When Debra Villegas pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering last week, one detail in her testimony stood out. Villegas, the former chief operating officer at Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler, told Judge William Zloch that she originally thought the legal settlement documents she prepared for Scott Rothstein were legitimate. But…
Debra Villegas, Scott Rothstein’s right-hand woman at his defunct law firm, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering this afternoon at a hastily rescheduled federal court hearing.Beginning in February 2008, Villegas admitted she fabricated documents for bogus legal settlements, which Rothstein used to lure investors in his massive Ponzi…
By 10 a.m., the plates of ham, eggs, and bacon are steaming on the bar at Slainte Irish Pub in Boynton Beach, next to fresh bloody marys. Julie Murphy, a redhead wearing a yellow T-shirt with the words Ke Nako (“It’s Time”) emblazoned on the back, commandeers a stool in…
As she prepares to plead guilty to money-laundering in connection with Scott Rothstein’s massive Ponzi scheme, Debra Villegas has already forfeited a house and car that Rothstein bought her. Villegas, former chief operating officer at Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler, has handed over her $475,000 house in Weston and her 2009 Maserati…
As union reps work feverishly to prevent 200 jobs in the City of Pembroke Pines from being outsourced to a private firm, that firm has fallen under close scrutiny. Facility Contract Services, the St. Augustine-based company chosen to take over the task of providing city services ranging from auditing to zoning,…
The founder of the private firm set to receive a controversial, no-bid outsourcing contract in the City of Pembroke Pines has a long history of raking in millions of dollars in business from Broward’s second-largest city.St. Augustine-based Facility Contract Services LLC. was founded by Shawn Hiester, who once owned Capri…
The morning he was shot and killed, L.C. Swain Middle School special-ed teacher Calvin Williams, 41, allegedly showed up drunk at a lover’s house, looking for a hookup.Between 1 and 2:30 a.m. on May 14, Williams invited Lawrence Hunt, 20, back to his apartment in Riviera Beach, according to a…
Riviera Beach police have finally arrested a suspect in the slaying of popular L.C. Swain Middle School teacher Calvin Williams. But the second-degree murder charge against Lawrence Hunt, 20, only raises more questions about the sexual conduct of the teacher, who was shot and killed last month. Hunt told police…
There’s been plenty of speculation about where Wellington polo mogul John Goodman was headed the morning of the fatal car accident that killed 23-year-old Scott Wilson.The night of February 11, multimillionaire Goodman was drinking at the Players Club, a popular bar on South Shore Boulevard in Wellington. He left the…
For three years, Pastor Mark Jones of the New Life Pentecostal Church in Greenacres has tolerated an unconventional neighbor. While his flock prays, employees on the other side of the duplex are giving HIV tests and passing out condoms and the morning-after pill.Planned Parenthood, the nonprofit group that’s best-known for…
Two years ago, Editor John Bartosek stood before his employees at the Palm Beach Post and warned of the impending bloodbath of layoffs and buyouts. Now, after slashing more than 300 jobs at the paper, Bartosek is leaving too.”JBart,” as he is known in the newsroom, has accepted a job…
Thousands of miles from the glamorous sand dunes of Abu Dhabi, in an entirely different beach town, four women clamored into their seats at the Muvico in Pompano Beach to watch the premiere of Sex and the City 2.We purchased our $11 tickets days in advance. My pals came decked…
Yesterday, a judge refused Wellington polo mogul John Goodman’s request to delay the wrongful death lawsuit filed against him for the car accident that killed 23-year-old Scott Wilson.But Palm Beach Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley’s ruling is small consolation in a case that has been marked by repeated delays and eyebrow-raising…
Between her racy text messages to a secret lover and videos of her rendezvous with a supposed hit man, there’s little evidence left to scandalize followers of Dalia Dippolito’s salacious murder-for-hire tale. Yet buried in a mountain of court documents is a tidbit that once again seals the professional escort’s…
Scott Wilson, the 23-year-old Wellington native who died in February after multimillionaire polo mogul John Goodman crashed into his car, was an aspiring mechanical engineer and a beloved son and older brother.But he was also a typical college grad, a sort of absent-minded scientist who loved basketball and videogames and…
Dalia Dippolito, South Florida’s most infamous escort, has already been accused of hiring an undercover Boynton Beach police officer to kill her husband.But a newly released police report alleges that she also offered to pay a Palm Beach Gardens cop to investigate Michael Dippolito.In March 2009, Officer R.L. Wilson got…
After crashing his Bentley into another car early on the morning of February 12, a drunken, dazed John Goodman wandered down a dirt road to find someone with a cell phone, according to a probable cause affidavit written by a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office investigator.Only horses and pasture graced…
John Goodman, the multimillionaire founder of the International Polo Club in Wellington, was booked into the Palm Beach County jail early this morning, charged with DUI and vehicular homicide.His arrest comes three months after Goodman allegedly plowed his Bentley through a stop sign and crashed into a Hyundai driven by…
The popular middle school special ed teacher who was shot and killed last week in Riviera Beach was investigated five years ago for allegedly exposing himself to a high school student.While Calvin Williams, 41, was working as an assistant principal at Palm Beach Lakes High School, he began mentoring an…
In between professing love for her California boyfriend and plotting ways to have her husband arrested, phone records show that Dalia Dippolito made some interesting allegations about Michael Dippolito’s finances.She told her boyfriend via text messages that Michael, who was on probation for telemarketing fraud and owed about $191,000 in…
Dalia Dippolito tried to enlist at least two ex-lovers to help in her plot to have her husband arrested or bankrupted. But did the two men know about each other? And did they both know about her alleged murder plot?Text messages released this week by the Palm Beach County State…
She met her husband while working as a professional escort. But even after they married, Dalia Dippolito never completely gave up her past life.According to phone records included in the the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office murder-for-hire case against Dalia, she was still texting male clients as recently as…
