The day after Valentine’s Day last year, Heath and Mirelle Miller went to dinner with friends and arrived home to their Wellington duplex in high spirits. They were in their bedroom, celebrating the holiday properly, when Heath Miller thought he heard a noise outside. He pulled back the window curtain…
This afternoon, the Palm Beach County School Board will vote on whether to fire two H.L. Watkins Middle School teachers who admitted to having sex with former band teacher Heath Miller on school grounds.As this week’s New Times feature story explains, these affairs came to light after Miller was arrested…
[This is a corrected version of this blog. See note at the end of the entry.]When Latrice Safford first brought her son to Baby Boomers International Preschool in Pompano Beach last August, she noticed some strange things about the classroom.There were no desks, for example. But the worst part, she…
Before he was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting students last year, Heath Miller was one of the most popular teachers at H.L. Watkins Middle School in Palm Beach Gardens. More than 400 students enrolled in the band, chorus, and drill team, traveling to Fort Pierce and Orlando, winning music competitions…
When you order it in an Italian restaurant, chicken marsala always looks so complicated — the sauce, the tender texture of the meat, the wine’s mysterious aroma. But it’s actually a one-pan meal for us slobs who make it at home. And this version is absurdly simple, if not entirely…
Some say a $10,000 annual membership at the Everglades Club buys you the most expensive parking spot on Palm Beach’s main drag, Worth Avenue. But what if you work at the club?Sorry, you’ll have to park somewhere else.That’s the message the exclusive country club’s managers announced this January in a…
A year after his death, many unanswered questions remain about the night Robert Rashard Tomlin broke into band teacher Heath Miller’s Wellington home, wielding a .40-caliber gun.Miller said he defended himself by firing a .38-caliber revolver at the masked intruder. A Palm Beach County sheriff’s incident report says Miller, 35,…
The 16th-annual Lake Worth Street Painting Festival took over downtown this weekend, filling the streets with dust-smudged artists, busy coaxing masterpieces out of chalk and pavement. There were belly-dancing hippies, unwashed anarchists, kids in Statue of Liberty hats, and a musician playing a hand saw. Welcome to the glory that…
The Pembroke Pines city commissioners are debating whether to hire an internal auditor. In these cash-strapped times, they’re looking for someone who will monitor the Broward suburb’s spending habits and report on them truthfully, without feeling beholden to the city manager.Not surprisingly, City Manager Charlie Dodge isn’t keen on the…
Last week, Palm Beach County officials selected a development team to build a new hotel to prop up the county convention center in downtown West Palm Beach. It seemed an insane move, since thousands of empty condo units already crowd the South Florida skyline, including more than 350 unsold units…
After reading about former H.L. Watkins Middle School band teacher Heath Miller and his best friend, Franklin King — both charged with child molestation — the mother of a former band student felt compelled to speak out. The woman, who spoke anonymously because she fears retaliation, says her son was…
The mystery ingredient in last Saturday’s Garlic Chef Competition at the Delray Beach Garlic Fest came from an unlikely source. Mayor Nelson “Woodie” McDuffie provided 60 pounds of pork for the occasion — and slayed the hogs himself.”I was also sworn to secrecy,” McDuffie says. But now that the fest…
In their investigation of the fatal shooting of Robert Rashard Tomlin last year, Palm Beach County sheriff’s detectives made a clear distinction from the start. Yes, this was a homicide. Tomlin, 22, was shot by Heath Miller, a former band teacher at H.L. Watkins Middle School.But because Tomlin died after…
Here’s a riddle of government wisdom: Palm Beach County commissioners have been itching for a hotel to prop up the convention center in downtown West Palm Beach for years. Industry experts warn that the center will never drum up enough business without some beds nearby.Yet right next door on Okeechobee…
In its bizarre, ongoing effort to depress people into buying the daily newspaper, the Palm Beach Post has been running a series of ads about the economy.One ad highlighted job anxiety, unintentionally drawing attention to the more than 300 jobs lost at the Post in the past couple of years.The…
Less than two years before band teacher Heath Miller was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting four students at H.L. Watkins Middle School in Palm Beach Gardens, his best friend and fellow band supporter was arrested for allegedly molesting a teenage girl.Franklin King, 42, was president of the band booster committee…
Tell us the best bar in Broward and Palm Beach counties in the comments section below. Voting ends May 26.Need some suggestions? Click here for an archive of articles about bars in Palm Beach County. And click here for a master list of all Readers’ Poll items…
When a masked man broke into his bedroom wielding a gun early one morning last February, Heath Miller was prepared. He told Palm Beach County sheriff’s detectives that he kept a .38-caliber revolver in his nightstand, and a .22-caliber rifle in his closet.Miller grabbed the revolver first, shooting until his…
Georgette Pressler, owner of Devious Body Art in West Palm Beach, uses the human body as her canvas, painting everything from pregnant bellies to Playboy bunnies. As Valentine’s Day approaches, she shares some advice about her extraordinarily sensual art form:The strangest design I was ever asked to paint was at…
The Dunkin’ Donuts off State Road 84 in Davie has a lot of perks for a 24-hour fast-food joint — two flat-screen computers, a couch, a leather recliner, conference rooms available for rent at $8 or $12 an hour. Its brightly-lit dining room full of patrons tapping away on laptops…
It’s tough to imagine how one goes from drinking and partying with friends to breaking into a neighbor’s house wielding a gun, but that is the path Palm Beach County sheriff’s detectives say Robert Rashard Tomlin, 22, followed the night before he was killed by former band teacher Heath Miller.Tomlin’s…
Before taking a job as band teacher at H.L. Watkins Middle School in Palm Beach Gardens — where he would later be accused of raping and molesting eighth-grade students — Heath Miller worked briefly as a substitute teacher at Glades Central Community High School, his alma mater. It’s unclear from…
