, definitely not armed with Listerine, robbed the TD Bank, asking a teller to fill a trick-or-treat bag while motioning to his waistband. A gun was not in eye shot.
Authorities think the suspect, who stunned tellers with his extreme M.O. (mouth odor), fled the heist wearing a yellow, Polo-style shirt, a gold watch, and sunglasses in a white Honda Accord.
Let's hope the robber fled straight to the dentist's office.
In a brief telephone conversation this afternoon, Nazi historian David Irving confirmed that his websites and private email account were attacked by hackers opposed to his writings of World War II. He told me that he's been in contact with the FBI in hopes of bringing the hackers to justice. "We're asking authorities to investigate this felony -- it's a federal crime," Irving said.
The website irvingbooks.com has been up since 1998, he told me, and is registered in Florida. It's the first time it's been hacked. Irving doesn't know how they did it. Nor does he have a clue who's behind the name "anti-fascist hackers."
The author took the opportunity to impress upon me his vehement opposition to a term that often precedes his name, "Holocaust-denier." I pointed out that the Anti-Defamation League uses it on its profile of him.
"Can I tell you what I believe the Anti-Defamation League to be?" he huffed in his British accent. "A bunch of assholes and shits. Goodbye!" Dial tone.
David Irving, a British historian with controversial views of the Holocaust, whose speaking engagement last month in Manalapan was marred by a stabbing between neo-Nazis, has had his websites attacked and his email hacked by a group claiming "anti-fascist" motives.
On November 4, the day after alleged Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein returned from his trip to Morocco, a special party was held at the Westin Fort Lauderdale. Its attendance list reads like a who's who of political heavy-hitters in Broward.
The local chapter of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an organization that fights anti-Semitism, was hosting the Broward County Community of Respect Awards Dinner. Two people were scheduled to be honored at the event: Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti and local attorney Michael Moskowitz.
Rothstein's firm, Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler, was one of the event's main sponsors, and the chairman was Rothstein's law partner, Stuart Rosenfeldt. Tickets
On the right, pictured beneath the unforgiving fluorescent light in the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office, that's Ann Marie Fletcher, a dancer at Platinum Showgirls. Or at least she was a dancer as recently as October 30, when the Boynton Beach club was raided by police. Were it not, maybe Fletcher would have still been dancing in January, when she'll turn 48 years old.
Yes, in that picture she's 47. Now, we don't know whether she's been helped by plastic surgery, but that's been known to extend the career of many a stripper.
Just more evidence that Palm Beach County is the cougar capital of the country. Fletcher allegedly told the undercover officer that she was from Barbados and that she and a Haitian dancer named Jeeny would make the officer "our Oreo tonight -- chocolate on both sides." She's been charged with soliciting prostitution.
In a post Friday I quoted a former dancer who claimed that clubowner Matt Barrow was conscientious about the law and that he strictly forbade both drugs and sex with customers. She expressed doubt about investigators' claims that Barrow and club managers were aware of and profited from the dancers' illegal activities.
The South Florida media is still waiting for Boynton Beach Police to
file the incident reports in connection with the October 30 raid of
Platinum Showgirls, the alleged site of prostitution and drug-dealing.
But while we wait for those incident reports, let's take a closer look at what we know about the evidence in the case so far. It's contained in a probable cause affidavit, which contains decidedly pornographic language -- the type that you're not going to see on the network affiliates or daily papers.
Just what the Rothstein investigation needed: a big dose of public pressure by people who don't have a clue about the case but have some weird emotional need to see the already disgraced attorney slightly more humbled by being placed in a jail cell. That's what you've got in today's shallow, short-sighted column by the Sun-Sentinel's Michael Mayo.
He points out that other Ponzi schemers like Bernard Madoff and Marc Dreier were arrested almost immediately. Well, for starters, those two weren't already ensconced in a Moroccan hotel room, like Rothstein, who had a strong negotiating position with federal agents. By Mayo's logic, agents should have said, "Scottie, can you come back please? We know there's no extradition policy with Morocco, but we'd really like to handcuff you, then march you through a gantlet of cameras and an angry mob, then throw you in a jail for a few months while we investigate your case.
"Also, we know you were friends with the governor and that the Broward Sheriff's right-hand man walked you to the airport, so can you also tell us about your political friends, please?"
This week I spoke with a former dancer at Platinum Showgirls, the gentleman's club in Boynton Beach that was raided on the night of October 30. That raid came after a sting by undercover officers who claimed they found drug-dealing and prostitution.
The dancer, who knows club management and several current dancers at the club, told me that Platinum owner Matt Barrow runs a tight ship and if drugs or prostitution happened there, it could have only been without his knowledge. (Barrow has been charged with felony racketeering, drug trafficking, public nuisance and profiting from prostitution.)
Before we hear from the former dancer, a programming note: This post will tell one side of the story. In a subsequent post, we'll give the law enforcement side of the story, based on the probable cause affidavit.
Roldry Philia, a 34-year-old Delray Beach Police officer, was arrested late last night on charges of beating his wife. The probable cause affidavit released by the Boynton Beach Police Department does not mention the name of Philia's wife, just that she's 24 years old. She told police that she'd been fighting with Philia all day, that he'd taken her cell phone, locked her out of the house in the garage and slammed a door on her arm.
In the affidavit Philia's wife claims that as the fight escalated, Philia placed her in a headlock, then put a gun to her head, saying that "she was not leaving with 'his' daughter. A 6-year-old son and the 11-month old daughter witnessed the altercation, according to the report.
A parked car, a shooting in the early morning hours: The death of Michael Frank, a 22-year-old from Lighthouse Point, sounded like it was drug-related, and that's what Broward Sheriff's Office detectives are reporting, now that they've arrested Filipe Cruz, the man they believe killed Frank around 2 a.m. Thursday. From the BSO release:
The victim, Michael Frank, had gone to the area to purchase cocaine from Cruz. After Frank's friend got the drugs, the friend punched Cruz in the face and attempted to flee the area. As he tried to get away Cruz approached the car and shot Frank, who was sitting in the front passenger seat.
A 22-year-old man was murdered early this morning in Pompano Beach. Broward Sheriff's Office detectives say that Michael Frank, a Lighthouse Point resident, was sitting in the passenger seat of his friend's car around 2 a.m. when someone walked up and fired at him. It occurred in the 200 block of Northeast 14th Avenue.
One of the great ironies of Scott Rothstein's legacy in Broward County is the way he painted himself as such as a humanitarian.
This spring, his Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm was a major sponsor of the Soref Jewish Community Center's Humanitarians of the Year event. The soiree, held at the Signature Grand hotel in Davie, raised money for the center's children's scholarship fund and food pantry programs.
"Scott Rothstein and his law firm have contributed so much to our Broward
On a semiweekly basis, we like to have fun at the Panhandle's expense, and this week our victim is the very pitiable Kimberly Negron. The Fort Walton Beach resident has a depressing job and, according to local police, hatched an even more depressing criminal enterprise. From the Northwest Florida Daily News:
Kimberly Denise Negron was charged with stealing two phone cards, a fountain drink and chicken wings, a carton of cigarettes, a pack of cigarillos and cash from Dodge's Store where she works, an Okaloosa County Sheriff's report said.
The only thing more appalling than someone buying chicken wings from a minimart is someone stealing chicken wings from a minimart. And then washing them down with a carton of smokes. If only Negron hadn't taken that cash -- she'd have given her attorney room to argue to a jury that his client took nothing of legitimate value.
An article in today's Miami Herald about the method Scott Rothstein used to bilk his pal Ed Morse out of millions sounds like it came straight out of some Nigerian scammer's playbook. 419 fraud, also known as "advance fee" fraud, requires that victims wire money in advance to obtain a large cash payout that never arrives. Usually the original contact arrives in the form of an email from a widowed princess from Benin or a phony barrister in Ivory Coast with an inheritance to disperse.
That's about the only difference from the way Rothstein set up Morse. Rothstein was a real lawyer, apparently, instead of just some guy posing as one. But otherwise, the game was identical. Rothstein invented a $23 million court settlement, forged federal court documents, and promised Morse access to a phony bank account in the Cayman Islands. All Morse had to do to get his hands on the money was -- guess what? Pay an advance fee.
Boynton Beach Police are hoping this newly released video of a Britney Spears look-alike purse snatcher and her accomplice help nab the pair. Shortly after this scene, the young woman in the foreground exercises her sticky fingers, boldly grabbing the Kate Spade purse belonging to a 79-year-old woman who was shopping for seafood at Publix Monday afternoon.
Margarito Andres, a 22-year-old from Boynton Beach, is being sought by police after his 13-year-old stepsister reported Andres had been sexually assaulting her since she was 10 years old. In the probable cause affidavit, the victim told police that she'd been left home alone with Andres on Thursday and that he had told her to take off her pants.
Boynton Beach Police officers found evidence that the girl had been anally pentrated. In a taped interview, she told them that there had been at least 40 similar instances since she was 10 years old and that when she was 12 Andres told her he would kill her if she reported him to police.
It would be hard to blame former investors if they saw dollar signs the moment Jeffry Picower turned up dead in the pool of his Palm Beach mansion. After all, the billionaire was among the most prominent feeders of investment money to Madoff and received some of the most massive profits, a status that had earned him a place in a lawsuit brought by a trustee looking to recover investor losses.
Although Mr. Picower's will, which is expected to be filed on Tuesday, leaves the bulk of the estate to charity, that amount depends on how much his family pays to settle legal claims brought by the trustee gathering assets for Mr. Madoff's victims.
But the estate is clearly large enough to add at least several billion dollars to the $1.4 billion that the trustee has gathered so far.
The article also establishes a link between Picower and Michael Bienes, who with partner Frank Avellino fed the Madoff fund from Broward County.
Dude, thank your for your service to this nation in time of war, but... um.... can you save the bullets for the terrorists, please? The man pictured in wanted in a road rage case after he allegedly fired a shot at a dump truck that offended him when it made its turn out of the Waste Management headquarters on Powerline Road in Pompano Beach. Here's the BSO release:
Shortly before 6 a.m. on Saturday, September 26, a refuse truck driver was leaving the parking lot of Waste Management at 3831 North Powerline Road near Deerfield Beach. Kelvin Clark told BSO aggravated felonies detectives as he exited the parking lot in his Mack truck and pulled onto Powerline Road he noticed a southbound vehicle that began to fishtail. Clark stopped, and the out-of-control vehicle spun out and came to a stop facing northbound in front of Clark's truck.
The driver exited his vehicle, which is believed to be a newer model, black Ford Mustang, and approached the truck.
The Bristol County district attorney says that the case is still active, setting Morin's pretrial hearing for December 8. The Deerfield Beach man's corpse was dropped off at a local hospital hours after his death by Nelson Melo, who is being held on $50,000 cash bond for witness intimidation in connection with the case. The Standard-Times has more details about those charges. It appears they're related to Melo's allegedly having told differing accounts about the way Fleming died.
Somebody's been writing out his Christmas wish list early this year. But the guy in the Miami Hurricanes hat should have stipulated that he does not want an exploding dye pack with the rest of the cash in his bag. While running out of the Bank of America in Oakland Park, he probably looked a little like the guy in the video below.
Over on Pulp, Bob Norman has posted the first in-person interview with Scott Rothstein since the investment went into a tailspin. The image of Rothstein at Capital Grille, tossing back a couple of lunchtime martinis and being shushed by his lawyer may not seem particularly modest, but you have to understand the kinds of social scenes to which he'd become accustomed, like the one below. The just-posted video below is from September. A Playboy party at Bova Ristorante, financed in part with Rothstein's help and whose October closure may have been among the first signs of the collapse to come.
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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