Vehicle Struck By Train In Atmore
February 17, 2017
Two people reportedly ran for their lives just before a train struck their vehicle early Friday morning in Atmore.
The crash happened about 1:45 a.m. at the Trammell Street crossing just off Nashville Avenue. Reports indicated the driver had turned off the roadway and attempted to drive down the railroad tracks where his vehicle became stuck before being hit by the westbound CSX freight train The vehicle apparently became airborne and became lodged against a crossing arm signal pole.
Both the driver and his passenger escaped the vehicle before the crash. There were no injuries.
The driver was seen being placed into the back of an Atmore Police Department vehicle. It was not immediately known what charges, if any, he might face in connection with the crash.
Further details have not yet been released as the accident investigation continues. The Atmore Fire Department also responded to the crash.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Embattled Doctor Wins Auction For Former Century Hospital Building
February 17, 2017
The Century doctor that battled the state to operate out of the town’s former hospital has now purchased the building at auction.
Dr. Christian Bachman’s Mayo Street Medical, Inc. was the sole bidder on the facility Thursday, according to Jason Mahon, public information specialist for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, owners of the former hospital. Bachman bid $21,000 for the 1.69 acre property and 24,000 square foot building at 7600 Mayo Street, well above the $13,500 minimum bid.
The DEP served Mayo Street Medical a cease and desist order keeping the public out of the building and effectively closing the medical office in February 2016. Since that time, Bachman has continued to make house calls to see his patients.
“I believe this ordeal finally has a happy ending,” Bachman told NorthEscambia.com Thursday evening as he was driving between house calls. He expects to repair code violations and make tornado repairs to the building quickly, with hopes that his medical practice will be open again within about six months. He also expects to re-open his research laboratory, which was heavily damaged a year ago in Century’s EF-3 tornado.
Now that he will own the building, Bachman also said he’s considered making space available in the facility for other businesses, hopefully creating additional jobs.
Bachman’s 50 Year Lease
In a letter dated August 26, 2015, Century Health Care Access (CHCA) and Dr. Bachman, president of CHCA and physician for Mayo Street Medical, were ordered to vacate the facility by September 30, 2015, by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
The eviction date passed, with Bachman and his medical practice receiving much media attention that began with a NorthEscambia.com story. As a result, Bachman said, DEP shifted their position, which at first seemed like a positive breakthrough. But with time, he said he realized it appeared the DEP simply changed their strategy to making “impossible demands”.
The Florida State Fire Marshal’s Office also demanded changes that the doctor said were impracticable to impossible. Demands included repairs to large areas of ceilings that were patched by DEP or their contractors in the 1990’s to install a new fire sprinkler system. He said it was not possible to obtain the permits for the work in a short time period, much less make the costly repairs.
Bachman refused to budge, continuing to operate his medical practice, seeing patients regardless of their ability to pay and even making house calls.
On Friday afternoon, February 12, 2016, law enforcement officers served Bachman a cease and desist order that demanded that no member of the public be allowed inside the building due to fire code violations.
A Stormy End
Bachman said the cease and desist order from the State Fire Marshal’s Office was served on him about 3:45 to 4:00 on that Friday afternoon, with a 72-hour provision to comply. Almost exactly to the minute 72 hours later, the most powerful tornado to hit Escambia County in 45 years roared through Century with winds over 150 mph, and wiped out numerous homes in Century around Bachman’s office. The hospital building suffered damage, but the structure survived intact.
Bachman told NorthEscambia.com at the time that he found great irony in the fact that the building was deemed unsafe, but it was the very place many Century residents ran to for shelter during and after the EF-3 tornado.
When Gov. Rick Scott toured the tornado damage in Century in late Feburary 2016, it presented Bachman with a sudden and unexpected opportunity to discuss his battles with state government face to face with the state’s top elected official.
As Scott walked along Mayo and Church streets, toward the old Century Hospital, he had been briefed on the facility and Bachman’s plight. As Scott and his entourage continued to walk down Church Street, just outside the boarded-up windows of Bachman’s research lab, Bachman grabbed the chance to plead his case and hand over a support petition.
At the time Bachman was served the cease and desist order by DEP, he was the only doctor in Century. A pediatrician has since located in Century.
Pictured above and below: The former Century Hospital on Mayo Street as seen Wednesday, January 25. Pictured above inset: Dr. Christian Bachman pleads his case with Gov. Rick Scott on the street outside the former Century Hospital.
Molino Drive-By Shooting Suspects Arrested
February 17, 2017
Two people have been arrested in connection with a drive-by shooting January 29 near Molino.
Daquan Damian Jones and Javoris Knight, both 18, were taken into custody Thursday.
Jones was booked into the Escambia County Jail without bond on outstanding felony failure to appear warrants, fire a weapon into a dwelling and criminal mischief with property damage. Knight was charged with aggravated assault with intent to a commit a felony and was being held with bond set at $63,500.
The Sheriff’s Office said the drive-by shooting occurred on Cedartown Road. There was no one injured or hit by gunfire in the incident.
Pictured top: Daquan Damian Jones (left) and Javoris Knight. Submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Woman Indicted For Stabbing Death Of Son
February 17, 2017
An Escambia County grand jury has indicted an Escambia County woman for the murder of her son.
Janel Charlene Francis was indicted for first degree premeditated murder in the stabbing death of 18-year old Devan Francis and attempted premeditated murder with a weapon for the stabbing of her 24-year old daughter, Gabrielle Torrence.
Francis allegedly stabbed her children at her home in the Heritage Oaks Mobile Park.
Francis will be arraigned February 23.
No Serious Injuries In ‘Power’ Crash
February 17, 2017
There were no serious injuries in a single vehicle crash Thursday afternoon in the area of Highway 29 and Power Boulevard. A properly restrained child was unharmed. Further details about the crash have not been released. NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour, click to enlarge.
National Read Aloud Day: Century’s Mayor Reads To Head Start Kids
February 17, 2017
Thursday was “National Read Aloud Day” – a day set aside to read aloud to children. In Century, Mayor Henry Hawkins stopped by the Century Head Start Center to read aloud to the children, and they presented him with a certificate of appreciation. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Florida Supreme Court Blocks Abortion Waiting Period
February 17, 2017
In another in a string of rulings siding with abortion-rights advocates, the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday blocked a 2015 law that would have required women to wait 24 hours before having abortions.
Thursday’s 4-2 decision was the second time the state high court kept the law, approved by the Republican-dominated Legislature and signed by Gov. Rick Scott, from taking effect.
A Leon County circuit judge issued a temporary injunction blocking the law from being implemented, but the 1st District Court of Appeal overturned that decision a year ago. The Supreme Court then issued a stay temporarily blocking the law while it considered the matter.
The appeals court pointed to a lack of evidence to support the temporary injunction, saying in part that the circuit judge “failed to make sufficient factually supported findings about the existence of a significant restriction on a woman’s right to seek an abortion.”
But in Thursday’s majority opinion overturning the appellate decision, Justice Barbara Pariente wrote that enactment of the law “would lead to irreparable harm.”
The law would require women to make at least two visits to a health-care provider before being able to have the procedure, Pariente noted.
“The mandatory delay law impacts only those women who have already made the choice to end their pregnancies. Indeed, under Florida’s pre-existing informed consent law, a woman can already take all of the time she needs to decide whether to terminate her pregnancy, both before she arrives at the clinic and after she receives the counseling information,” she wrote for the majority. “No other medical procedure, even those with greater health consequences, requires a twenty-four hour waiting period in the informed consent process.”
The law would require women seeking an abortion “to make an additional, unnecessary trip to their health care provider” that “could impose additional harms by requiring a woman to delay the procedure or force her past the time limit for the procedure of her choice,” Pariente wrote.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida filed the challenge on behalf of a Gainesville abortion clinic and a group of medical students, shortly after the law was passed. The lawsuit maintained that the waiting period is an unconstitutional violation of right to privacy.
“Today we make clear, in Florida, any law that implicates the fundamental right of privacy, regardless of the activity, is subject to strict scrutiny and is presumptively unconstitutional,” wrote Pariente, who was joined in the majority by Chief Justice Jorge Labarga and justices R. Fred Lewis and Peggy Quince.
But, in a dissent joined by Justice Ricky Polston, Justice Charles Canady accused the majority of taking “an unreasonably narrow view of the purpose of informed consent” and argued that the plaintiffs had not presented any evidence to prove that the 24-hour waiting period imposed “a significant restriction on the right to abortion.”
And the law “enhances voluntary consent” by giving women more “post-informed reflective time free from undue influence” by doctors or clinic personnel, as well as more time to consider “the medical risks of terminating or not terminating a pregnancy,” Canady wrote.
Justice Alan Lawson, who joined the court at the end of December, did not participate in Thursday’s ruling.
The 2015 law is one of a number of anti-abortion measures approved by Republican lawmakers, even as the courts have repeatedly blocked the laws from going into effect.
A federal judge last summer issued a permanent injunction against a 2016 abortion law that would have led to increased inspections of clinic records and prevented abortion providers from receiving public money for other health services.
The ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging another portion of the same 2016 law that deals with people or organizations that provide advice to women considering abortions.
People or groups who provide information about abortions — considered “referral or counseling” agencies under the law — would have to register with the Agency for Health Care Administration, pay a $200 fee and could be charged with a felony for violating the statute. A ruling in that case is pending.
Nancy Abudu, legal director for the ACLU of Florida, hailed Thursday’s ruling in the waiting-period case. But lawmakers have filed a slew of anti-abortion bills again this year, she pointed out.
“Even though we’ve won this battle, the real war, in terms of protecting a woman’s right to choose, is far from over,” Abudu said in a telephone interview. “So far, we’re seeing some victories. We wish this would signal to the Legislature that they need to focus on other things.”
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
Tate High Senior Cheerleaders Honored
February 17, 2017
The Tate High School senior cheerleaders were honored Thursday night. They are (L-R) Mallory Stephens, Jasmine Crabtree, Alexis Wilson and Hayden Lindsay. Submitted photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Softball: Tate, Northview Win With Shutouts; Tate Baseball Splits Preseason Games
February 17, 2017
BASEBALL
Preseason At Gulf Breeze:
Pace 3 Tate 3
Tate 2 Gulf Breeze 3
Escambia Academy 3 Patrician Academy 1
SOFTBALL
Tate 18 Washington 0
Hannah Brown threw a perfect game Thursday as the Tate Aggies beat Washington 18-0. The Aggies took a commanding lead with a 13-run second inning with homer runs from Hayden Lindsay and Hanna Brown; a singles from Syndi Solliday, Tristyn Cook and Shelby Ullrich; a double from Deazia Nickerson and triple from Belle Wolfenden.
Northview 15 Freeport 0
Tori Herrington pitched a 15-0 shutout over Freeport, facing 18 batters, striking out 8 and only gave up 2 hits in a 5 inning run rule. Northview scored 3 runs in the top of the 2nd, 9 runs in the top of the 3rd and added 3 more in the top of the 5th. Kendall Enfinger led off the 3rd with a double followed by Tori Herrington with a HARD line drive single and Aubree Love drove them in with a 3 run HR to right center field.
Hitting for the Lady Chiefs were
Jamia Newton 2-4 with a run and a stolen base
Kendall Enfinger 2-3 with 2 runs,double, single and an RBI
Tori Herrington 3-4 with 2 runs, double, 2 singles and 2 RBI’s
Aubree Love 2-3 with 2 runs, HR, single, walk and 3 RBI’s
Peighton Dortch 2-3 with 2 runs, double, single and a walk
Teriana Redmon 0-3 with 2 runs and a walk
Lydia Smith 0-4 with 2 runs and an RBI
Valen 2-4 with 1 run, 2 singles and 2 RBI’s
Alana Brown 2-3 with a run, 2 singles, walk and 3 RBI’s
Mallory Merchant 0-1.
West Florida 15, Pine Forest 2
Lauren Carnley homered for the West Florida Jaguars Thursday as they defeated Pine Forest 15-2.
Appeals Court Rules Against State In ‘Docs Vs. Glocks’ Case
February 17, 2017
Siding with a coalition of individual doctors and medical groups, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday that major portions of a controversial Florida law restricting physicians and other health-care providers from asking patients about guns is unconstitutional.
The statute, dubbed the “docs vs. glocks” law, included a series of restrictions on doctors and health providers. For example, it sought to prevent physicians from entering information about gun ownership into medical records if the physicians know the information is not “relevant” to patients’ medical care or safety or to the safety of other people.
Also, the 2011 law said doctors should refrain from asking about gun ownership by patients or family members unless the doctors believe in “good faith” that the information is relevant to medical care or safety. And the law sought to prevent doctors from discriminating against patients or “harassing” them because of owning firearms.
The plaintiffs in the case, including individual doctors, argued that the restrictions were a violation of their First Amendment rights. A federal district judge agreed with them and blocked the law from going into effect. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of the law in three separate rulings, but the ban keeping the law from going into effect remained in place.
Thursday’s 90-page decision — comprised of two majority opinions authored by different judges, as well as a dissent — came from the full appellate court after the plaintiffs requested what is known as an “en banc” review.
The court found that the record-keeping, inquiry and anti-harassment provisions of the law are unconstitutional, but upheld the portion of the law that bars doctors from discriminating against patients who have guns.
“Florida may generally believe that doctors and medical professionals should not ask about, nor express views hostile to, firearm ownership, but it ‘may not burden the speech of others in order to tilt public debate in a preferred direction,’ ” Judge Adalberto Jordan wrote in one of the majority opinions.
Lawyers for the state argued that the law did not violate the First Amendment.
“The act’s goals are not only substantiated; they are compelling,” the state argued in one brief. “The act shields patients who own firearms from purposely irrelevant record-keeping, questioning, discrimination, and harassment, and thereby furthers the state’s compelling interest in protecting citizens’ fundamental right to keep and bear arms for defense of self and state.”
But Jordan noted that lawmakers relied on six anecdotes as the basis for the “Firearms Owners’ Privacy Act,” or FOPA, and that the court’s analysis focused on the First Amendment, not gun rights.
“The first problem is that there was no evidence whatsoever before the Florida Legislature that any doctors or medical professionals have taken away patients’ firearms or otherwise infringed on patients’ Second Amendment rights. This evidentiary void is not surprising because doctors and medical professionals, as private actors, do not have any authority (legal or otherwise) to restrict the ownership or possession of firearms by patients (or by anyone else for that matter),” Jordan wrote.
The court also rejected the state’s argument that the restrictions in the law were minor.
“Saying that restrictions on writing and speaking are merely incidental to speech is like saying that limitations on walking and running are merely incidental to ambulation,” Jordan wrote.
And Jordan pointed out that patients are free to refuse to answer questions about guns or firearms if they want to.
“There is nothing in the record suggesting that patients who are bothered or offended by such questions are psychologically unable to choose another medical provider, just as they are permitted to do if their doctor asks too many questions about private matters like sexual activity, alcohol consumption, or drug use,” he wrote.
The “anti-harassment” provision in the law “forces doctors to choose between adequately performing their professional obligation to counsel patients on health and safety on the one hand and the threat of serious civil sanctions on the other,” Judge Stanley Marcus wrote in the other majority opinion.
But in a dissent, Judge Gerald Tjoflat argued that the state law was narrowly drawn and is an “attempt to regulate a very specific part of the relationship” between a health care provider and a patient.
“It does not prevent medical professionals from speaking publicly about firearms, nor does it prevent medical professionals from speaking privately to patients about firearms so long as the physician determined in good faith the relevancy of such discussion to the patient’s medical care, safety, or the safety of others,” he wrote. “The act does not categorically restrict the speech of medical professionals on the subject of firearms. Instead, it simply requires an individualized, good faith judgment of the necessity of speech related to firearm ownership to provide competent medical care to a patient.”
Gov. Rick Scott’s office is reviewing the decision, an aide said Thursday evening.
House Minority Leader Janet Cruz hailed the ruling.
“From the beginning, this was nothing more than a solution in search of a problem. Unfortunately, that’s an all-too-common occurrence among Republicans in Tallahassee who write legislation that’s intended to appeal to their base rather than the best interests of all Floridians,” Cruz, D-Tampa, said in a statement.
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida