Lawmakers Seek To Shield Seniors From Shady Guardians
October 10, 2015
A Southwest Florida lawmaker is renewing a push to better protect elderly Floridians from unscrupulous guardians who take control of seniors’ assets.
The Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee this week approved a bill (SB 232), filed by Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, that would charge the Department of Elder Affairs with certifying and overseeing professional guardians — and disciplining those who abuse their trust.
Detert told the committee that professional guardians are a growth business in Florida but are lightly regulated.
She cited a series in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, which reported in December 2014 that the number of registered professional guardians statewide had grown 1,800 percent in 11 years.
“There are predators,” Detert said. “They have kind of crawled through a crack in the law.”
Private professional guardians come into play, for example, in circumstances where families have disputes between seniors’ children. The guardians can earn $100 an hour to open mail, make appointments and pay bills — even to be present when the children came to visit.
“When you think of the power you are giving to a guardian,” Detert said. “The power to make your medical decisions, to put you on drugs, to spend your money (and) sign your checkbook.”
Private guardians often serve wealthy people, Detert said. The state also has a more heavily regulated system of public guardians who serve incapacitated people who don’t have anybody willing and able to serve as guardians.
Detert’s bill has support from the office of Palm Beach County Clerk and Comptroller Sharon Bock, who was represented at the Senate committee meeting by Deputy Clerk Anthony Palmieri.
Since 2011, Palmieri said, the office has investigated more than 800 elder-guardianship cases, identifying “more than $4 million in unsubstantiated disbursements, missing assets and fraud” in Palm Beach County. There have been two arrests.
“Many clerks’ offices throughout the state are auditing and investigating guardianships because of this very important legislation,” Palmieri said.
Also in 2011, Palm Beach County started Florida’s — and possibly the nation’s — first hotline for elder-guardianship fraud.
Bock said in an interview that she’d gotten the idea to review private guardianships after seeing an uptick in their numbers during the economic recession. She had also noted that guardianship laws had been largely unchanged for decades at that point.
“It wasn’t on anyone’s radar screen, even though Florida has the fastest-growing elderly population per capita of any state in the United States,” Bock said.
Last spring, however, Gov. Rick Scott signed a measure by Rep. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, requiring advance notice before hearings on the appointment of emergency temporary guardians. It would also allow the mediation of guardianship disputes among family members and require the reporting of incidents of abuse, neglect and exploitation of wards by guardians.
Detert’s new bill will be considered during the 2016 legislative session, which starts in January. A similar bill unanimously cleared the Senate during the 2015 session, but died when the House adjourned three days early. House leaders had objected to the initial $3 million cost of the measure, which Detert got down to less than $1 million.
The analysis of her new bill notes that approximately 456 guardians would be regulated, but it does not show a projected cost.
Detert said she’d recruited House Appropriations Chairman Richard Corcoran, R-Land O’ Lakes, to her cause, while Rep. Larry Ahern, R-Seminole, will return as the House sponsor.
“I’ve spoken to Chair Corcoran, and he is supportive,” she said. “Rep. Ahern is doing the bill in the House, and we expect a happy conclusion this year.”
by Margie Menzel, The News Service of Florida
Tate Beats Pace (With Photo Gallery)
October 10, 2015
The Tate Aggies beat the Pace Patriots 48-28 Friday night in what was called the “Lindsey Bowl” by many.
Tate High and head coach Jay Lindsey traveled to Pace to take on his father, Mickey Lindsey — one of just a handful of high school games in Florida history to match a son against his father in the head coaching position.
The Aggies (5-1) will head over to Escambia High School next Friday to take on Gators and 7:30 p.m.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Keith Garrison, click to enlarge.
Friday Night Finals
October 10, 2015
Here are final scores from high school football games across the area Friday nightnight:
FLORIDA
Liberty County 37, Northview 14 [Read more, photo gallery...]
Jay 58, Cottondale 56
Tate 48, Pace 28 [Read more, photo gallery...]
Navarre 20, Escambia 9
Walton 51, Gulf Breeze 17
Milton 29, Crestview 28 (OT)
West Florida 46, Catholic 7
Baker 35, South Walton 28
OFF: Washington, Pine Forest. PHS
ALABAMA
T.R. Miller 47, Geneva 13
Thomasville 17, W.S. Neal 7
Mobile Christian 42, Flomaton 41 (2OT)
Williamson 26, Escambia County (Atmore) 2
Escambia Academy 35, Morgan Academy 0
Photo Gallery: Northview Homecoming Parade
October 10, 2015
The Northview High School Homecoming parade rolled through Bratt Friday afternoon with hundreds of people in attendance.
For a photo gallery, click here.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Jay Royals Hold Homecoming Parade
October 10, 2015
The Jay High School Royals held their annual homecoming parade this afternoon. Photos by Michele Edwards for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Century Man Charged With Attempted Homicide For Shooting Into Vehicle
October 9, 2015
A Century man is behind bars on attempted homicide charges for allegedly opening fire into a vehicle Wednesday night in Century.
Akino Jama Jackson, 23, was charged with two counts of attempted homicide, shooting into an occupied vehicle and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He remains in the Escambia County Jail without bond.
A female driver, identified as Amanda Conner pulled into the Whataburger parking lot on North Century Boulevard with multiple bullet holes in her Dodge Charger. A male passenger who been shot, later identified as Roosevelt Dixon, fled the from the scene before authorities arrived. Dixon eventually made his way to West Florida Hospital for treatment; the female driver was not injured.
Deputies said the shooting occurred on Pond Street and stemmed from an argument between Dixon and Jackson over Conner.
The vehicle in the restaurant parking lot had numerous bullet holes visible in the trunk and in the rear passenger door area.
The back driver’s side passenger window and the rear window of the vehicle were blown mostly out of the vehicle. Trajectory rods place by a crime scene investigator seemed to indicate that the shots were fired from behind the Dodge Charger.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office was assisted by the multi-agency Gun Response Team in the investigation.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Century Man Sentenced For Fatal Backwoods Road Shooting
October 9, 2015
A Century man is headed to state prison for a January 31 shooting death on Backwoods Road in Century.
Jaran Britt Myles, 21, pleaded no contest and was sentenced Thursday to six years in prison to be followed by six years probation on a charge of manslaughter with a firearm in the death of a 20-year old Jonathan Ray Wilson.
One witness told deputies that “Run Run”, later identified as Myles, pulled out a gun and asked him if he was scared of it before taking the magazine out of the weapon and pointing it him. Myles then pulled the trigger of the gun, without the magazine, but it “dry fired”, he said.
The witness said Myles then pointed the gun to Wilson’s head after loading the magazine back into the gun. Wilson then adjusted the height of the gun to his head, “correcting the placement of the gun pointed at him,” an arrest report states. The witness said when Wilson let go of the gun, Myles pulled the trigger and shot Wilson in the head.
NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
No Honor: Thieves Caught On Camera Stealing From Local Farmer
October 9, 2015
Two thieves apparently had no honor when it came to stealing deer corn being sold on the honor system by a Walnut Hill farmer.
About 6:30 Tuesday morning, the two men stopped at the farmer’s roadside bin on South Highway 99. They can be seen on surveillance video checking an honor box for cash and then loading up two bags of deer corn without making payment.
Both suspects are described as white males. One walked with a slight limp and appeared to be wearing some type of identification around his neck, similar to an employee badge. They were in an extended cab pickup with a camper shell. Both the camper shell and truck appeared to be red or maroon in color. The passenger rear-view mirror on the truck showed obvious damage.
Anyone with information on the theft is asked to call the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office at (850) 436-9620.
The complete surveillance video is at the bottom of this page.
Images for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
If you do not see the video above, it is because your home, work or school firewall is blocking YouTube videos.
Panel Backs Removing Confederate Flag From Senate Seal
October 9, 2015
Lawmakers took a step toward removing the Confederate battle flag from the Senate’s official seal Thursday, as a committee unanimously voted to establish a new seal without the Civil War banner.
The Senate Rules Committee’s recommendation, which follows a request by Senate President Andy Gardiner and Senate Minority Leader Arthenia Joyner to re-examine the flag’s place on the seal, is another sign of a backlash against the symbols of the South’s rebellion in the 1860s. The backlash has come after a white supremacist massacred nine black churchgoers in South Carolina this summer.
The new seal is likely to go to the full Senate in January, in the opening days of the annual legislative session. It would take effect if approved by a two-thirds vote of senators.
Under the proposal approved by the committee, the Senate’s official insignia would still include other non-American flags that flew over Florida, including the 1513 Spanish flag, the 1564 French flag and the 1763 flag of Great Britain. The United States flag and the Florida state flag would also appear on the marker.
During a presentation to members of the panel, Rules Chairman David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, highlighted post-Civil War rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court that held the decision by 11 Southern states to secede from nation was illegal.
Simmons said the Senate’s seal should include the flags of “those sovereignties that were legitimate sovereignties of this state.”
But it was impossible to escape the shadow that the Confederate flag has long cast over the politics of Florida and other Southern states. For many white Southerners, the battle flag is a commemoration of the military service and sacrifice of ancestors who fought against the Union.
For African-Americans, though, the banner is often a painful reminder of the brutal, slave-driven economy that was a central issue in the 1860 to 1865 war. Increasingly, white politicians have also joined in asking for the flag to be taken down in public spaces and otherwise set aside as a symbol of regional pride.
Joyner, a black Democrat from Tampa, said after the meeting that the effort to remove the flag from the seal is not an effort to wipe out the memory of what happened during the Civil War.
“I can remember it without seeing it on my lapel every day,” she told reporters after the meeting. “I mean, it’s reminiscent of a painful period. It’s time for healing, and I felt it was necessary to remove it.”
Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, had an even blunter way of putting it.
“Well, it is part of history, but the Nazi flag is part of history and shouldn’t be forgotten, but it also shouldn’t be lifted up,” he said.
Sen. Darren Soto, R-Orlando, pointed out several steps the Legislature has taken in recent years to promote racial reconciliation and bridge other gaps.
“It’s time for us to have the seal be consistent with our values,” Soto said. “We can’t revise history and choose which moments in our history to forget. But we can choose what we highlight in our seal that’s just and right.”
But the action is unlikely to halt all discussion of how the state memorializes the Civil War. Joyner voiced hope that lawmakers would also consider legislation (SB 154 and HB 243) seeking to ban government buildings or properties from displaying any flag used by the Confederacy.
The House and Senate could also consider legislation to replace a statue of Confederate Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith, whose likeness is one of two sculptures that represent the state in the National Statuary Hall Collection at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
Blackburn Running For Sheriff
October 9, 2015
Thursday, Rex Blackburn of Cantonment became the fifth candidate to prefile for Escambia County Sheriff in the 2016 general election.
Blackburn is running with no party affiliation. Incumbent David Morgan, Doug Baldwin, John Johnson and Ron McNesby have prefiled as Republicans.
Blackburn ran unsuccessfully for Escambia County School Board District 5 in 2000. He also prefiled for the Sheriff’s race in 2012, withdrawing his name during qualification week.