Of the three Riviera Beach police officers charged in a corruption scandal two years ago, Sgt. Michael Dodson’s case was the most bizarre. Early one morning in October 2009, following a retirement party for a fellow cop, Dodson returned home to Palm Beach Gardens, drunk. Soon afterward, a distress call came…
When the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office received a report about a landlord-tenant dispute that involved 73-year-old Gene Stimmler allegedly talking about his penis to a 15-year-old boy, a sheriff’s deputy had some questions for him.Then the deputy found Stimmler’s freezer, which was full of mangoes, a few parrots, and…
Mikel Jones, a former aide to Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings, was convicted for his role in a scheme to defraud a New York venture capital fund that financed the operation of his Philadelphia law firm.Jones, a 55-year-old Boynton Beach resident, was convicted of conspiracy, money laundering, 14 counts of wire…
Jakaris Taylor, one of up to ten people who took part in a West Palm Beach gang rape of a 35-year-old woman in 2007 and the beating of both the woman and her 12-year-old son, was resentenced today to 60 years in prison.Taylor was 16 at the time of the…
The Boynton Beach Police Department announced today that 54-year-old William Dabbs was charged with first-degree murder, nearly two weeks after his boss was found dead in a Home Depot parking lot.According to a police report, the cops responded to a call about a man sitting in his car parked in…
The Broward Commission unanimously voted down a draft ordinance proposed by County Administrator Bertha Henry to require people to apply for and obtain permits to engage in “expressive activities” at county facilities — a mandate that many members of the public see as a stab at the First Amendment.However, the…
We’ve never heard a good excuse come from someone who nearly stabbed a baby, and two slices of bread sure isn’t a good one.Still, that’s what the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office says 18-year-old Kenneshia Thurman did last night.Some time around 7 p.m. Monday, Thurman knocked on her neighbors’ door in…
As we’ve documented here before, crimes in the Florida Keys are often strange, usually involving drugs, missing clothes, or some strange combination of both.Yesterday, someone tried to rob a Burger King with a sock. Specifically, by stuffing his hand in the sock and trying to tell people it was a…
On Thursday night, Fort Lauderdale cops Brian Christopher Dodge and Billy Charles Koepke turned themselves in at the Broward County Jail, charged with 36 crimes between them that include a maximum possible sentence of life in prison plus more than 100 years each. Tim Donnelly, assistant state attorney in charge…
Two Fort Lauderdale cops were arrested around 8:30 p.m. yesterday, charged with 36 crimes between them that include a maximum possible sentence of life in prison plus more than 100 years each.Officers Brian Christopher Dodge and Billy Charles Koepke turned themselves in at the Broward County Jail last night on…
When David Hartstein thought a 91-year-old man stole stuff from his locker, he allegedly tried to settle that by trying to bash the man’s head in with a billiard ball.When a 79-year-old man tried to stop the attack, police say he received the same treatment.The Palm Beach State Attorney’s Office…
Arguments before the Florida Supreme Court in the appeal of triple murderer Oba Chandler’s death sentence that were scheduled for Wednesday have been canceled, according to a filing from the clerk’s office released just minutes ago.Neither a spokeswoman for the clerk’s office nor Chadler’s court-appointed lawyer, Baya Harrison III, know…
It’s been an interesting time for the little Key West International Airport, which has been home to a plane crash, a bomb threat, and a six-figure embezzlement — all in the past ten days.It started on October 24, when 32-year-old Texas resident Darren Tonner drank a bit at one of…
Here’s a fun way to defend a racist restriction on voting rights: First, claim the new rule is colorblind. Then, when black legislators get angry, plead ignorance. Say you had no idea the rule was draconian compared to policies in most of the country.This is Gov. Rick Scott’s strategy when…
Tarvis Wilson is going to prison for a while after a jury convicted him yesterday of shooting a Boynton Beach cop in the chest, as well as the crimes he committed before that, including trying to shoot other people and leading a police chase through Broward and Palm Beach counties.On…
Donna Horwitz, a 65-year-old Jupiter resident, was indicted by a grand jury late last week in the murder of her ex-husband that occurred just over one month ago.It’s safe to say that police got a little suspicious after Lanny Horwitz’s body was discovered naked and face-down in the couple’s bathroom…
Maryland resident Jesse Leese almost got away with just a warning from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office for not driving in his lane, not having current insurance, and the open bottle of rum in the back seat.Then police say they found the weed. And the Xanax. And the hash, oxycodone,…
Here are two things Jaquin Donell Han doesn’t like: being punched in the face and giving change during his weed deals.According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, both of those things led to Han shooting and killing one of his customers Saturday night.The sheriff’s office says Han, 28, was a traveling…
Cynthia Green-Anderson told her on-and-off boyfriend Jerry Logan to drop by her aunt’s house to pick up some things just after noon on August 2, 2008.Logan arrived at the house, and instead of picking up the stuff, Green-Anderson and her husband, Craig Anderson, decided to shoot him four times.Logan lived,…
The recent furor over Palm Beach State Attorney Michael McAuliffe’s decision to drop felony charges against two former West Palm Beach cops brings to mind the prosecutor’s other high-profile attempts to bust dirty cops. Considering his track record, one can understand why he might be gun-shy. In the West Palm case,…
After some drinking at a bar at the Key West airport, 32-year-old Texas resident Darren Tonner got into a fight with his wife and decided he didn’t want to get on his flight to Miami — so he just called in a bomb threat, police say.According to the Monroe County…
A domestic-violence dispute early yesterday morning in Pembroke Park ended with a car plunging into a lake, one man dying, and sheriff’s deputies jumping in to rescue his wife and 3-year-old daughter.According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, someone phoned in a report about a couple fighting around 12:30 a.m. yesterday…
