In this week’s New Times feature story, Gail Shepherd unravels the mystery behind the murder of Steve Febonio, a Boynton Beach man who learned too late about the treacherous characters in South Florida’s black market for growing marijuana.Music editor Reed Fischer had a chat with Derek Grant, drummer for Alkaline…
Erika Morales snatched the identity of every person who came close to her, based on the probable-cause affidavit released today by West Palm Beach police. Her victims include her daughter’s father and the woman at the daycare center who watched that child.A police investigator interviewed one identity theft victim named…
Freestyle Alligator Wrestling is now officially a professional competitive sport, thanks to the Seminole Tribe in Hollywood. Under the aegis of Tribe President Richard Bowers and tribe member James Holt, who’s been wrestling gators at the Seminoles’ Okalee Indian Village for five years, the first officially sanctioned competition was staged…
Carolyn Bianco, the 65-year-old woman who was struck last week by an SUV while crossing Las Olas Boulevard, has died. That means vehicular homicide charges against whoever was driving that SUV, last seen heading east on Las Olas.The Fort Lauderdale police news release says that the other woman who was…
It’s not enough that the United States gives spectacular sums of money to Israel. Nor is it enough that the U.S. takes Israel’s side in virtually every political issue that crops up between that nation and the Muslim world. No, according to Congressman Ron Klein, the U.S. also must also…
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day, Palm Beach Post staffers: Some of you are getting raises.That’s the word from Post Publisher Tim Burke in an email that would have sounded ludicrous just a few months ago.After two brutal years of layoffs and buyouts for hundreds of employees — the newsroom staff was…
When Gibraltar Bank had concerns about $15 million in suspicious wire transfers made to the Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm back in July 2008, Scott Rothstein must have wondered if his burgeoning Ponzi scheme was about to be discovered. No problem. He just sent a chummy email to his accountant, Gary Berkowitz, of the firm…
As I was posting this article yesterday about the search for murder suspect Tony Petigny, I noticed that in his mug shot, Petigny had a swollen right eye — just like the Broward Sheriff’s Office release said.After another New Times staffer noticed the same thing, I asked BSO whether it…
Florida has given the rest of America so much over the years: delicious orange juice, great football players, cop dramas, a preposterous quantity of Disney paraphernalia, and more recently, the devastating social destruction of prescription pill addiction. Wayne Bird, chief of police in Williamsburg, the southernmost Kentucky town on I-75,…
Let’s see what’s happening in South Florida.A 14-year-old girl at Deerfield Beach Middle School was beaten nearly to death by a boy after classes ended Wednesday. A 15-year-old boy, Wayne Treacy, has been arrested and will be charged with attempted murder. It’s the same school where Michael Brewer was a…
Saint Patty’s Day is one of those rare times every year when a large part of the population can take a few hours to relax, kick back a few intoxicating beverages with friends, and try to forget the stresses of life. It’s a time for decent human beings to smile…
A key witness in the well-publicized civil suit aimed at Larry Seidlin is a courthouse attorney who once worked closely with the former Broward County Circuit Court judge. And the witness could provide more embarrassment and shame for Seidlin than Seidlin caused Broward County while presiding over the nationally televised Anna Nicole…
On July 12, 2007, Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Timothy Boyle was parked outside a hydroponic supply business in South Florida when a green Ford Mustang pulled into the parking lot. Twenty-four-year-old Justin Jones got out of the car and went inside. When he came out, Jones carried a long…
Add another member to Scott Rothstein’s unofficial Moroccan club — Cafe Iguana owner and longtime Rothstein associate Stephen Caputi. Caputi joins Rothstein’s “uncle,” a former bodyguard, and a Moroccan-born guide to the list of those who traveled to Morocco during Rothstein’s weeklong stay after he fled to the country when his $1.2 billion…
A family with the name Gallagher ought to be celebrating on a day like today. But not the family of former Broward County School Board member Beverly Gallagher. This afternoon, she entered a guilty plea to a charge of accepting a bribe from an undercover agent and expects to receive…
Sometimes, after popping some Vicodin, a fellow may feel the impulse to test the reflexes of his emergency responders. Or at least that appears to be the impulse that seized Frank Celestino today. According to a Boynton Beach police affidavit, the 55-year-old Celestino dialed 911 three times, each time screaming…
The firm conducting an audit of Deerfield Beach’s dealings with nonprofit agencies has taken a keen interest in the Westside Deerfield Businessmen Association, a charity whose executive director chairs the city’s planning and zoning board and whose president is the daughter of Vice Mayor Sylvia Poitier.On Tuesday, City Attorney Andy…
Police at Florida Atlantic University’s campus in Boca Raton called Ryan Beauchamp on March 10 while he was working as a valet on Sunrise Boulevard. They had found a box of ammo in the University Village Apartments mailroom with the words “9 mm ammunition” emblazoned on the side. He agreed…
Juice reported earlier today that missing person Melanie Parada was found but that she had been charged with child neglect. Fort Lauderdale police just released the probable-cause affidavit in that case, and it claims that Parada disappeared so she could buy crack cocaine.According to the statement Parada gave to police,…
Of all the sports-related documentaries in ESPN’s series “30 for 30,” none looks as intriguing as Run Ricky Run, the profile of Dolphins running back Ricky Williams.In the trailer, Herald columnist (and ESPN personality) Dan Le Batard has the best quote on the enigmatic Williams: “I still don’t know as…
While Debra Villegas told police officers she was nearly certain that her husband, Tony Villegas, didn’t kill her best friend, Melissa Lewis, others who were close to the women were not so sure.Ilene Vinikoor was a family therapist who had been counseling Debra and Melissa separately while both women were…
