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When Common Sense Takes A...

Judge Sends Alleged Domestic Abuser on Date With Wife

By Rich Abdill

1
Election

Murphy Will Move Districts to Challenge Allen West

By Rich Abdill

2
Getting High

DWI Revision Could Convict Sober People

By Rich Abdill

3
Wild, Wild West

Allen West Criticizes Bill He Didn't Fight Against

By Rich Abdill

4
Broward Politics

Interview: Sheriff Candidate Scott Israel

By Stefan Kamph

5
Tales From the Housing Crisis

Trump's $200m Pigeon Feeding Trough

By Eric Barton

6
Foreclosure

Just a Year in Prison for Mortgage Fraud?

By Rich Abdill

7
Election

Allen West Totally Bails On District 22

By Rich Abdill

8
Media

We Make Our Demands After Fox News Plagiarized T...

By Eric Barton

9
Corruption

The Accusations Against Boynton Beach Mayor Jose...

By Matthew Hendley

10

Pill Mills

Inside Christopher George's $40 Million Pill Mill: 18 Million Pills and a Bikini Model

By Rich Abdill Wed., Feb. 8 2012 at 3:51 PM

Categories: Pill Mills

George modeling the latest in prison V-neck fashion.

Pill-mill kingpin Christopher George was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison last Friday for his role in founding one of the largest pill mills in American history.

George, his wife, mother, and twin brother all pleaded guilty last year to charges related to pain clinics operated all over South Florida; the Palm Beach Post reported the clinics could pull in $50,000 in a single day and were connected to at least 56 overdose deaths.

The trouble, prosecutors said, started in 2007, when Jeffrey George was introduced to a pill-mill physician who told George there was money to be made. About a year later, George and twin brother Christopher opened South Florida Pain, with that same physician on the payroll.

When Christopher George "seized" control, according to court documents, Jeffrey George splintered off to open his own clinic in Palm Beach County with proceeds from an anabolic

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Tags:

American Pain, Christopher George, Jeffrey George

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When Common Sense Takes A Personal Day

Judge Sends Alleged Domestic Abuser on Date With Wife; Sun-Sentinel Thinks It's Adorable (UPDATED)

By Rich Abdill Wed., Feb. 8 2012 at 3:10 PM

Categories: Crime, Law, WTF, When Common Sense Takes A Personal Day

"But, honey! There are sweet buttery biscuits!"

Update, 2:17 p.m.: Added comment from Hurley's judicial assistant.

Update: 3:05 p.m.: Added comment from the president of Women In Distress.

Plantation's Joseph Bray is accused of pushing his wife onto a couch, putting his hand across her neck, and raising his fist to punch her. He was arrested and went before Fort Lauderdale Judge Jay Hurley for a bond hearing -- but instead of Hurley setting bail, he set Bray free on the condition that he take his wife to bowling and Red Lobster.

The court appearance ran as lead story in today's Sun-Sentinel, next to a picture of a bowling ball and a bouquet of roses. The first paragraph described a "marital spat" that "resulted in an usual [sic] bond court ruling by a perceptive judge."

How perceptive! Bray's wife likes seafood. How does she feel about being strangled? The story quotes Hurley as saying it was a "minor incident,"

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Tags:

Jay Hurley, Joseph Bray

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Crime

Heath Miller, Band Teacher Accused of Sexually Assaulting Students, Released on Bond

By Lisa Rab Wed., Feb. 8 2012 at 3:03 PM

Categories: Crime, Education

PBSO

Miller's trial is scheduled for March.

For nearly three years, Heath Miller sat in jail without facing a jury. In April 2009, the once-popular band teacher at H.L. Watkins Middle School in Palm Beach Gardens was charged with sexually assaulting four of his eighth-grade, female students. His arrest came as a shock to many in the community. Just months earlier, he had been hailed as a hero for shooting and killing a masked intruder who broke into his Wellington home.

Miller, 37, was a favored son of Belle Glade, his mom a former mayor, his dad the owner of a funeral home. The allegations that he molested teenaged girls in his band room stood in stark contrast to the reputation he had built as a charismatic teacher and mentor to kids. He pleaded not guilty to felony charges of sexual activity with a child, lewd and lascivious molestation, and tampering with evidence.

Initially, Miller was denied bail, partly because he was accused of tampering with More >>

Tags:

band teacher, H.L. Watkins Middle School, Heath Miller, Palm Beach Gardens

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Election

Patrick Murphy Following Allen West to New District 18 Congressional Race

By Rich Abdill Wed., Feb. 8 2012 at 1:29 PM

Categories: Allen West, Election

BREAKING: Murphy has a nice desk and the will to win.

Democratic congressional candidate Patrick Murphy's campaign just announced that he will be moving from his original plans to run in District 22 up to the newly drawn District 18 to challenge Congressman Allen West for a seat in the House of Representatives.

West announced last week that he was giving up on reelection in his current district and would be running for a seat left behind by Rep. Tom Rooney.

"Allen West and the Tea Party represent an enormous threat to the middle class, seniors, the environment, and America's economic recovery. There is simply no one more divisive in Congress," Murphy said in a news release. "It's imperative we make sure he is not re-elected."

West swapped districts because the newly drawn map became far more Democratic; District 18 has slightly more registered Republicans than Democrats. Murphy is also going

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Tags:

Adam Hasner, Allen West, Lois Frankel, Patrick Murphy

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Getting High

Florida's DWI Law Revision Could Lead to Conviction of Sober People

By Rich Abdill Wed., Feb. 8 2012 at 8:35 AM

Categories: Getting High, Politics, Transportation

Warning: Not for use by people who plan to ever drive a car.

Under proposed revisions to Florida law, drivers could be hit with DWI charges even if they were totally sober while they were driving, according to an interpretation by a Broward County DWI lawyer.

SB 1810 is sitting in several Florida Senate committees and would revise the state's law regarding driving under the influence in several ways: It changes the name of the offense from "driving under the influence" to "driving while impaired" and adds provisions for blood and urine testing, which sound like relatively minor changes when you consider the big change: what authorities are testing for.

What they're testing for is drug metabolites, which means if you smoke a joint on Friday and get pulled over the following Tuesday with evidence of it in your urine, you could get hit with charges of driving while impaired even if you were stone sober on the roads.

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Tags:

Florida Senate, Michael Dye

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Crime

Bob Norman May Face Trespassing Charge After Cops Label Him "Cocky" (UPDATED)

By Rich Abdill Wed., Feb. 8 2012 at 7:00 AM

Categories: Crime

UPDATE, 2/8/12: Both Norman and Reich are off the hook -- state's attorney spokesman Ron Ishoy says "The Parkland property owners... have agreed that the issuance of a trespass warning to the two journalists is the appropriate course of action in this case. Those warnings are expected to be issued this week."

Prosecutors are considering whether to file a misdemeanor trespass charge against Bob Norman, the former New Times columnist and current Channel 10 investigative reporter. The case stems from Norman's attempt to film a segment at the Pine Hollow Equestrian Center in Parkland.

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Bob Norman, Channel 10, Judy Reich, Pine Hollow Equestrian Center

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Crime

Alex Johnson, Colombian Snitch in Case Against Buju Banton, Earned Millions From U.S. Government

By Chris Sweeney Wed., Feb. 8 2012 at 6:30 AM

Categories: Crime

Alex Johnson -- a main character in this week's cover story about the conviction of Buju Banton -- on Monday further delayed his bankruptcy hearing. On the surface, there's nothing extraordinary about that; many Americans have turned to bankruptcy proceedings, which can stretch months if not years.

But Johnson isn't a U.S. citizen, and he'll never be one due to his felony-laden criminal record. Yet he has managed to earn nearly $3.5 million of taxpayer money while working as a confidential informant. He's a persistent and crafty snitch who used booze and claims of music industry contacts to lure Buju, a Grammy-winning reggae artist, into environments he may otherwise have avoided. Johnson also wasn't too fond of paying taxes, so the IRS put a lien on his pay from the Drug Enforcement Agency. The lien, however, was mysteriously lifted just days before he got paid for the Buju bust.

Johnson, the Depatment of Justice, and the DEA declined requests for interviews. So to get a better grasp on how fruitful and wonky the life of a snitch can be, we pulled a few interesting numbers that have marked the life of Alex Johnson.

Here, a numerical breakdown of South Florida's multimillion-dollar snitch.

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Tags:

Buju Banton, Cocaine, Drug Enforcement Agency, Reggae, Snitches

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Education

Mavericks Assistant Principal Was Accused, and Cleared, of Kissing Former Student at Denny's

By Lisa Rab Tue., Feb. 7 2012 at 12:31 PM

Categories: Education, Investigations

maverickshigh.com

Brandon works at Mavericks in Palm Springs.

On April 23, 2011, months before she was hired as assistant principal at the Mavericks High charter school in Palm Springs, Tisa Brandon was videotaped hanging out with teenagers at Denny's in the wee hours of a Saturday morning.

At the time, Brandon was dean of Liberty High School in Kissimmee. Three students spotted her in a booth at Denny's around 1:30 a.m., sitting with a former student who had recently withdrawn from Liberty because he was about to be expelled. According to statements the witnesses gave the Osceola County school district, Brandon and the ex-student were kissing.
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Tags:

Denny's, investigation, Mavericks High School, misconduct, Tisa Brandon

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Everyone on Facebook's Doin' It

Allen West's "Comparative History Lesson" Wasn't So Historical

By Rich Abdill Tue., Feb. 7 2012 at 12:29 PM

Categories: Everyone on Facebook's Doin' It, Wild, Wild West

Looks at 35 years of turmoil in the Middle East, blames Democrats for all of it.

Congressman (and former high school history teacher) Allen West gave his Facebook followers a "comparative history lesson for America" yesterday in which he blamed Jimmy Carter for "the resurgence of radical Islamic totalitarianism" and then compared it to Obama's calls for then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarek to step down, a move that he said "led to a Muslim Brotherhood dominated Egyptian parliament, Coptic Christian persecution, violence and Islamist control, and [19] Americans now detained with under threat of imprisonment."

We were curious if Obama really was to blame for all this, so we called Robert Danin, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a D.C.-based foreign relations think tank. Danin served, among a long list of other posts, under President George W. Bush as deputy assistant secretary of state in charge of Egyptian affairs.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Danin said West's interpretation was a little off.

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Tags:

Allen West, Egypt, Hosni Mubarek, Robert Danin

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Pill Mills

How Broward Medical Examiners Let Thousands of Pain Pills Walk Out the Door

By Rich Abdill Tue., Feb. 7 2012 at 8:15 AM

Categories: Pill Mills

Broward County OIG

Evidentiary photo included in the report

At least 3,600 pills are missing from the Broward County Office of the Medical Examiner and Trauma Services, according to a blistering report released yesterday by the Broward inspector general that reveals pervasive and destructive neglect by the leadership in the Broward County Office of the Medical Examiner that goes back years.

To give you an idea of how bad this report is, the words gross mismanagement are in the title of the report, and the terms flabbergasted and loosey goosey appear on page one.

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