Law & Order

New Details on Alleged Sexual Harassment by Craig Ferguson, Former Thompson Academy Director

By Stefan Kamph Mon., Oct. 22 2012 at 8:38 AM
Categories: Investigations, Law & Order

Thumbnail image for Thompson cover image-thumb-200x214.jpg
The former director of boys' lockup Thompson Academy, Renza "Craig" Ferguson, resigned under a cloud of suspicion in March. Staff members had made allegations that he was transporting young male inmates off campus and bringing them home to shower.

See also:
- Our cover story on abuse at Thompson Academy
- Ferguson resigns under investigation

Now the lawyer who called to report those charges has filed suit against Thompson's owners on behalf of an alleged victim, with backup testimony from a number of former staff members. It details sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior by Ferguson.

Despite Ferguson's resignation and the pending closure of Thompson, the company has never acknowledged inappropriate behavior by Ferguson. This could force them to confront those charges in court.

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Craig Ferguson, Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, Thompson Academy, Youth Services International
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Pill Mills

Week-Old "Detox Unit" in Broward Jail Failed to Stop Pill Abuser From Hanging Himself

By Stefan Kamph Thu., Oct. 18 2012 at 6:42 AM
Categories: Investigations, Pill Mills
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Update: A representative for Armor has clarified that the press release quoted below was not issued in response to our previous story, but was written back in August "to highlight the positive trend in Broward County Jail's successful detox program."

The release highlights many of the program's successes, including a marked reduction in medical incidents at the jail. "Since its inception, the program has treated approximately 11,000 patients and the number of emergency calls related to inmates detoxing dropped a staggering 90 percent," the company states. Crisante's case seems to be an anomaly, but the details are worth considering -- especially because it was a tragic reminder of the widespread epidemic the detox program sought to prevent.

Earlier this week, we brought you upsetting details on the jailhouse suicide of Edward Crisante Jr. in the Broward Main Jail in 2010.

During a few days of what one might consider warning signs that he was not mentally stable, he was making some specific complaints. In particular, he said he felt like his skin was crawling and that he couldn't stop shaking. 

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Armor Correctional Health Services, BSO, Edward Crisante, pill mills, Sheriff Al Lamberti, suicide
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Investigations

Edward Crisante Was Declared "Suicidal," But Jailers Left Him Alone in Cell to Commit Suicide

By Stefan Kamph Mon., Oct. 15 2012 at 6:23 AM
Categories: Investigations
Thumbnail image for edward-crisante.jpeg
BSO
Crisante
Edward Crisante Jr., a depressive 32-year-old, turned himself in at the Broward Main Jail on June 29, 2010, after failing to appear in court on traffic charges. He left the jail four days later on a stretcher, after hanging himself in his bunk with a bedsheet. He died in the hospital.

See also:

Crisante's parents are suing Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti for "failing to prevent [Crisante's] suicide" by withholding proper care and supervision. A report summarizing BSO's investigation of the death, never before released to the public, seems to support some of their accusations. 

Read on for the full report. 

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BSO, Edward Crisante, Sheriff Al Lamberti, suicide
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Million Dollar Ideas

John Amoruso, Geologist Who Made Guma Aguiar Rich, Recalls "Down-to-Earth Fellow"

By Stefan Kamph Fri., Jul. 13 2012 at 6:45 AM
Categories: Investigations, Million Dollar Ideas
amoruso_john.jpg
AAPG
John Amoruso
See also: the latest on Aguiar's disappearance, and the lawsuit against Aguiar spurred by this natural-gas deal.

In 2003, Texas geologist John Amoruso had a hunch that there was a lot of natural gas, and big money, in a previously unexplored geological area about midway between Houston and Dallas.

It was a long shot. To prove his theory, Amoruso needed somebody willing to take a big risk and put up money to acquire land and drill the Deep Bossier sands of Robertson County.

Then, one day, he met Guma Aguiar -- the Fort Lauderdale man who recently disappeared at sea. They sat down to talk. Amoruso's hunch was about to make Aguiar a very rich man.

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Guma Aguiar, John Amoruso, natural gas, Thomas Kaplan
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Investigations

Guma Aguiar's Boat Was "Wave Jumping" at High Speed and Never Stopped, Police Say

By Stefan Kamph Thu., Jul. 12 2012 at 12:38 PM
Categories: Investigations
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Fort Lauderdale Police have released some new details from their investigation of Guma Aguiar's disappearance. They have narrowed down the time he left his house in Fort Lauderdale to about 6:57 p.m. and say he almost certainly boarded the boat alone.

According to a release from Det. Travis Mandell, a witness on a boat at sea watched Aguiar's boat, the tender to the yacht Zion, moving at high speeds and "wave jumping" over roughening seas.

GPS data also shows that the boat never came to a full stop until it washed ashore on Fort Lauderdale beach later in the evening.

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boating, disappearances, GPS, Guma Aguiar, Travis Mandell
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Investigations

Guma Aguiar's Assets Now Controlled by Ken Jenne's Old Pal Thomas F. Panza

By Stefan Kamph Wed., Jul. 11 2012 at 10:20 AM
Categories: Investigations
guma-aguiar-2.jpg
Guma Aguiar
He sent money to a lecherous Rabbi, his wife asked for a divorce, opponents wanted his mental-health records, and then he sailed off into the dark.

Ever since Guma Aguiar disappeared at sea, his mother and her fiancé have been trying to gain control of his many millions in assets, scattered across the U.S. and Israel in the form of cash and investments.

The mother, Ellen Aguiar, petitioned a Broward County Court to make her a conservator of his fortunes. In a hearing yesterday, the judge asked her to step aside for the moment, appointing a local lawyer as conservator: Thomas F. Panza.

That name might sound vaguely familiar to Pulp readers: five years ago, Panza was working for corrupt Sheriff Ken Jenne to defend him from critics and conduct a $1.2 million whitewash audit of the BSO on the taxpayers' dime.

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Bob Norman, Ellen Aguiar, Guma Aguiar, Jamie Aguiar, Ken Jenne, Thomas F. Panza
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Breaking News

Florida Government Keeps Tuberculosis Deaths of "Poor Black Men" Secret as Disease Spreads

By B. Caplan Mon., Jul. 9 2012 at 3:41 PM
Categories: Breaking News, Fear-Mongering, Health, Homelessness, Investigations, Politics
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An outbreak of tuberculosis has spread from Jacksonville to as far south as Miami and was kept secret from the public, according to an expose by the Palm Beach Post.

The CDC team investigating the spread said it is the worst it's investigated in 20 years. At the time of their report in April, 13 deaths and 99 illnesses had been linked to the strain.

And yet, the public was never notified, and the information was kept from lawmakers. Rick Scott closed a state hospital specializing in the disease, seemingly oblivious to the situation.

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Jacksonville, Tuberculosis
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Investigations

Guma Aguiar's Mental Health Records Were Requested in Federal Court a Day Before He Vanished

By Stefan Kamph Thu., Jun. 28 2012 at 10:24 AM
Categories: Investigations
guma-aguiar-2.jpg
Read more about Aguiar's support for a sex-soliciting Rabbi and troubled marriage.

Guma Aguiar's mom and wife will meet in court today to argue over who will get control of his $100 million estate after he disappeared at sea last Tuesday, but headstrong women might not have been all he was running from.

A day before he disappeared, a federal judge in another case was preparing to hand over his mental health records to the plaintiffs accusing him of reckless fraud. Given his troubled past, this might have been a bonanza for the lawyers trying to prove he was incompetent and irresponsible at running a company.

In 2003, Aguiar met with a Texas geologist who tipped him off to areas that might contain a valuable new type of sand containing natural gas deposits. Aguiar brought in his uncle Tom Kaplan, who had introduced the formerly clueless Aguiar into the energy business. Seeing dollar signs, Kaplan gave Aguiar a 50% stake in the operation. The geologist was right, and the wells were insanely productive.

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Ellen Aguiar, Guma Aguiar, Jamie Aguiar, lawsuits, mental health, natural gas, oil drilling, Thomas Kaplan
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Investigations

Guma Aguiar Supported Sex-Soliciting Rabbi Before Disappearing

By Stefan Kamph Tue., Jun. 26 2012 at 7:13 AM
Categories: Dirty Laundry, Investigations
guma-aguiar.jpg
FLPD/Sun-Sentinel
Late on Tuesday night, a boat belonging to Guma Aguiar washed up on Fort Lauderdale beach, engines running, the cell phone and wallet of the Floridian Jewish multimillionaire reportedly still onboard. Since then, people have speculated: Was it a dead-of-night escape plot to keep his mother from declaring him mentally incompetent, as she'd tried to do in the past, or his uncle from getting the money he made on a Texas oilfield? Was it a hit by the Israeli Mafia? A simple drowning? At this point, nobody knows -- but the first stories brought up his erratic past of clashes with police, high-roller braggadocio, and stints in a mental institution for bipolar disorder just after he claimed, in a 2010 interview, to have personally given sanctuary at his home to captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Much of this is detailed in a January 2010 profile of Aguiar, "Prodigal Son," in Tablet. It was published a day after Aguiar was committed to a mental facility in Tel Aviv, but the main story involved the strict process of converting people to Judaism.

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Tags:

Guma Aguiar, Israel, Leib Tropper, New York Post, Shannon Orand, Thomas Kaplan
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Investigations

Guma Aguiar Disappeared Hours After Wife Asked for Divorce, Mom's Lawyer Says

By Stefan Kamph Tue., Jun. 26 2012 at 12:03 AM
Categories: Investigations
guma-aguiar-2.jpg
The scene of Guma Aguiar's life before his disappearance at sea Tuesday night launched a strange soap opera, with his wife and mother battling over his estate, according to court documents and a lawyer for Aguiar's mother.

Richard Baron, an attorney for mother Ellen Aguiar, told ABCNews.com that Jaime Aguiar had asked her husband for a divorce just before he set out to sea. Since the disappearance, court filings from the mother indicate that her son may be in a state of psychosis or possibly dead. The lawyer's story frames the disappearance as a despondent reaction to the request for divorce. 

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Ellen Aguiar, Guma Aguiar, Jaime Aguiar, Richard Baron
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