arrest - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-29T06:29:08Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/arrestDelray Beach: Man charged with killing wife, 80, in dismemberment casehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-man-charged-with-killing-wife-80-in-dismemberment-ca2023-08-03T21:21:55.000Z2023-08-03T21:21:55.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong> By Rich Pollack</strong></p>
<p>A 78-year-old Delray Beach man has been charged with fatally shooting his 80-year-old wife last month and then placing pieces of her dismembered body into suitcases and bags before pushing them into the Intracoastal Waterway close to his Venetian Drive home.</p>
<p>In court documents, Delray Beach detectives say evidence led them to believe that William Lowe Jr. killed his wife, Aydil Barbosa Fontes with a single gunshot behind her ear and then used a chainsaw to carve up her body.</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12176319278,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12176319278,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12176319278?profile=RESIZE_180x180" width="95" /></a><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12176319855,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12176319855,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12176319855?profile=RESIZE_180x180" width="99" /></a>In a charging document released Thursday after Lowe made an initial court appearance, investigators wrote that witnesses had seen him several times at a boat dock near where two of the suitcases were found.</p>
<p>Video surveillance also indicated that someone matching Lowe’s description was seen in the area climbing down a dock ladder carrying a Cheesecake Factory bag, which he no longer held after climbing back up the ladder.</p>
<p>In addition, investigators armed with a search warrant found evidence of blood splatters throughout the apartment Lowe shared with his wife. A chainsaw was later located in a storage unit owned by Lowe. Police also found a 9mm firearm in the apartment.</p>
<p>When detectives asked Lowe where his wife was, he told them she was in Brazil, they wrote in the court records.</p>
<p>During a news conference soon after Lowe appeared in court Aug. 3, lead detective Mike Liberta said that investigators have not determined a motive for the homicide, nor did they receive any information from Lowe, who requested an attorney soon after being charged.</p>
<p>“The defendant obtained counsel and did not give a statement,” Liberta said.</p>
<p>While investigators had been asking the community for help in identifying the woman whose body was found in suitcases and bags, Liberta said they focused on Lowe as a suspect first, before they were able to identify Barbosa Fontes as the victim.</p>
<p>Liberta and Police Chief Russ Mager said that information from residents who lived near where two of the suitcases were first discovered was critical to them solving the homicide.</p>
<p>“We want to recognize and thank the community for the assistance in providing vital information that was greatly beneficial in the outcome of this investigation,” Mager said.</p>
<p>Two days after the bags were found, witnesses told police that they saw a man in his 50s or 60s looking at the suitcases in the Intracoastal Waterway five or six times over a three-day period. Other witnesses later told investigators they saw a man with a similar description using a brush on a metal pole trying to push something in the water.</p>
<p>Detectives said they first identified Lowe as a possible suspect after one of the investigators took a photo of a tag from a car that had been seen in the area near where the bags were found. The tag came back to Lowe and to his address, which was a tenth of a mile from where two suitcases were found.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12176320481,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12176320481,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12176320481?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a> The condo building at 315 Venetian Drive in coastal Delray Beach where police say the murder took place. <strong>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p>Lowe was brought to the police department to give a DNA sample, while at the same time investigators armed with a warrant searched his home. When Lowe was done, he returned home while police were still doing their search. He tried to get into the home through a back window but was stopped by investigators. He told them he wanted to get his phone and the key to his storage locker, the same locker where the chainsaw would later be found.</p>
<p>Knowing that Lowe and Barbosa Fontes shared the apartment and that she hadn’t been seen by neighbors for weeks, investigators were able to then confirm her identity using dental records and DNA.</p>
<p>Liberta, who has been with the Delray Beach Police Department for 10 years and has been a detective for four years, said the nature of the crime — with the victim’s body dismembered — made this case particularly disturbing.</p>
<p>“This is probably the worst I’ve seen,” he said.</p>
<p>Lowe has been charged with first degree murder and abuse of a dead body and was being held without bond in the Palm Beach County Jail.</p>
<p> </p></div>Delray Beach: Man charged with killing wife in dismembered body casehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-arrest-made-in-delray-dismembered-body-case2023-08-03T15:23:34.000Z2023-08-03T15:23:34.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Rich Pollack</strong></p>
<p>A 78-year-old Delray Beach man has been charged with fatally shooting his 80-year-old wife and then placing pieces of her dismembered body into three suitcases before pushing them into the Intracoastal Waterway close to his Venetian Drive home.</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12176213078,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12176213078,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12176213078?profile=RESIZE_180x180" width="95" /></a>In court documents, Delray Beach detectives say evidence led them to believe that William Lowe Jr. killed his wife, Aydil Barbosa Fontes, with a gunshot to her head and then used a chainsaw to cut up her body.</p>
<p>In a charging document released Thursday after Lowe made an initial court appearance, investigators wrote that witnesses had seen him several times at a boat dock near where two of the suitcases were found. Video surveillance also indicated that someone matching Lowe’s description was seen in the area climbing down the dock ladder carrying a bag, which he no longer held after climbing back up the ladder.</p>
<p>In addition, investigators armed with a search warrant found evidence of blood splatters throughout the apartment Lowe shared with his wife. A chainsaw was later located in a storage unit owned by Lowe. Police also found a 9mm firearm in the apartment.</p>
<p>When detectives asked Lowe where his wife was, he told them she was in Brazil, detectives wrote in the court records.</p>
<p>Lowe has been charged with first degree murder and abuse of a dead body.</p></div>Boca Raton: Arrest made in armed robbery on barrier island in Bocahttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-arrest-made-in-armed-robbery-on-barrier-island-in-boca2022-09-28T14:21:18.000Z2022-09-28T14:21:18.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Steve Plunkett</strong></p>
<p>An Opa-locka resident has been identified as the man who brandished a firearm and robbed two people on the barrier island early on July 24, police say.<br />Kwame Moorer, who turned 31 on Sept. 17, was arrested in Miami-Dade County on Aug. 31 on a Boca Raton warrant. Police Detective Scott Hanley used surveillance video and other investigative tools to determine Moorer was the perpetrator, the city’s Police Services Department said in a news release.<br />The victims arrived home on Banyan Road at 4:28 a.m. that Sunday after spending the evening at the Seminole Hard Rock casino in Hollywood. They both told police that when they parked and got out of the car, they were approached by a masked man who pointed a gun at them and demanded their belongings.<br />They gave the robber, who was wearing dark pants and a long-sleeve hoodie, their wallets, phones and cash. Both stated the man began to flee and turned before jumping over a concrete wall, then fired one shot in their direction. He got into a dark SUV parked on Banyan Road and fled north. Neither victim was injured.<br />Hanley determined Moorer followed the victims home from the casino before robbing them. Moorer faces charges of robbery with a firearm and aggravated assault with a firearm, police said.<br />The incident happened in the 2700 block of Banyan Road. Banyan is a block west of State Road A1A and runs parallel to it from East Camino Real to Southeast 31st Street.</p></div>Boca Raton: Man at Boca Bash charged with trying to kill girlfriendhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-man-at-boca-bash-charged-with-trying-to-kill-girlfrien2022-05-04T16:40:02.000Z2022-05-04T16:40:02.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p>A Boca Raton man at Boca Bash tried to strangle and hold his girlfriend underwater until witnesses broke up the struggle, authorities said.<br />Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers charged Cole Goldberg, 23, with felony attempted murder and domestic battery in the April 24 incident as hundreds of <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10464191265,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10464191265,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}" width="101" alt="10464191265?profile=RESIZE_180x180" /></a>boats gathered in Lake Boca Raton for the annual Boca Bash party.<br />Witnesses said Goldberg and the woman got into a heated argument before she jumped into the water to get away and he followed. <br />Goldberg, a witness said, “came up from behind her and grabbed her by the neck and pushed her underwater. He held her underwater and (another witness) pulled her away from him,” the FWC arrest report said.<br />The girlfriend, 32-year-old Caroline Schwitzky, told FWC officers that she and Goldberg had been dating for about a year. Schwitzky played a modeling agent in 2016 in the reality show “90-Day Fiancé: Happily Ever After?” on cable channel TLC. <br />Goldberg was taken to the Palm Beach County Jail and later released on $60,000 bond. <br />In other incidents at Boca Bash, authorities charged nine people with boating under the influence, one for producing a fake ID and another on an out-of-county warrant.<br /><em>— Steve Plunkett</em> </p></div>Highland Beach: Condo hostage situation resolved with no injurieshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/highland-beach-condo-hostage-situation-resolved-with-no-injuries2020-07-01T16:33:44.000Z2020-07-01T16:33:44.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960960459,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960960459,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960960459?profile=original" /></a></strong><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960960459,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"></a>Delray Beach paramedics remove the grandmother of the suspect from the condo about four hours after the standoff with police started. Since she has mobility issues, she was transported to a safe location. <strong>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
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<p><strong>By Rich Pollack</strong></p>
<p>A standoff between police and a 37-year-old man armed with a gun and holed up in a Highland Beach condo closed off large sections of State Road A1A for several hours, while police ensured the safe release of three others held in the apartment. <br /> In the June 24 incident, Jacob Geller barricaded himself in a room while police and medical personnel escorted his grandparents and a health care aide to safety. <br /><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960961070,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960961070,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" alt="7960961070?profile=original" /></a>Geller was arrested the next day, following negotiations with sheriff’s detectives, and charged with false imprisonment while armed with a firearm.<br /> “The incident ended safely with nobody injured,” said Highland Beach Police Chief Craig Hartmann. <br /> The standoff, which involved police from Highland Beach, Delray Beach and Boca Raton, began shortly after 4 p.m., when police got a call from the daughter of the aide who was in the apartment in the 39-unit Villa Mare condominium at 3211 S. Ocean Blvd. <br /> The daughter, according to court records, said she was contacted by her mother, who was in fear for her safety after Geller pointed a rifle at her while he was arguing with his mother.<br /> During the argument, Geller’s mother tried to make a call, but Geller used the rifle to knock the phone out of her hand. <br />The mother, who owns the unit and lives with the older adults, was able to leave the apartment while police tried to reach Geller by phone.<br /> Highland Beach police, after assessing the situation, determined that additional resources were needed and reached out to both Delray Beach and Boca Raton police. <br /> Police on the scene learned that Geller had locked himself in a room, enabling them to safely remove the grandparents and the aide from the apartment, leaving Geller — who refused to speak with the police — inside. <br /> Hartmann said police determined that Geller was no longer a threat and agreed to avoid using force to remove him. <br /> “We determined that the best way to end this safely was to discontinue contact with the suspect,” Hartmann said. <br /> Geller remained in the apartment overnight but police and sheriff’s detectives, armed with an arrest warrant, returned the next evening and talked Geller into safely surrendering. <br /> In addition to filing charges, police have asked a judge to issue an order preventing Geller from having access to firearms for up to a year.</p></div>Highland Beach: Gun shop owner illegally alerted suspect in theft from widow, investigators sayhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/highland-beach-gun-shop-owner-illegally-alerted-suspect-in-theft-2019-10-30T14:02:35.000Z2019-10-30T14:02:35.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Rich Pollack</strong></p>
<p>A Delray Beach gun shop owner whose text let a friend who is charged with bilking a Highland Beach widow out of close to $3 million know investigators were looking for related records was charged last month with criminal disclosure of a subpoena.<br />Texts in which 34-year-old Michael R. Caruso Jr. of Boynton Beach also recommended his friend David Del Rio contact a well-known Palm Beach County defense attorney led to Caruso’s being named as a witness for prosecutors in the case against Del Rio. <br />In court records, investigators for the State Attorney’s Office say they went to the Delray Shooting Center in August 2018 armed with a subpoena for records related to Del Rio’s purchase of multiple firearms. <br />The investigator served a subpoena to Michael R. Caruso Sr. — co-owner of the business with his son — “along with a notice informing him not to disclose the existence of the request,” according to court records. <br />In March 2019, investigators were plowing through a cloned hard drive from a computer seized from Del Rio when they discovered text messages from Caruso’s phone number on the same day his father was served with the subpoena. <br />“The message stated: ‘Sooooo ummm I just had the state attorney in here asking about you,’” according to court records. A few minutes later came a text asking Del Rio if he was OK.<br />Caruso was then asked to call Del Rio. <br />In later texts, Caruso sent an email with contact information for criminal defense attorney Michael Salnick. <br />“He’s the real deal if you need it bro, good luck,” the message read, according to court records. <br />Salnick, who is now representing Caruso as well as Del Rio, said he believes the charges are “overkill.” <br />“He was just advising a friend and giving him a recommendation for an attorney,” Salnick said. “I don’t think there was ever any intent to prevent, impede or obstruct justice whatsoever.”<br />Caruso was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on Oct. 11 and released on $3,000 bail later that day.<br />Del Rio, who was arrested in September 2018 and charged with multiple counts of grand theft, exploitation of the elderly, money laundering and fraudulent use of personal identification information, was released from jail on bond but remains under house arrest. <br />Detectives investigating the April 2018 slaying of Elizabeth “Betty” Cabral discovered millions of dollars had been siphoned from her accounts, with Del Rio accused of improperly receiving much of the money.<br />No charges have been filed in the death of Cabral, who was found inside her Highland Beach condominium with her throat cut after her car was found in Broward County and Highland Beach police were asked to check on her. <br />The homicide, only the second in Highland Beach history, remains open and under investigation. Ú</p></div>South Palm Beach: Police officer resigns after arrest but is contesting chargeshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/south-palm-beach-police-officer-resigns-after-arrest-but-is-conte2019-10-02T16:26:14.000Z2019-10-02T16:26:14.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Dan Moffett</strong></p>
<p>Not everyone in the South Palm Beach Police Department made the transition to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office this month.<br /> On Aug. 30, South Palm patrol Officer Jose Miguel Fernandez resigned from the department, facing misdemeanor charges of stalking and installing a GPS tracking device that were brought by the sheriff’s deputies he had hoped to join. The town suspended Fernandez shortly after he was booked and posted a $500 bond at Palm Beach County Jail on Aug. 28. Fernandez is contesting the charges against him, and court records show he has a hearing scheduled for Nov. 1.<br /> “The South Palm Beach Police Department holds its employees to a high standard and this is a complete breach of trust to the residents of South Palm Beach,” said outgoing Police Chief Mark Garrison, who became a sergeant with the Sheriff’s Office when the sheriff took over his department on Oct. 1.<br /> The charges against Fernandez grew out of a complaint Garrison received in July from a resident who said he found a GPS device on his wife’s vehicle. The husband told police his wife had a yearlong affair with Fernandez. He said the affair had ended and his wife believed the officer since then was using the device to follow her.<br /> Garrison turned the investigation over to the Sheriff’s Office. According to a sheriff’s report, deputies traced the GPS tracker to Fernandez and interviewed him at his home on Aug. 16.<br /> Fernandez told the deputies, the report said, that he had purchased the device and admitted putting it on the woman’s vehicle. He told investigators he did it because he was concerned about retribution from the woman’s husband. He denied stalking the woman.<br /> South Palm Beach hired Fernandez, 50, in November 2016. Before coming to the town he worked three years as a patrol officer next door in Manalapan. Before that he spent 21 years with the New York City Police Department, according to his employment application with the town, retiring with the rank of lieutenant.<br /> Fernandez, who is originally from the borough of Queens, said on his application he completed three years of criminal justice study at Empire State University.</p></div>Boca Raton: Haynie’s arrest scrambles councilhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-haynie-s-arrest-scrambles-council2018-05-02T17:00:00.000Z2018-05-02T17:00:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:18pt;"><strong>Uncertain months ahead as deposed mayor faces corruption charges</strong></span></p>
<p><strong>By Mary Hladky</strong></p>
<p>Over a dizzying two weeks in April, Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie was reprimanded and fined for ethics violations, arrested on state corruption charges, withdrew from the District 4 Palm Beach County Commission race and was suspended from office by Gov. Rick Scott.<br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960787492,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960787492,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" width="97" alt="7960787492?profile=original" /></a>The sudden downfall of Haynie, a mainstay of city politics for 18 years who was aiming for higher office, threw the city into political turmoil and will have major repercussions.<br /> The city moved swiftly to fill the mayoral void, elevating Deputy Mayor Scott Singer to the top job for now. City Council members expect to pass a resolution at their May 8 meeting to set Aug. 28 as the date of a special election to choose a mayor who will serve until the end of Haynie’s term of office in March 2020.<br /> Singer has announced he will run for mayor, and he will have to resign from office at the time of the special election to do so. If he loses, Singer will be off the City Council. <br /> Other mayoral candidates are lining up, including former Planning and Zoning Board member Glenn Gromann.<br /> With Singer now mayor, his City Council seat is vacant. Other council members anticipate they will temporarily appoint someone to the council by late May or early June, with voters deciding a permanent replacement on Aug. 28.<br /> Singer and council members Andrea O’Rourke and Monica Mayotte have called on Haynie to resign, but as of the end of April she had not. Even so, her April 27 suspension created a temporary vacancy. <br /> City Attorney Diana Grub Frieser said the city charter and state statute set out the steps the city is taking to fill it.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><strong>City carries on amid uproar</strong></span> <br /> City officials have taken pains to assure residents that the political tumult is having no impact on city operations.<br /> “The city is bigger than one person” and will continue to provide “world-class services,” Singer said after he assumed his new role.<br /> Haynie was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on April 24 and released about 90 minutes later on $12,000 bail. She will be arraigned on May 24 and faces more than 20 years in prison. As of May 1 she had not spoken publicly since her arrest.<br /> “Ms. Haynie wholeheartedly and completely denies the allegations, which we plan to fight in court to the fullest extent,” her attorney, Leonard Feuer, said in an email to <em>The Coastal Star</em> on the night of her arrest.<br /> Stunned council members were in the midst of a regular meeting when word spread that Haynie was absent because she was at the jail.<br /> “I find news of this as I sit up here as beyond upsetting,” O’Rourke said.<br /> “We are all surprised, flabbergasted … ” Singer said.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960791698,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="400" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960791698,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960791698?profile=original" /></a><em>Scott Singer is now mayor and plans to run for that position in August. <strong>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
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<p>Haynie was charged with four felonies and three misdemeanors by the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office public corruption unit, including official misconduct, perjury in an official proceeding, misuse of public office, corrupt misuse of public office and failure to disclose voting conflict.<br /> The investigation began in March 2017 when the State Attorney’s Office received complaints that Haynie used her position on the City Council to vote on matters that financially benefited James Batmasian, the city’s largest downtown commercial landowner, and failed to disclose income she received from him, the arrest affidavit states.<br /> The investigation found that Haynie failed to report $335,000 in income on disclosure forms required by the state, including $84,000 from Batmasian or from his company Investments Limited, from 2014 through 2017.<br /> Of that total, $45,000 came from rent paid to Haynie for a property she and her husband, Neil, own in Key Largo.<br /> The Haynies formed Community Reliance, a property management company, in 2007. The company managed Tivoli Park, a 1,600-unit apartment complex in Deerfield Beach. Batmasian and his wife, Marta, own 80 percent of the Tivoli Park units, and five of six Tivoli board members work for Investments Limited, The Palm Beach Post has reported.<br /> Community Reliance earned between $10,057 and $16,490 a year between 2014 and 2017 from Tivoli’s master association, according to the arrest affidavit.<br /> “This amount is well below the expected income for managing a property of this size, which would normally command an income of nearly $150,000 to $200,000 a year,” the affidavit states.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><strong>Haynie denied company work</strong></span><br /> Haynie told investigators that she had no involvement in running Community Reliance and another company she and her husband started, Computer Golf Software of Nevada Inc., and derived no income from them.<br /> But subpoenaed bank records revealed she wrote two checks to herself from the Community Reliance account totaling $5,300 and received $72,600 from Computer Golf Software.<br /> During 2016 and 2017, Haynie cast four votes that benefited Batmasian, the affidavit states, although none of them were on significant matters.<br /> Haynie left Community Reliance in 2016 and announced in December that her husband had ended his business relationship with the Tivoli Park master association.<br /> Haynie was in the crosshairs of the Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics months before the State Attorney’s Office investigation came to light. <br /> The ethics commission launched its investigation of Haynie on Nov. 2, one day before The Post reported that the Tivoli Park master association had paid Community Reliance.<br /> That probe corroborated The Post’s key findings but also unearthed an additional, and more direct, financial link between the Haynies and Batmasian.<br /> Community Reliance was paid at least $64,000 in 2016 and 2017 for installing security cameras at several properties owned by Batmasian, including Royal Palm Place in downtown Boca Raton, according to the commission’s investigative file. Investments Limited made the payments to Community Reliance.<br /> Haynie did not disclose that before voting on matters involving the landowner.<br /> Haynie has denied that she acted improperly and said she requested in 2013 an Ethics Commission opinion on whether she should recuse herself from voting. The opinion said she could vote.<br /> But the opinion was narrowly written and was based on a specific instance in which Batmasian was neither the applicant nor the developer of a project coming to the City Council for approval. In other instances, he was the applicant or developer.<br /> Mark Bannon, the ethics commission’s executive director, said Haynie should have understood the opinion to mean that she should not vote in such circumstances.<br /> “The advisory opinion said [Batmasian] was not the developer or applicant, which tells you when he is the developer or applicant, you can’t do that [vote],” Bannon said.<br /> In a settlement agreement reached on April 16, Haynie admitted to violating the county’s ethics code and agreed to pay a $500 fine — the stiffest fine the commission could levy — for failing to disclose a conflict of interest. The commission dismissed its second allegation that Haynie misused her public office.<br /> The settlement states that Haynie “believes it to be in her best interest to resolve the issues contained in the complaint and avoid the expense and time of litigation in this matter. Accordingly, (Haynie) admits to participating in and voting on matters that gave a special financial benefit to a customer or client of her outside business and she accepts a letter of reprimand.”<br /> The criminal charges against Haynie caught many unawares.<br /> “It was shocking,” O’Rourke said. “No one had any idea this was coming down.”<br /> But BocaWatch publisher Al Zucaro, a Haynie adversary whom she defeated in last year’s mayoral race and who has called on her to resign, knew an investigation was underway last spring. <br /> He said the state attorney’s public corruption unit investigators interviewed him not long after he filed a complaint about Haynie with the county’s Ethics Commission. He also filed a complaint with the Florida Commission on Ethics, and that case may be ongoing.<br /> Speculation about why Haynie has not resigned is rampant in the city, and Zucaro posited that her thinking is that she can enter into an agreement with prosecutors to plead no contest to the charges with a judge withholding adjudication. By avoiding a conviction, she could then return to office.<br /> But Frieser seemed to squelch that possibility at an April 30 meeting held to discuss procedures to hold a special election.<br /> A no contest plea with a withholding of adjudication or suspension of a sentence is deemed a conviction, she said, and if Haynie is convicted, Scott must remove her from office. If she is acquitted, Scott must reinstate her.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><br /><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>2016 anti-corruption law</strong></span></p>
<p>The state’s case against Susan Haynie on official misconduct charges could be bolstered by an anti-corruption law passed by the Florida legislature in 2016.<br />The law removes the requirement that state prosecutors prove the accused acted “corruptly” or with “corrupt intent.” Instead, prosecutors only have to prove the suspects acted “knowingly and intentionally,” a lesser burden of proof.<br />Elected state attorneys across Florida endorsed the bill, saying they needed the change to better prosecute public corruption. It was unanimously approved by both the Florida House and Senate. <br />The bill was based on recommendations contained in a 2010 Statewide Grand Jury report titled “A Study of Public Corruption in Florida and Recommended Solutions.”<br />Haynie is charged with three counts of official misconduct, perjury, misuse of public office, corrupt misuse of public office and failure to disclose voting conflict.</p>
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<p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Susan Haynie</strong></span></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960791889,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="400" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960791889,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960791889?profile=original" /></a><em>Susan Haynie during a 2017 Boca Raton City Council meeting. <strong>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p><br /> Haynie, 62, has long been a fixture in Boca Raton politics.<br /> A 45-year city resident, she is a graduate of Lynn University and holds certifications in traffic engineering studies from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Northwestern University.<br /> She began her career as an engineering analyst for the city and entered politics in 2000, when she was first elected to the Boca Raton City Council. She was forced out by term limits in 2006 and returned in 2008. Haynie became mayor in 2014 and was re-elected in 2017, when she defeated BocaWatch publisher Al Zucaro.<br /> Setting her sights on higher office, Haynie announced her candidacy for the Palm Beach County Commission last year to fill the seat held by former Boca Raton Mayor Steven Abrams, who is term-limited. She withdrew from that race on April 24.<br /> Haynie is a past president of the Florida League of Cities and Palm Beach County League of Cities.<br /> Haynie has chaired the Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency (formerly known as the Metropolitan Planning Organization), the Florida Metropolitan Planning Organization Advisory Council, the Southeast Florida Transportation Council and was appointed to the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council.<br /> Before her election to the City Council, she served on the city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment and Planning and Zoning Board. Haynie has been a member of numerous civic and charity organizations.<br /> Haynie is a licensed general contractor and community association manager.<br /> She has two children of her own and three stepchildren with her husband, Neal Haynie, whom she married in 1995.</p></div>Ocean Ridge: Depositions in Lucibella felony case set for late Augusthttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/ocean-ridge-depositions-in-lucibella-felony-case-set-for-late-aug2017-08-02T14:05:39.000Z2017-08-02T14:05:39.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Steve Plunkett</strong><br /><br /> The lawyer in the felony case against former Ocean Ridge Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella has rescheduled depositions of town officials and the police for late August. <br />Defense attorney Marc Shiner will depose arresting officers Nubia Plesnik and Richard Ermeri and since-retired Sgt. William Hallahan on Aug. 21, along with Police Chief Hal Hutchins, dispatcher Courtney Hammond, Lt. Richard Jones and Town Manager Jamie Titcomb.<br /> On Aug. 28 Shiner plans to depose current Vice Mayor James Bonfiglio, Mayor Geoff Pugh, Town Commissioner Steve Coz, former police Lt. Steven Wohlfiel and Kim Hutchins, the chief’s wife.<br /> Lucibella faces a felony charge of resisting arrest with violence; after reviewing the case the State Attorney’s Office added a felony charge of battery on a law enforcement officer. The battery charge covers Ermeri only; the resisting arrest with violence covers Ermeri “and/or N. Plesnik,” the charging document says. <br />Lucibella also is charged with misdemeanor use of a firearm while under the influence of alcohol. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.<br /> Plesnik, Ermeri and Hallahan went to Lucibella’s home Oct. 22 after neighbors reported hearing gunfire. They confiscated a .40-caliber handgun and found five spent shell casings on the backyard patio.<br /> Wohlfiel, their supervisor, was with Lucibella, and both men were “obviously intoxicated,” the police said. Officers later determined the confiscated handgun belonged to Wohlfiel.<br /> <br /><strong>Lucibella gets summons</strong> <strong>for officer’s civil lawsuit</strong><br />Meanwhile, the man who delivered Lucibella’s copy of Officer Plesnik’s lawsuit claiming battery and negligence waited a month to notify the court that the summons had been served.<br /><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960731687,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960731687,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" width="99" alt="7960731687?profile=original" /></a> In a document filed July 22, process server Christopher Marxen said he delivered the legal papers to Lucibella at his Beachway North home at 9:05 p.m. June 22.<br />Lucibella said he welcomed Marxen at his back gate.<br />“I bet you don’t often get someone who asks to be served,” Lucibella said.<br />In her lawsuit, Plesnik says Lucibella intentionally pushed and injured her, causing pain and disability, among other things. <br /> Her lawyer, Richard Slinkman, said Plesnik can perform the functions and duties of a police officer but continues to feel pain in her shoulder, even at work.<br /> West Palm Beach lawyer David Drahos is defending Lucibella in the civil lawsuit. Lucibella has a $10 million insurance policy against personal liability.<br /> Lucibella did not sound concerned about the legal action. “I find it rather comical — that’s my comment,” he said.<br /> During the arrest, Lucibella was pinned to his backyard patio pavers and suffered injuries to his face and ribs. Shiner has said the officers overreacted.<br /> His trial, originally set for April, is now scheduled for October. Judge Charles Burton anticipates it will take four weeks.<br /> Lucibella resigned as vice mayor and town commissioner in December. <br /><br /><strong>Town fights ex-lieutenant’s request for hearing</strong><br />Ocean Ridge is fighting a request by Wohlfiel that a judge order the town manager to hold an evidentiary hearing before Wohlfiel can be fired.<br /><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960731696,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960731696,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" width="98" alt="7960731696?profile=original" /></a> “Wohlfiel has failed to demonstrate that there was a ministerial duty to provide a quasi-judicial hearing before the town manager after receipt of a notice of termination letter,” attorney Lyman Reynolds said in a filing on behalf of Ocean Ridge in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.<br /> Reynolds, who is paid by the town’s insurance company, said Wohlfiel’s request is improper because he was not “peremptorily” suspended.<br /> “As the memo from the chief to Wohlfiel states, he was ‘placed on administrative leave with pay until further notice.’ It was not a disciplinary action,” Reynolds argues.<br /> Chief Hutchins opened an internal investigation of Wohlfiel’s role in the incident the day after Lucibella’s arrest.<br />Titcomb fired Wohlfiel on Jan. 4 after receiving Hutchins’ recommendation. In the termination letter, Titcomb told Wohlfiel that Ocean Ridge police officers “need to exhibit conduct above reproach.”<br />“I don’t feel the standard we expect for our police officers has been met by you in this case,” Titcomb wrote.<br /> Wohlfiel’s attorney, Ralph King of the county’s Police Benevolent Association, asked the Town Commission to review the firing in February, then asked for a postponement.<br /> “Wohlfiel has not requested the appeal hearing before the Town Commission be rescheduled, which the town is ready and willing to do,” Reynolds said in the filing.</p></div>Ocean Ridge: Prosecutors decide jogger did not resist arrest with violencehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/ocean-ridge-prosecutors-decide-jogger-did-not-resist-arrest-with-2017-08-02T13:57:56.000Z2017-08-02T13:57:56.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Steve Plunkett</strong><br /><br /> One of the Ocean Ridge police officers who charged then-Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella with resisting arrest with violence last October did not make the same charge stick in a second, unrelated case.<br /> The State Attorney’s Office decided July 17 not to press charges against a West Palm Beach man Police Officer Richard Ermeri encountered jogging south on A1A late May 20.<br /> Ermeri was investigating a 911 call from a woman who complained that a stranger was following her when he saw Christian Stewart, 40, just after 11 p.m. Stewart matched the woman’s description: a white man, dark shorts, beard, backpack.<br /> Ermeri rolled down the passenger window of his car, called out “and he ignored me,” Ermeri wrote in his arrest report. He activated his flashing lights and aimed his spotlight at Stewart, “to which he advised me to stop shining my light on him,” Ermeri wrote.<br /> Stewart continued to jog south on A1A and turned west on Ocean Avenue. Ermeri passed the man, stopped about 100 yards in front of him, got out of his car and ordered Stewart to stop. But Stewart kept jogging.<br /> So Ermeri grabbed him with both hands and ordered him to stop. Stewart “tried to pull away from me and when he was unable to, he began to become verbally and physically aggressive with me by yelling at me to let him go and by attempting to turn around and face me,” Ermeri reported.<br />Ermeri said Stewart began to lift his hands above his midsection, “a fighting stance,” and Ermeri “believed that he was going to strike me at any moment.”<br /> By then Sgt. Gary Roy had arrived.<br /> “I assisted Sgt. Roy with directing [Stewart] to the ground by stepping back with my right foot, shifting my weight to the right, and pulling down on his upper torso with both of my hands,” Ermeri wrote. <br /> Ermeri charged Stewart with resisting arrest with violence, a felony, and resisting arrest without violence, a misdemeanor.<br /> Roy’s report matched Ermeri’s. Stewart “became active aggressive when he took a fighting stance and used physical actions to attempt striking Officer Ermeri,” Roy wrote.<br /> But before connecting with Ermeri, Roy spoke with the woman who made the 911 call and was told the stranger was headed north, not south, on A1A. After the arrest, “It was determined that [Stewart] was not the individual that had been following” the woman, Roy reported.<br />Lucibella and Stewart are the only people Ermeri has charged with resisting arrest with violence, according to the clerk of the courts online docket.<br /> Stewart tried to get a public defender but was declared not indigent. Paul Walsh, a partner of Lucibella’s defense attorney, Marc Shiner, took on Stewart’s case. Walsh did not respond to a phone call or email seeking comment on the case.<br /> The State Attorney’s Office dropped the felony charge on June 8. <br />On July 17 Assistant State Attorney Daniel Taub said his office would not pursue the misdemeanor charge in exchange for Stewart’s paying the $50 cost of prosecution.</p></div>Ocean Ridge: Prosecutor, defense subpoena witnesses in Lucibella criminal casehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/ocean-ridge-prosecutor-defense-subpoena-witnesses-in-lucibella-cr2017-03-01T19:00:00.000Z2017-03-01T19:00:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Steve Plunkett</strong><br /> <br /> Neighbors of former Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella who answered police questions the night of his arrest and then answered questions for an Ocean Ridge police internal investigation are finding they will spend more time answering still more questions.<br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960706865,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960706865,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" width="96" alt="7960706865?profile=original" /></a>Marc Shiner, Lucibella’s defense attorney, scheduled 17 depositions in late February and early March of witnesses listed in officers Richard Ermeri and Nubia Plesnik’s initial reports of the Oct. 22 shooting incident at Lucibella’s oceanfront home. <br /> Besides neighbors and passersby, those deposed included the Boynton Beach Fire Rescue team that was summoned to the scene, Boynton Beach’s fire chief and the MD Now doctors who treated Ermeri and Plesnik after Lucibella’s arrest.<br /> Lucibella, 63, is charged with felony battery on a police officer and resisting the officer with violence. He also faces a misdemeanor count of using a firearm while under the influence of alcohol. He has pleaded not guilty.<br /> Prosecutor Danielle Grundt issued subpoenas to the same group of witnesses plus Ocean Ridge Police Chief Hal Hutchins and a third MD Now physician to be at the courthouse in West Palm Beach for the jury trial, which is set to start at 9:30 a.m. April 10. <br /> Circuit Judge Charles Burton has blocked off four weeks for the proceedings, the subpoenas say. <br /> “Failure to appear will subject you to contempt of court. This subpoena is binding day-to-day and week-to-week until the case is closed,” Grundt says in the subpoenas.<br /> Jerry Lower, publisher of <em>The Coastal Star</em>, went to Lucibella’s house that night to photograph the incident for the newspaper and is fighting subpoenas for a defense deposition and the trial.<br /> Lower’s motion to quash the subpoenas says that under state law, case law and the First Amendment, a professional journalist has a qualified privilege “to not be a witness or disclose information the journalist has obtained while gathering news.”<br /> Town police went to Lucibella’s home after neighbors reported hearing gunfire and said they found the vice mayor and one of their supervisors, Lt. Steven Wohlfiel, “obviously intoxicated” on the patio. <br /> They confiscated a .40-caliber Glock handgun and found five spent shell casings on the patio. Police also took a semiautomatic pistol they said Lucibella had in his back pocket.<br /> According to their reports, when Ermeri and Plesnik tried to block Lucibella from entering his house, he resisted. They wrestled him to the paver-covered ground and handcuffed him. Lucibella needed treatment for facial injuries, they said, though he declined help from the Boynton Beach paramedics at the scene.<br /> Lucibella claims he is the victim of police overreaction. Through Shiner, he has said that the officers should not have entered his backyard and that they used excessive force, cracking three of his ribs.<br /> Lucibella resigned his posts as vice mayor and town commissioner Dec. 7, the same day the State Attorney’s Office filed formal charges against him.</p></div>Vice Mayor Lucibella resignation letterhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/vice-mayor-lucibella-resignation-letter2016-12-12T15:16:53.000Z2016-12-12T15:16:53.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960691690,original{{/staticFileLink}}">Lucibella.pdf</a></p></div>Ocean Ridge: Lucibella faces formal charges in backyard shooting, resigns from officehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/ocean-ridge-lucibella-faces-formal-charges-in-backyard-shooting2016-12-10T21:30:00.000Z2016-12-10T21:30:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Vice Mayor Lucibella <a href="http://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/vice-mayor-lucibella-resignation-letter">resignation letter</a></strong></p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>By Steve Plunkett and Dan Moffett<br /></strong></p>
<p>Ocean Ridge Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella faces formal charges of battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting an officer with violence, both felonies, and misdemeanor use of a firearm while under the influence of alcohol at an Oct. 22 backyard gathering at his home.</p>
<p>Assistant State Attorney Danielle Grundt added the felony battery charge Dec. 7 but decided not to take action on a misdemeanor count of discharging a firearm in public. Her filing automatically cancelled a hearing set for Dec. 8.</p>
<p>The same day Grundt filed charges, Lucibella sent a letter resigning from his posts as vice mayor and commissioner. "Due to impending litigation between the Town of Ocean Ridge and myself, it would be impossible for me to effectively discharge the duties of my office," he wrote.</p>
<p>Lucibella’s attorney, Marc Shiner, did not immediately respond to a phone call or email seeking comment.</p>
<p>Police arrived at Lucibella’s oceanfront home that Saturday night after neighbors complained of hearing gunshots. Officers said they found the vice mayor and one of their supervisors, Lt. Steven Wohlfiel, “obviously intoxicated” on the patio. Officers say they took a .40-caliber Glock handgun from Lucibella and found five spent shell casings on the patio. Police also confiscated a semiautomatic pistol they said Lucibella had in his back pocket.</p>
<p>According to police reports, when officers Richard Ermeri and Nubia Plesnik tried to block Lucibella from entering the house, he resisted. The officers wrestled him to the ground and handcuffed him. Lucibella needed treatment for facial injuries, and Ermeri and Plesnik also required medical attention.</p>
<p>Lucibella, 63, was absent from the two Town Commission meetings since the incident, on Nov. 7 and Dec. 5. His three-year term would have expired in March.</p>
<p>Through Shiner, Lucibella has claimed that he is the victim of police overreaction. He maintains they should not have entered his backyard in the first place, and then that they used excessive force. Shiner has called for Ermeri’s firing and an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The use of excessive force is a defense against a charge of battery on a law enforcement officer.</p>
<p>Police Chief Hal Hutchins reassigned Wohlfiel until completion of the investigation of his role in the incident. Both Lucibella and the lieutenant told police they knew nothing about shots being fired.</p>
<p>Hutchins said Dec. 8 there is no change in status on the internal investigation, which he called “involved.”</p>
<p>“We are looking at everything and everybody. We want to make sure we have all the information,” Hutchins said.</p></div>Ocean Ridge: With probe ongoing, Lucibella case vexes townhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/ocean-ridge-with-probe-ongoing-lucibella-case-vexes-town2016-11-30T18:45:56.000Z2016-11-30T18:45:56.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Dan Moffett</strong><br /><br /> Mayor Geoff Pugh says he has been fielding the same two questions from Ocean Ridge residents since Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella’s arrest after a scuffle with police in October:<br /> What do you think about it?<br /> And what are you going to do about it?<br /> Pugh says residents aren’t always satisfied with his answers, or the lack thereof.<br /><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960689087,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960689087,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" width="98" alt="7960689087?profile=original" /></a> On the advice of Town Attorney Glen Torcivia, the mayor refrains from public comment on Lucibella’s arrest, hoping to minimize the town’s involvement in possible litigation down the road. So Pugh generally keeps his thoughts to himself.<br /> As to the second question, Pugh tells people “nothing” — until Police Chief Hal Hutchins completes his investigation on the incident.<br /> “Nothing can be done until after that investigation is over and we have all the facts,” Pugh says. “Then we can look at everything we have to use at our disposal. Until then, I’d ask people to have a little patience and let the chief do his job and get the information that we need.”<br /> Hutchins says the internal investigation into the events at Lucibella’s home on Oct. 22 “has no timetable” for completion. “It is fluid and depends on what is discovered as we go forward,” the chief said.<br /> Police arrived at Lucibella’s oceanfront home that Saturday night after neighbors complained of hearing gunshots. Officers said they found the vice mayor and one of their department’s supervisors, police Lt. Steven Wohlfiel, “obviously intoxicated” on the patio. Officers say they took a .40-caliber Glock handgun from Lucibella and found five spent shell casings on the patio.<br /> According to police reports, when officers Richard Ermeri and Nubia Plesnik tried to block Lucibella from entering the house, he resisted. The officers wrestled him to the ground and handcuffed him. Lucibella needed treatment for facial injuries, and Ermeri and Plesnik also required medical attention.<br /> Lucibella was charged with resisting arrest with violence, a felony, as well as two misdemeanors: discharging a firearm in a residential area and use of a firearm while intoxicated.<br /> Through his attorney, Marc Shiner, Lucibella has claimed that he is the victim of police overreaction. He maintains they should not have entered his backyard in the first place, and then that they used excessive force. Shiner has called for Ermeri’s firing and an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.<br /> Hutchins has reassigned Wohlfiel until completion of the investigation of his role in the incident. Both Lucibella and the lieutenant told police they knew nothing about shots being fired.<br /> At the Nov. 7 town meeting, which Lucibella did not attend, several residents argued that the likelihood the vice mayor was planning to sue the town over the incident presents a conflict of interest that should disqualify him from serving on the commission.<br /> Among those making that case was Bob Merkel, an attorney for 42 years who defended the town in two lawsuits years ago. Merkel said Shiner, in public comments, had threatened to sue the town, raising a potential conflict of interest that should trouble commissioners. In an email to The Coastal Star, Lucibella dismissed the complaints about a conflict of interest as grandstanding and said the law is clear that nothing prevents him from serving.<br />“This is a straw man argu-ment, put forth by individuals who seek to read their names in the press,” Lucibella said. “The result is constant cries that the sky is falling in Ocean Ridge. If the commonsense answer to this silly accusation remains elusive, I suggest a quick read of the law. FS 112.313(6) and FS 112.3143(3)(a) are good places to start.”<br />Lucibella refers to sections of the Florida Statutes that define conflicts and standards of conduct for elected officials.<br />Torcivia agrees with the vice mayor, saying speculation about a lawsuit is a hypothetical situation that does not present a conflict at this time. He also said there was nothing in the town’s charter that gives the commission the authority to remove or sanction Lucibella for allegations of misconduct stemming from his arrest.<br />Torcivia told commissioners that the charter only considers standards set in the state and county codes of ethics. Those standards for action deal primarily with conflicts of interest, unlawful financial gain and corruption. He said there’s nothing in the charter or ethics codes to cover allegations of fights with police or illegally firing weapons.<br /> “There is no money that went into his pocket because of this incident,” Torcivia said, telling commissioners, “Your hands are tied.” He also warned them not to get ahead of the legal system: “Judge, jury and executioner is not the role of this commission.”<br /> Torcivia said Lucibella is presumed innocent, and if proven otherwise in court, the governor could act to remove him from office.<br /> “The governor takes that very seriously,” he said. “There’s a high probability the governor would do that.”<br /> Lucibella’s three-year term expires in March, and he has been noncommittal about whether he will run again, saying he “hasn’t thought too much about” it and, “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”<br /> Town officials say they expect the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office to decide by Dec. 8 on whether to charge Lucibella. If criminal charges are filed, Torcivia says Gov. Rick Scott might decide to intervene.<br /> “At some point,” he said, “the ball may be in the governor’s court.”<br /> For now, Pugh is telling residents to take a deep breath and let the system work.<br /> “Everybody wants to have a quick decision, get it done, get it over with and get it out of our lives,” he said. “But you have to make sure you have all the facts. Once we get them, we can make a quality decision.”</p></div>Lantana: Officer honored for work on Hypoluxo Island theft casehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/lantana-officer-honored-for-work-on-hypoluxo-island-theft-case2016-11-02T17:30:00.000Z2016-11-02T17:30:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Mary Thurwachter</strong><br /> <br /> No stranger to “employee of the quarter” awards from the Lantana Police Department, Officer Edward Tavcar made another appearance at the Town Council’s Oct. 24 meeting. This time, he was recognized for his diligence in investigating a theft incident that resulted in the recovery of about $15 million in paintings, statues and relics.<br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960686873,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960686873,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" width="96" alt="7960686873?profile=original" /></a> “I appreciate all of them (awards), but this one is kind of special,” Tavcar said after Chief Sean Scheller recognized him. “This wasn’t a one-man show. There were a lot of moving parts and there was a lot of cooperation. It was really a team effort between 20 or more law enforcement officers from Lantana and PBSO.”<br /> “The case,” Tavcar said later, “was like a movie. How did little Lantana ever get involved in something like this?”<br /> The case involved millions of dollars of artwork, a scorned lover, days of surveillance, lots of police and a couple of New York lawyers.<br /> At the end of October the victim’s lawyers were still in the process of identifying the stolen artwork, 99 percent of which had been recovered, Tavcar said.<br /> According to Tavcar, on Sept. 20, Hypoluxo Island homeowner Nicholas Zoullas told police his ex-girlfriend, Stacy Cliett, 43, had stolen “millions in artwork, relics and statues” from his home.<br /> Two days later, Zoullas’ lawyers met with Cliett and her friend Todd Stephens, 52. The two told police they had to take the art away from Zoullas’ home (where Cliett still resided) because of a mold problem in the house. But they refused to reveal where the artwork had been taken.<br /> “We found out the mold had already been mitigated during the summer,” Tavcar said.<br /> A private investigator contacted police a few days later to tell them the couple used a Lake Worth warehouse to store the artwork. Police said surveillance observed Cliett and Stephens loading artwork into a Lexus. When confronted by police at a gas station later, Stephens told police he was just helping Cliett move the artwork.<br /> After securing a search warrant for the warehouse, police found much of the missing artwork and crates bearing shipping labels with Zoullas’ name on them.<br /> Cliett and Stephens were arrested and face grand theft charges. Both bonded out of jail. Stephens, police records show, was out on bond for a separate money laundering case.<br /> In other Lantana news last month, the Town Council approved a Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program grant application to the state for construction of a recreation center picnic pavilion. <br /> The project would include a roof, flooring, picnic tables and lights at a cost of $148,000. Lantana would need to provide a 25 percent match of $37,000. <br /> The pavilion would replace the old shuffleboard courts at the Recreation Center. If the state awards the grant, construction would take place next year.</p></div>Ocean Ridge: What lies ahead for vice mayor after arrest?https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/ocean-ridge-what-lies-ahead-for-vice-mayor-after-arrest2016-11-02T17:30:00.000Z2016-11-02T17:30:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960684858,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="750" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960684858,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960684858?profile=original" /></a>Richard Lucibella (at left in white shirt) stands in his backyard after his arrest. He refused</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>medical treatment from paramedics for a wound near his left eye.</em> <em>Lt. Steven Wohlfiel (in black shirt,</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>facing camera) has been assigned alternate duties during the department’s investigation.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Related: Read initial <a href="http://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/offense-incident-report">incident report</a></strong></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><strong>By Dan Moffett</strong><br /> <br /> A quiet Saturday night on an Ocean Ridge patio ended with gunshots, the vice mayor bloodied and handcuffed, a senior police lieutenant under investigation, two officers seeking treatment for injuries and a town roiling again in political turmoil. <br /> Ocean Ridge residents who complain about visitors from the mainland bringing trouble across the bridge have a new worry. It appears the town is capable of bringing it on itself. <br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960685067,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960685067,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" width="96" alt="7960685067?profile=original" /></a> The quiet night by the sea turned raucous shortly after 9 p.m. Oct. 22, when police responded to reports of gunshots on Old Ocean Boulevard, and officers went to the rear of Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella’s home to investigate. <br /> There they found Lucibella and one of their department’s supervisors, Lt. Steven Wohlfiel, “obviously intoxicated based upon their demeanor and behavior,” according to police reports that cited beer and mixed drinks on a table between the men. <br /> Officers Richard Ermeri and Nubia Plesnik say Lucibella was holding a black .40-caliber Glock handgun and greeted them with a barrage of obscenities. Police say the vice mayor also had a small silver handgun in his back pocket. Plesnik said she found five shell casings on the patio, hollow-point rounds that police believe were fired from Lucibella’s Glock. They say they found seven live rounds in a magazine that holds 12. <br /> Wohlfiel used an expletive in ordering the officers “to get out of here” and told them he did not want to make a statement, according to Sgt. Bill Hallahan, who was also at the scene. <br /> “You put us in a very bad situation, Lieutenant,” Ermeri told his off-duty supervisor, according to the police reports. Wohlfiel and Lucibella maintained they knew nothing about any gunshots. The situation deteriorated rapidly from there.</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"> Lucibella told the officers to get off his property and tried to go inside his home to get another drink, police say. Plesnik and Ermeri tried to block Lucibella. The officers said they believed Lucibella had more firearms inside.<br /> Things got physical near the doorway, according to the reports. Ermeri said the vice mayor “began to aggressively poke” him in the chest and then “began to physically resist” Plesnik. <br /> The officers wrestled Lucibella to the ground. He suffered an injury near his left eye that would send him to the hospital for treatment, and his attorney says he also had three broken ribs. <br /> Ermeri and Plesnik would require treatment for an assortment of bruises, abrasions and muscle pains. <br /> Lucibella bonded out after a few hours in the Palm Beach County Jail and faces charges of resisting arrest with violence, a felony, and two misdemeanors: discharging a firearm in a residential area and use of a firearm while under the influence of alcohol. <br /> This was Lucibella’s second clash with the town’s police since he won his commission seat in 2014. Last year, a dispute with then-Chief Chris Yannuzzi forced Yannuzzi out of a job, divided residents, packed the Town Hall for contentious commission meetings and led to an unsuccessful recall attempt against Lucibella. <br /> A judge ruled the recall group’s petitions were legally insufficient, but hundreds of residents signed them and wanted Lucibella removed. The vice mayor says he hasn’t decided whether to seek election to another three-year term in March, knowing that opposition against him is rising again and his ability to work with the town’s Police Department is in question.</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"> “I don’t recall ever saying I was looking to make a career in local politics,” Lucibella said in an email. “I’ve not really thought too much about whether I’ll run again. But I truly love Ocean Ridge and I’ve obviously never been much swayed by the shrieking of the ‘torches and pitchfork’ minority. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” <br /> Mayor Geoff Pugh says the vice mayor is facing a political future that may be even stormier than it was last year. <br /> “For anybody, this is pretty hard to come back from,” Pugh said. “The problem is public perception. In the court of public opinion, he’s found guilty and should resign. Unless it’s proven that it’s not his fault, then there might be a different opinion.” <br /> Lucibella’s lawyer, former prosecutor Marc Shiner, has dismissed suggestions that the vice mayor should resign: “Mr. Lucibella is the victim here.” Shiner has claimed Ermeri and Plesnik used excessive force and conducted an illegal search over alleged misdemeanor firearms violations, without any witnesses. He says the town police violated the vice mayor’s rights, and he is calling for battery charges against Ermeri, his resignation and an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. <br /> <br /> <span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;" class="font-size-3">Investigation underway</span><br /> Police Chief Hal Hutchins says an internal affairs investigation of the incident is already underway, and his department doesn’t need help from the FDLE at this time. But Hutchins said he is open to bringing in independent investigators from county, state or federal agencies if it’s warranted. <br /> “We’re ready to reach out to appropriate outside agencies if needed,” Hutchins said. “I’ll be the first one to make contact with another agency if one needs to be called in.” <br /> The chief said his investigation has no timetable and will go wherever the evidence leads. He said his investigators are still gathering witness accounts and that the probe “is a fluid situation” — with much work to do. <br /> “It will be a full internal review of this incident,” he said. “We’ll do it as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. That’s the only thing I can promise anybody.”<br /> Pugh agrees that the FDLE isn’t needed and the Police Department “has competent people that work for it who can do a competent investigation.” He said the town shouldn’t make decisions about disciplining or firing anyone until after the investigation is complete. Pugh said the presence at the scene of Wohlfiel, 48, a veteran with the department who rose through the ranks and has served as the police union representative, complicates matters. <br /> “I believe we should know what his culpability is,” Pugh said. Wohlfiel has been assigned to alternate duties during the investigation, Hutchins said. Ultimately, the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office is expected to make the call on who gets prosecuted and for what charges. <br /> Though Lucibella has an uncertain political future, he says he is proud of the achievements in his political past.</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"> “We accomplished a great deal in my first term,” he said, “including returning control of our Police Department to the people, managing through the near simultaneous loss of a clerk, police chief and manager, and creating a balanced budget in the absence of a clerk who had done that work for 30 years — to name just a few.” <br /> Pugh said Lucibella “can be acerbic,” which sometimes obscures his contributions to the town. The mayor said the Nov. 7 commission meeting figures to be as well-attended as those during last year’s storm over Yannuzzi’s ouster. <br /> “If anything, it would be easier for the town if he doesn’t show up,” Pugh said. “With Rich, you never know what he’s going to do. He’s a fighter. Basically, I want people to know that he’s done good things for Ocean Ridge.”</p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><br /> <em>Read a copy of the initial incident report at <a href="http://www.thecoastalstar.com">www.thecoastalstar.com</a>.</em></p></div>Ocean Ridge: Offense-Incident Reporthttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/offense-incident-report2016-10-26T11:30:00.000Z2016-10-26T11:30:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960684888,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="750" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960684888,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-full" alt="7960684888?profile=original" /></a><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960685471,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="750" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960685471,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-full" alt="7960685471?profile=original" /></a><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960685496,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="750" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960685496,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-full" alt="7960685496?profile=original" /></a><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960685294,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="750" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960685294,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-full" alt="7960685294?profile=original" /></a><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960686269,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="750" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960686269,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-full" alt="7960686269?profile=original" /></a><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960686299,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="750" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960686299,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-full" alt="7960686299?profile=original" /></a><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960686486,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="750" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960686486,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-full" alt="7960686486?profile=original" /></a><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960686299,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="750" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960686299,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-full" alt="7960686299?profile=original" /></a><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960686486,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="750" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960686486,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-full" alt="7960686486?profile=original" /></a><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960686676,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="750" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960686676,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-full" alt="7960686676?profile=original" /></a><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960686701,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="750" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960686701,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-full" alt="7960686701?profile=original" /></a><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960687074,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="750" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960687074,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-full" alt="7960687074?profile=original" /></a><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960687275,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="750" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960687275,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-full" alt="7960687275?profile=original" /></a><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960687466,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="750" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960687466,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-full" alt="7960687466?profile=original" /></a></p></div>Ocean Ridge: Vice Mayor Lucibella arrested on shooting chargeshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/ocean-ridge-vice-mayor-lucibella-arrested-on-shooting-charges2016-10-23T16:30:00.000Z2016-10-23T16:30:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p class="Body" style="text-align:center;"><strong>Offense-Incident <a href="http://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/offense-incident-report">Report</a></strong></p>
<p class="Body"></p>
<p class="Body"></p>
<p class="Body"><strong>By Dan Moffett</strong></p>
<p class="Body"> Ocean Ridge Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella is facing possible felony charges following a Saturday night shooting incident at his oceanfront home that left him in handcuffs and bloodied from a scuffle with police officers.</p>
<p class="Body"> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960682693,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960682693,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" width="133" alt="7960682693?profile=original" /></a>Police say alcohol played a role in the incident on Beachway North, and Lucibella’s neighbors said they heard about five shots. Police Chief Hal Hutchins said his officers responded to a call at 9:13 p.m. reporting gunshots fired near 5700 Old Ocean Blvd.</p>
<p class="Body"> “Initial investigation led the officers to the rear of 5 Beachway North,” Hutchins said in a statement, “where officers encountered persons in the rear yard of the residence and observed evidence of spent bullet shell casings.”</p>
<p class="Body"> Hutchins said further investigation “resulted in the discovery of a Glock 40 caliber pistol with a partially loaded magazine.”</p>
<p class="Body"> Officers arrested Lucibella, and he was booked into Palm Beach County Jail early Sunday morning on charges of resisting an officer with violence, firing a weapon in a residential area, and use of a firearm while under the influence of alcohol.</p>
<p class="Body"> This isn’t Lucibella’s first run-in with the town’s Police Department. In 2014, he got into a heated dispute with then-Chief Chris Yannuzzi that ultimately forced his resignation the next year.</p>
<p class="Body"> The clash began when Lucibella found a stolen credit card on his patio deck. The two men argued over whether Lucibella was required to turn the card over to police. After Yannuzzi recorded a telephone conversation with Lucibella without his knowledge, town commissioners decided to force the chief out of the job and replace him with Hutchins.</p>
<p class="Body"> Lucibella, 63, first won election to the commission in 2014, and commissioners unanimously approved his appointment as vice mayor in April. He has been an outspoken advocate for greater security on the town’s beaches, claiming the town hadn’t done enough to keep non-residents from creating problems along the oceanfront.</p></div>Lantana: ‘Ice’ theft charges dropped in plea dealhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/lantana-ice-theft-charges-dropped-in-plea-deal2015-04-29T19:19:25.000Z2015-04-29T19:19:25.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Mary Thurwachter</strong><br /><br />Grand theft charges will be dropped against Robert Matthew Van Winkle, aka rapper Vanilla Ice, as long as he fulfills a plea deal that will have him doing 100 hours of community service and meeting a few other conditions during the next year.<br />Van Winkle, a former rapper turned real estate renovator, lives in Wellington and was arrested Feb. 18, accused of taking a patio set, furniture, bicycles, a pool heater and other items from a vacant property next to a house he is renovating on the 100 block of North Atlantic Drive in Lantana.<br />Van Winkle, 47, admitted guilt for the plea, but always maintained the issue was “just a misunderstanding.”<br />According to the police report, Van Winkle said he found the items next to the curb and thought they were trash.<br />After an appearance at the Courthouse in West Palm Beach on March 23, Van Winkle told reporters he never had any criminal intent and is “moving forward.”<br />He agreed to pay $1,333 in restitution to the alleged victim, the estate of Morgan Wilbur III, who died in 2008. He was ordered to stay away from the property, pay $100 for the cost of prosecution, attend a course on theft deterrence and do 100 hours of volunteer work for Habitat for Humanity.<br />Van Winkle said he enjoys volunteer work. Last year, he was recognized by the Wellington Chamber of Commerce as “Outstanding Citizen of the Year” for his community service work.<br />His company paid $1.4 million for the Lantana property on Hypoluxo Island (next to the one where the items were taken), in October. The home will be featured on HGTV and DIY network’s Vanilla Ice Project.</p></div>South Palm Beach: Former South Palm Beach mayor arrestedhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/south-palm-beach-former-south-palm-beach-mayor-arrested2012-09-21T19:00:00.000Z2012-09-21T19:00:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Tim O’Meilia</strong></p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960403471,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960403471,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="277" alt="7960403471?profile=original" /></a>Hours after he spoke at a South Palm Beach town council meeting, former mayor Martin Millar was arrested for allegedly attacking a man with a flashlight in a Palm Beach Gardens club.</p>
<p>Millar, 66, was released on his own recognizance Friday after being held more than 24 hours in the Palm Beach County Jail. He faces charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and resisting arrest with violence.</p>
<p>Millar attacked a man in the Dirty Martini club at the Downtown at the Gardens after the man left another bar several miles away with Millar’s girlfriend, according to the arrest report.</p>
<p>The girlfriend asked a 38-year-old man at the Angry Moon Cigar Bar for a ride after she told him Millar had been abusive to her. The couple left and drove to the Dirty Martini. Millar followed later.</p>
<p>Millar texted an acquaintance that he “wanted to kill” the man. A witness at the second bar said he struck the victim in the neck with a black flashlight.</p>
<p>Millar told Palm Beach Gardens police that he was going to “signal 5” the man for leaving with his girlfriend. The term is police radio code for murder.</p>
<p>Millar tried to pull away when he was handcuffed, the report said.</p>
<p>He was ordered not to drink alcohol or have contact with the victim, who was not named in the report.</p>
<p>The incident began barely four hours after Millar criticized the South Palm Beach Town Council for not taking action in a police union contract dispute.</p>
<p>In July, Millar complained to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office that South Palm Beach Police Chief Roger Crane threatened. After investigating, a sheriff’s detective dismissed the complaint as unfounded.</p>
<p>Millar was mayor for two years after serving four years as a councilman in South Palm Beach. He resigned in December 2010 after the state ethics commission fined him $3,000 for trying to use his position to influence West Palm Beach officers after he was ejected from a strip club.</p></div>South Palm Beach: Firefighter charged, evaluated following condo mayhemhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/south-palm-beach-firefighter-charged-evaluated-following-condo-ma2011-11-30T17:25:46.000Z2011-11-30T17:25:46.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p>By Tim O’Meilia<br /> <br />The off-duty Palm Beach County firefighter-paramedic who shot up his South Palm Beach condominium hallway and claimed a bomb had been planted may be a familiar face to town residents.<br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960358466,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960358466,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="268" alt="7960358466?profile=original" /></a> Jean A. Pierre II, 37, was assigned to Station 38 at the Manalapan Town Hall, the station that serves South Palm Beach as well. He also had volunteered on several occasions to help with periodic free blood-pressure screening events in town.<br /> “I knew the guy,” said South Palm Beach Police Chief Roger Crane. “I knew him to be very professional. I knew him on a professional level.”<br /> Pierre, a firefighter for eight years, was arrested on three charges after the Nov. 15 incident: making a false report of a bomb, firing into a dwelling and causing property damage of more than $200. He was scheduled for a psychological evaluation following his arrest. <br /> No bomb was found and no one was shot or injured.<br /> The firefighters union issued a statement saying that Pierre had been meeting with an employee relations team “to get him the help he needs” and the union pledged to continue.<br /> The Palmsea condominium’s building L was evacuated for almost four hours during the incident and State Road A1A was closed between Lantana and Lake Worth roads for nearly five hours.<br /> Crane, Lt. Nick Alvaro and patrolman Mark McKirchy responded to a 9:52 a.m. 911 call of shots fired in the building. Pierre already had put the gun on a table when police arrived. <br /> “When we got off the elevator, we could still smell gunpowder in the hallway,” Crane said.<br /> Pierre had fired two magazines — 18 to 24 bullets — from his .40-cal. handgun through his door and the door of a neighbor. <br /> The bullets broke windows on the other side of the apartment. Crane said Pierre knew his neighbors were not home. <br /> When Pierre insisted that a bomb was going to explode, Police Chief Roger Crane called in the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office bomb squad, had the building evacuated and closed the roads.<br /> While bomb experts examined Pierre’s fourth-floor dwelling, some residents complained to police that they were unable to get home.<br /> “We wanted to err on the side of caution,” Crane said of the road closure. “I wouldn’t want to open it then close it again if we found something.”<br /> The incident drew backup police from Lantana, the Sheriff’s Office and Palm Beach County Fire Rescue.<br /> “It turned out well,” Crane said. “The people in the building are OK. There was no bomb. Any time you come out of these when no one’s injured, it’s a good day.”</p></div>Lantana: Younger Stewart arrestedhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/lantana-younger-stewart-arrested2011-08-04T12:58:29.000Z2011-08-04T12:58:29.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div>Mayor David Stewart’s son was arrested July 22 on charges of battery and resisting an officer after the two wrestled over a set of car keys in the driveway of the mayor’s home.<br /> Stewart said he didn’t want his son, David Stewart II, to take the car because he was not taking required medications for an ongoing condition. The younger Stewart, who turned 22 the day after his arrest, was reportedly subdued by police using a stun gun.<br /><em>— Staff report</em></div>Lantana: Officer charged with multiple robberieshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/lantana-officer-charged-with2011-06-01T17:06:49.000Z2011-06-01T17:06:49.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960335884,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960335884,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="268" alt="7960335884?profile=original" /></a>By Tim O’Meilia<br /> <br /> A Lantana police officer was arrested and charged with three counts of robbery after he allegedly pulled over Hispanic men and stole their money after they left check-cashing stores.<br /> Officer Mark Ott, 35, faces a maximum of 90 years in prison for three counts of robbery with prejudice for targeting Hispanic men between February and May. Ott, an officer for four years, was released on $25,000 bail. He is on administrative leave without pay.<br /> According to the probable cause affidavit, Ott made multiple stops of Hispanic men, searched them and returned some of their money. He took $35 to $400 at each stop.<br /> The arrest came after an undercover sting operation resulting from a February incident when he stopped an FBI agent and his son. That led to an investigation involving the FBI, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and the State Attorney’s Public Integrity Unit task force.<br /> Ott was arrested May 19 after he pulled over an under-cover Sheriff’s deputy and an FBI agent, took $400 in photocopied bills, but kept $150 before letting the men go. The money was later found stuffed in Ott’s tactical vest, according to the affidavit.</div>Ocean Ridge/Delray Beach: Feds seize homes owned by man charged with fraudhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/ocean-ridgedelray-beach-feds2010-04-29T17:23:05.000Z2010-04-29T17:23:05.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p class="MsoNormal"></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">By Angie Francalancia</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Federal authorities have seized the Ocean Ridge home and another home owned by Joseph
Romano, who has been accused of resurrecting a $40 million boiler room scam he
originated on Long Island with his Delray Beach-based Collectible Coins Inc.
while free on bail.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Romano and a co-conspirator, Russell Barnes, were taken by U.S. Marshals to the
Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn in March to await trial, scheduled
for Sept. 27, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District
of New York.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">By the time authorities tracked Romano and Barnes to South Florida, they already
had scammed at least 10 victims out of about $600,000 from the Delray Beach
operation, according to court documents filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara
Treinis Gatz. The pair used cold calls and high-pressure sales to sell rolls of
coins to buyers, including many elderly victims, according to the court
documents.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">An answering service for Collectible Coins Inc. at 1300 NW 17th Ave. in Delray
Beach said the office was closed “because the guys are at a training conference
until April 23 at the latest.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Despite Romano and Barnes’ incarceration, Collectible Coins was still in operation in
March, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">The defendants would dip used or worn coins in a chemical bath, and then pass them
off as high-grade collectibles, the documents said. In fact, the coins were
worth much less than the callers claimed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Romano bought his two-story oceanfront home at 6011 N. Ocean Blvd. in 2004 for $2.9
million. The 7,029 square-foot home had a $50,632 tax bill in 2009. Romano had
run into trouble with Ocean Ridge’s code enforcement board in August 2009, when
he was cited for failing to have a fence around his pool. A month later he was
assessed $260 in fines and a special magistrate agreed to allow the town to
start assessing $100-a-day fines, noting that other code violations existed as
well.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">He also had bought a five-bedroom two-bath home in 2004 at 7084 Via Leonardo in
Isola Bella, off Hypoluxo Road, west of Florida’s Turnpike. Federal officials
seized that $431,000 property as well.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">Charged with conspiracy to commit mail/wire fraud and money laundering, the defendants
had three New York companies using the same coin sale methods since 2001.
Romano was released on $1 million bail while Barnes was released on his own
recognizance. Four months after they first were charged, Romano and Barnes used
another man to start Collectible Coins Inc. in Delray Beach, according to the
postal inspector. Salesmen cajoled, pressured or confused elderly people into
buying rolls of Benjamin Franklin half-dollar coins under the guise that
investors would be willing to buy them, the inspector said.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;">South Florida victims identified only as John Does were seniors as old as 91. In
addition to the 10 identified from the Delray Beach operation, federal
prosecutors have identified 100 victims. Romano and Barnes could face
additional charges connected with the Delray Beach operation.</span></p></div>