FWC Law Enforcement Report
June 29, 2014
The Florida FWC Division of Law Enforcement reported the following activity during the weekend ending June 26.
ESCAMBIA COUNTY
Investigator Goley was conducting marine resource and boating safety checks at Big Lagoon State Park when he noticed the operator of a vessel showing signs of impairment. After the initial contact, Investigator Goley asked the operator to submit to field sobriety tasks and he agreed. During the tasks, the operator exhibited signs of impairment to the extent that he was impaired. The subject was placed under arrest for BUI. After arriving at the jail nearly two hours later, the subject provided two breath samples of 0.089 and 0.088 BrAC.
Investigator Shafer responded to a complaint of a business being in possession of a venomous reptile without the proper permit. Investigator Shafer contacted the business owner and interviewed him about the matter. The owner admitted to capturing an Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake and placing it in captivity. Investigator Shafer issued the subject a citation for not having the proper permit.
Officer Cushing was conducting Joint Enforcement Agreement (JEA) patrol near the shore when he conducted a fisheries inspection on a vessel with three individuals on board. When asked how many fish they caught, they responded two. He asked them what kind and they said they had two red snapper. The fisheries inspection revealed two red snapper, an undersized and out of season greater amberjack and an undersized cobia. Citations were issued to the individuals.
The crew of the offshore vessel, FinCat, worked offshore on several occasions in the last week. After several vessel inspections, a citation was issued for no charter license. Also issued were several warnings for undersized red snapper, undersized king mackerel, and possession of greater amberjack during closed season.
This report represents some events the FWC handled over the past week;however, it does not include all actions taken by the Division of Law Enforcement. Information provided by FWC.
Hundreds Turn Out For Twin Cities Watermelon Festival (With Gallery)
June 29, 2014
Hundreds of people turned out despite the heat and humidity Saturday for the first annual Twin Cities Volunteers Watermelon Festival in Century.
The family fun event included craft booths and food from dozens of vendors, local entertainment, and there was also plenty of ice cold watermelon.
For a photo gallery, click here.
The first annual Twin Cities Volunteers Watermelon Festival was sponsored in part by NorthEscambia.com.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Storytime Offered At Local Library Branches Each Week
June 29, 2014
Storytime is offered each week at your local West Florida Public Library Branch for children ages 0-5 as follows:
- Tuesdays, 10:30 a.m. – Southwest Branch
- Wednesdays, 10:30 a.m. – Main Library
- Wednesdays, 10:30 a.m. – Molino Branch
- Thursdays, 10:30 a.m. – Tryon Branch
- Thursdays, 4 p.m. – Century Branch
- Saturdays, 2 p.m. – Westside Branch
Library locations are as follows:
- Main Library: 239 N. Spring St., Pensacola, (850) 436-5060
- Century Branch: 7991 N. Century Blvd., Century, (850) 256-6217
- Molino Branch: 6450-A Highway 95A, Molino, (850) 435-1760
- Southwest Branch: 12248 Gulf Beach Highway, Pensacola, (850) 453-7780
- Tryon Branch: 1200 Langley Ave., Pensacola, (850) 471-6980
- Westside Branch: 1580 W. Cervantes St., Pensacola, (850) 595-1047
Molino Volunteer Fire Department Holds Open House
June 29, 2014
The Molino Volunteer Fire Department held their annual Open House event Saturday at the their firehouse on Molino Road. The event included food, safety and equipment demonstrations and more.
The fire department is also looking for volunteers. Volunteers must be 16 to train and 18 or older with high school diploma to run calls on a fire truck. Call (850) 503-6754 for more information.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: All In The Family
June 29, 2014
There’s been plenty of talk in Florida lately about families.
One of the major issues in the governor’s race has become which family members should be required to divulge their income tax returns. Gov. Rick Scott embarked on the “Caring for Florida’s Families,” offering one of the first substantive agendas in what has thus far largely been a contest to see who can sling the most mud.
Meanwhile, the Department of Children and Families showed off a new website that it hoped would highlight its efforts to turn the corner after several months of bad headlines — only to see a reminder of the past once again enter the public eye. And the Florida State University family feud dragged on over who should be the institution’s next president.
PAPERS, PLEASE
When he ran for office in 2010, Scott’s rise to the Republican nomination was fueled in no small part by his support for an Arizona-style crackdown on illegal immigration — legislation that critics in the Copper State called the “papers, please” law. The proposal never got traction in Florida, but Scott is once again asking to see someone’s papers.
This time, he and his campaign are calling on former Gov. Charlie Crist to release his wife’s tax returns. In response, Crist released more of his own tax returns, but not his wife’s. And Scott’s campaign pointed out that Crist had already divulged most of the records he released this week in his previous campaigns for office.
“Charlie releasing tax returns he has already released instead of making public the returns for him and his spouse is a joke,” said Jackie Schutz, a spokesman for the Scott campaign. “What’s he hiding? His desperation to distract is just making us more curious.”
Crist’s campaign brushed the Scott attacks off as a personal affront to his spouse, Carole. Unlike the Scotts, the Crists don’t file jointly. Kevin Cate, a spokesman for Crist’s campaign, blasted Scott for raising the issue.
“He should immediately apologize,” Cate said. “Spouses and children are off limits.”
While his campaign pushed for more records from Crist, Scott himself was touring the state to call attention to his plans for the state’s foster care and early learning programs.
Scott’s plan — which was released as he tries to soften his image and broaden his platform beyond economic issues — calls for more support for foster and adoptive parents by establishing an ombudsman program and pushing for more support groups and counselors.
On early learning, Scott says the state should set up “a system of incentives and assessments” for preschool instructors and cut the waiting lists for preschool programs.
And the governor’s plan would expand the number of state-backed “personal learning accounts,” which provide up to $9,000 for parents to help pay for education services for children with disabilities.
Scott’s tour came shortly after he signed a bill (SB 1666) meant to overhaul the state’s child-welfare system in response to increased scrutiny caused by child deaths and media reports.
The new law creates rapid-response teams to conduct immediate investigations of child deaths, establishes the Florida Institute for Child Welfare to conduct policy research and creates the position of assistant secretary for child welfare at the Department of Children and Families.
It will also use tuition waivers and loan-forgiveness programs to help child-protection staffers earn social-work degrees. The new law also aims to keep siblings together and medically fragile children in their homes and communities as much as possible.
AGENCY TAKES STEP FORWARD, HEARS BACK
DCF also made other efforts to patch up its reputation after the Miami Herald’s Innocents Lost series, published in March, which found that at least 477 children known to the department had died of abuse and neglect over a six-year period.
Interim Secretary Mike Carroll, who took the job in early May, rolled out a website this week that will track child deaths and make them public.
Within 72 hours of a death, the child’s name, age, date of death and a narrative of how he or she died will be posted at www.dcf.state.fl.us/childfatality. Users will be able to sort the data in multiple ways, such as determining the causes of local deaths. The department hopes communities will use the data to guide prevention efforts.
“It will be the preeminent website in the country in terms of the amount of information and the user-friendliness of that information for the general public around child deaths,” Carroll said.
But the agency still couldn’t seem to shake the past. Even as Carroll was touting the new database, one the sponsors of the child-welfare bill Scott signed was calling for an independent investigation into whether the department has been open about some recent fatalities.
“Sweeping child deaths under the rug will only serve to perpetuate a culture of cover-up and corruption,” warned state Sen. Eleanor Sobel, the Hollywood Democrat who chairs the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee, in a statement Tuesday. “Hiding the deaths should never be a solution.”
Sobel, who hosted a town-hall meeting on last year’s wave of media reports about child deaths, zeroed in on new Herald reports that DCF was less than forthcoming about some deaths in 2013.
Added into the mix was the release of a report by a Miami-Dade grand jury on reforms implemented by Florida’s child welfare system after the gruesome death of Nubia Barahona, whose adoptive parents are awaiting trial for her 2011 death.
The report praised the Department of Children and Families for improvements to the state abuse hotline, the practices of child protective investigators and the information systems and databases used by department workers.
But the grand jury also excoriated DCF for its reporting of child deaths, noting, for instance, that the department in 2010 changed its definition of “neglect” in a way that made it apply to fewer children.
Carroll responded to the critics.
As for Sobel’s statement, Carroll denied that a cover-up took place on child deaths, but said a regional manager hadn’t followed DCF requirements that incident reports be entered into the department’s system within one business day and failed to follow a directive to correct the matter for another two months. The manager was suspended for two days.
And DCF tried to emphasize the positive statements by the grand jury, which wrote that jurors “believe DCF and the Florida Legislature responded very well to many of the recommendations” from the an earlier grand jury that looked into Barahona’s death.
RACES, SPECIAL AND NOT
Florida State University is another respected institution that’s gotten a black eye from recent headlines — those about its search for a president and what role influential Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, will play as the school moves forward.
A new consultant for the search — the old one exited amid an uproar about how Thrasher’s interest in the job was being handled — said this week that the hunt for president won’t be sidetracked again for any individual.
Alberto Pimentel, a managing partner from the California office of Storbeck/Pimentel & Associates, said during informal meetings with students and faculty that he won’t repeat the recommendation of the prior consultant to have the search committee interview just Thrasher.
“There will be one process and one process only,” Pimentel said. “We’re not going to create a special process for some candidates and not for others. I think that you get in trouble when you do that.”
At least one politician, however, did get a position through a special process, though one that was shared by all candidates. Curt Clawson, a Republican businessman, won a special election to fill the seat of disgraced former Congressman Trey Radel.
Clawson overwhelmingly won the race in the Republican-leaning Southwest Florida district, beating Cape Coral Democrat April Freeman and Marco Island Libertarian Ray Netherwood with 67 percent of the vote.
Radel, a Republican from Fort Myers, resigned in late January after being arrested on a cocaine-possession charge.
Republican Party of Florida Chairman Leslie Dougher congratulated Clawson for his “well-earned” victory.
“Congressman-elect Clawson will undoubtedly serve his district with distinction, bringing true conservative values to our nation’s capital,” Dougher said in a release.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Gov. Rick Scott finished sifting through the 255 bills sent to him by the Legislature, 254 of which he signed. The lone bill to fall victim to Scott’s pen this year was a measure (SB 392) that would have allowed the Florida Department of Transportation to raise highway speed limits by 5 mph, including going from 70 mph to 75 mph on some roads.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “I was meant to serve as cautionary tale to other state workers, that if you want to speak up, try to do the right thing, and take action, here is what’s going to happen to you.”—Former state worker Dianne Parcell, whom a jury this spring concluded that the state fired in retaliation for raising questions about nearly 100 cases where DEO had improperly reported overpayments to Floridians receiving unemployment benefits. The state later settled with Parcell for $250,000.
by Brandon Larrabee, The News Service of Florida
Wahoos Finish Road Trip With 3-1 Win Over The Lookouts
June 29, 2014
The Blue Wahoos score two in the 9th, defeat Lookouts 3-1 in series finale
The Pensacola Blue Wahoos won the final game of the their five-game road trip, 3-1, over the Chattanooga Lookouts. Kyle Waldrop’s two-RBI double in the top of the ninth inning gave the Wahoos their second victory of the series.
RHP Ben Lively pitched well in his second start for the Wahoos; he went 5.2 innings, allowing no runs on three hits while striking out five batters. Lively did walk three batters, but he left the contest with a 1-0 lead. RHP Carlos Gonzalez allowed a run in the bottom of the eighth inning on an Alberto Rosario pinch-hit single, which tied the game for the Lookouts.
With two outs in the top of the ninth, Brodie Greene reached base on a throwing error by Lookouts third baseman Daniel Mayora, which opened the door for the Wahoos. Yorman Rodriguez walked and Waldrop cleared the bases with his double to right field. Waldrop finished the day 2-for-5 with all three of the Wahoos’ RBI.
Gonzalez earned the win for Pensacola after Shane Dyer pitched a perfect bottom of the ninth to earn his seventh save of the season. RHP Juan Ramon Noriega took the loss for the Lookouts despite giving not giving up an earned run.
The Wahoos return home on Sunday to open a five-game homestand against the Jacksonville Suns.
by Joey Truncale
Walnut Hill Man Charged With Shooting Son On Riding Lawn Mower
June 28, 2014
A Walnut Hill man was jailed Friday night for allegedly shooting his son on a riding lawn mower.
Marshall H. Harmon, 71, was charged with aggravated battery using a deadly weapon for the 7:20 p.m. incident on Breastworks Road about a mile west of North Pine Barren Road.
Harmon and his 32-year old son had become involved in a verbal altercation at a nearby home, deputies said. The son then fled on Breastworks Road on a riding lawn mower, the father following in his pickup truck.
When the elder Harmon pulled alongside his son on the riding mower, Harmon fired two shots in the son’s direction, according to Sgt. Andrew Hobbs, spokesperson for the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. It did not immediately appear that Harmon intended to shoot his son, but may have instead accidentally hit him.
One of the shots hit the son in the neck, but the officials said the wound did not appear to be life threatening. The son was airlifted by Lifeguard helicopter to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola.
Harmon was taken into custody without incident at the scene of the shooting and remained in the Escambia County Jail with bond set at $25,000.
Pictured top: Suspect Marshall Harmon stands against his truck (far left background) as an Escambia County Sheriff’s deputy (center) checks a weapon Harmon allegedly used to shoot his son Friday night on Breastworks Road. Pictured bottom inset: A deputy explains charges to Harmon. Pictured bottom: The shooting victim was airlifted from a field on Breastworks Road to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola.
Stolen Disabled Dog Bella Found Safe In Century; Burglar Still On The Run
June 28, 2014
Bella, the disabled dog taken during a kennel burglary last weekend, was found safe in Century Friday afternoon and his now back home with her family.
She suffers from a broken back and sometimes needs a dog wheelchair to get around. She was inside her cage at the K-9 Cleaners kennel on West Nashville Avenue in Atmore early Sunday morning when a white male ripped a security camera from a wall and forced his way into the rear door of the business. He fled the business with Bella and a cellular wi-fi modem.
Bella was discovered at a home in Century. An elderly resident had reportedly found the dog on Mayo Street earlier in the week, gave her a bath and took her in. The person reportedly had not seen or read news reports of Bella’s theft until Friday afternoon. Bella was returned to her owners in Century in good condition.
Authorities are still searching for the man that burglarized the Atmore kennel and is believed to be responsible for a burglary at a Florida convenience store.
Within a few minutes of the Atmore burglary Sunday morning, a white male smashed a window and entered the Davisville BP on Highway 97 in Florida, about five miles away. He fled the business with the cash register, which was recovered in a nearby field later in the day, and cigarettes. The burglary is under investigation by the Escambia County (FL) Sheriff’s Office.
Anyone with information on the K-9 Cleaners burglary and the theft of Bella should call the Atmore Police Department at (251) 368-9141. Anyone with information on the Davisville BP burglary should contact the Escambia County (FL) Sheriff’s Office at (850) 436-9620 or Gulf Coast Crime Stoppers at (850) 433-STOP.
Pictured top: Bella, a handicapped dog, was stolen from an Atmore kennel early Sunday morning. Pictured inset: A suspect’s face caught on camera as he removes a security camera from a wall of K-9 Cleaners in Atmore. Pictured below: In a separate burglary, a suspects jumps through a broken window at the Davisville (FL) BP station early Sunday morning. Pictured below: More images from K-9 Cleaners. Images for and by NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
LOST Tax Removed From The August Primary Ballot
June 28, 2014
The renewal of the one-cent Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) in Escambia County won’t be on the August ballot.
Escambia County Commissioners voted to take the renewal off the ballot for now as they work through funding issues following the area’s historic floods in April.
The tax — which is used to fund infrastructure improvements like road paving, parks and construction of buildings like the new Ernest Ward Middle School — won’t expire until 2017. It’s not known when commissioners will put the tax, which must be approved by voters, back on the ballot. But it does not appear that it will make the ballot for November general election either.
Man Faces Life For Beach Sexual Battery
June 28, 2014
An area man is facing up to life in prison when he’s sentenced on sexually battery charges.
Bret Randall May, 43, was convicted by an Escambia County Jury of kidnapping and two counts of sexual battery. The charges stemmed from allegations that in the early morning hours of August 25, 2013, May forced an intoxicated woman into his car, transported her to a secluded area of Pensacola Beach and sexually battered her. Witnesses notified law enforcement who located the defendant’s vehicle and witnessed the attack.
May is a registered sexual predator having been convicted previously of three sexually related offenses in the state of Alabama.
Sentencing will be set at a later date.