Suspended Broward County School District member Beverly Gallagher was a deeply flawed but still sympathetic figure three years ago when she gave New Times’ Bob Norman the amazing interview that was the centerpiece for this article.Norman had busted her cold, finding that Gallagher had landed a job with the Community…
It was Corruption Wednesday in Broward County. Thursday’s got a tough act to follow.Lacking celebrities in Broward, the paparazzi must chase corrupt politicians, leading to scenes like the one that occurred yesterday afternoon with the Family Gallagher. [Sun-Sentinel]The corruption charges should not be allowed to drown out a far lesser…
The news piece begins with footage of a polished black Range Rover pulling up to a white Gulfstream G400 jet at the Opa-locka Executive Airport. Two female members of South Beach’s perma-tanned glitterati scamper out and into the $35 million plane. In the next shot, the women have gotten comfortable…
State House candidate Freda Stevens first met shadowy Democratic operative Barry Harris in June at the monthly meeting of the Broward County Democratic Executive Committee. At the time, she was trying to decide whether to run again in 2010 against Evan Jenne, who had beaten her in 2008. When Harris approached her…
Twelve fat men gather in heavy-breathing anticipation at the mouth of the third-base entrance to the field. It’s Disco Night — the Village People, after presumably having been removed from some far-flung crypt, are booked for the post-game concert — so the crew is decked out in neon pimp suits,…
This amazing photograph was taken by the always-excellent Mike Stocker of the Sun-Sentinel. It is, of course, Beverly Gallagher running out of the courthouse with her family and a particularly zealous videographer. Gallagher looks like she’s in a daze, like she can’t believe this moment is really happening. Her face seems frozen, zombie-like…
I suppose it’s a deck chair on the Titanic, but check out this page of then-Miramar Commissioner Fitzroy Salesman’s campaign finance treasurer’s report from 2005. In the two boxes on the top, in the column that requires the name and address of the campaign contributor, Salesman wrote, “Fund Raiser” and…
One of the puzzling parts of the criminal complaint against former Miramar Commissioner Fitzroy Salesman is why Salesman, if he was truly bent on helping crooked contractors get city work, didn’t shoot for the moon. Why not reel in a contract for more than a million dollars? After all, Salesman…
Broward County School Board Deputy Superintendent Michael Garretson contacted the Pulp this afternoon and had one very strong reaction to information filed in the federal complaint against School Board Member Beverly Gallagher. Gallagher told undercover FBI agents that she had lined up Garretson, who oversees the School Board’s construction and facilities…
Pembroke Pines City Manager Charlie Dodge, whose private company earns $755,000 a year from the city, has offered to take a 2.6 percent pay cut next year, in deference to the Broward suburb’s dire financial straits.That’s the word from Pines Mayor Frank Ortis and Vice Mayor Angelo Castillo, both of…
I’ll never forget interviewing Joe Eggelletion’s former student at Dillard High, Angelita Sanders, about her meetings with the man in recent years. Sanders, who had a son of Eggelletion’s out of wedlock after they struck up a romance while she was still a teenager, said the man had changed drastically over the…
That was the $64,000 question at this afternoon’s press conference. Based on the affidavits filed in the criminal complaints, we know that the investigation — nicknamed Operation Flat Screen by agents — began in approximately April 2005. And it started with then-Miramar Commissioner Fitzroy Salesman, who has much to regret…
At the heart of the federal criminal complaint filed against Broward School Board member Beverly Gallagher is an allegation she rigged a board committee to recommend that her favored contractor, James B. Pirtle Construction, receive a $70 million renovation project at Hollywood Hills High School. A look at the School Board documents…
School Board Member Beverly Gallagher has turned herself in to federal authorities on public corruption charges, according to sources and a federal complaint. She is the third current or former public official known to be charged in the federal probe; the others are Broward County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion and former…
Early word on the arrest of Broward County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion is that it involves a complex scheme to launder money through his contacts in the Bahamas. Also arrested in connection to the Eggelletion case, according to a federal complaint, are Ronald Lee Owens, attorney Joel Williams, and Bahamian Sidney…
Hedge fund manager Seth Tobias was found dead, floating in the pool of his massive Jupiter mansion, after Labor Day weekend 2007. The $5 million, nearly 7,000-square-foot estate is in gated Bear’s Club, literally situated on a golf course. Tobias, who was 44 and involved in a tumultuous (to put…
Over on Pulp, Bob Norman’s reporting that Broward County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion was arrested this morning and that former Miramar City Commissioner Fitzroy Salesman may be next. UPDATED: Pulp confirmed the Salesman arrest. And now the FBI’s accusing Broward County School Board Member Beverly Gallagher, according to the Sun-Sentinel. More…
flickr.com Arianne Prevost and her trophy. Arianne Prevost, 23, embarked on her first gator hunt earlier this month in the Everglades with her boyfriend and a friend. Prevost, a waitress, missed last year’s hunt because she was pregnant (this year she’s the proud mother of 10-month-old Baleigh). Read more of…
After a nude, 91-year-old Lake Worth man stopped a thief Saturday morning, he was cheered. Maybe it wasn’t the ticker tape parade Robert E. Thompson recalls from when he returned from World War II, but his deed was celebrated in all the Florida papers, and the tale even reached New…
If you’ve spent your life wondering if you might ever see a High-Definition screening of The Wizard of Oz at a cineplex, tonight you have you’re answer. To honor the 70th anniversary of the film’s premiere, Turner Classic Movies is having a nationwide, one night-only showing at movie theatres across the…
Broward County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion (left) and former Miramar Commissioner Fitzroy Salesman were arrested at their homes this morning in what is apparently the beginning of the long-awaited federal corruption sweep. Salesman’s attorney, Eric Schwartzreich, told me that Salesman was arrested at his home at 6 a.m. by agents with…
