A Republican state senator from Lakeland, Sen. Kelli Stargel, and a Democratic state rep from here in Plantation, Katie Edwards, cosponsored legislation Wednesday that would try to keep sex offenders who are on probation from accessing pornography. Edwards says her bill was the result of a Sun Sentinel article about…
The family of a Florida man killed several months ago released a video late last week that shows the last horrifying moments of 38-year-old Marlon Brown, who the family’s attorney says had fled cops over an alleged seat belt violation. The chase scene through a vegetable garden shown in the…
And now for your dose of Friday-morning awfulness. A mentally challenged Delray Beach man who had spent months saving up to buy himself the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto V videogame was beaten up by a man and woman who then stole the game from him…
Last Friday, New Times broke the story about the Broward Public Defender’s Office stepping up to challenge the Fort Lauderdale Police Department on the practice of using the city’s bike ordinance to stop African-Americans in a disproportionate number. “Biking while black,” as Howard Finkelstein called it, is a clear case…
A Miami Dolphins fan was arrested after he did what every Miami Dolphins fan dreams of but hardly ever actually acts on — he beat the shit out of a Jets fan with a PVC pipe. And before you judge the Fins fan, keep in mind that Jets fans are…
The jury in the Gerard Lopes Belmonte trial started deliberations on Tuesday following a brief trial of a gruesome and tragic murder. On Monday, the jury heard the closing arguments and will now decide the fate of Lopes, who stands accused of raping and murdering his adoptive mother, Natalie Belmonte…
So is Stand Your Ground on the ropes or here to stay? Since the outrage boiling over after the George Zimmerman trial verdict, there’s been a lot of talk across the state about reforming the shoot-first legislation. But even if — somehow — the political will shifted toward dismantling the…
On a sunny morning in 2011, Ellsworth Knowles Jr. was pedaling his bike through Fort Lauderdale, steering for the Midway Food Market at NW 11th and NW 1st Street. Before the outspoken African-American commercial painter hit his destination, plainclothes cops in an unmarked car rolled up, he says. They wanted…
We all go through these small-scale personal ceremonies on days like September 11. You might light some candles or call up a buddy whose brother died when the towers tumbled. Terry Jones, the riot-inducing Florida pastor with the 19th-century facial hair and ninth-century sense of religious conviction? He loves to…
Early in the morning on August 10, Christina West was pulled over by police after crashing her vehicle on the roads of Tallahassee. A video affixed to the cop cars captured the bust and exposed what may be one of the most violent and horrifying DUI stops in recent state…
As if the court case up in West Palm pitting a fortuneteller against her former clients couldn’t get any weirder, this week the Rose Marks trial went to warp speed. Jude Deveraux — the bestselling romance novelist at the center of the $25 million fraud allegations — took the stand…
Tyree Lincoln Smith, a Florida man who beat a homeless Connecticut man to death with an ax and then ate his eyeball and parts of his brain, was found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed to a Connecticut psychiatric hospital for up to 60 years. A three-judge Bridgeport…
After an eight-month investigation, a dance instructor from Coral Springs has been arrested for having a sexual relationship with one of her male students. On Friday, Jennifer Efre Deberry was booked on felony lewd and lascivious battery by police. The 30-year-old allegedly started her relationship with the unnamed student when…
Exhibit 3,304,034,098 of how South American political intrigue crash lands in South Florida: this week, a top-rung Bolivian police official made an appearance in a Fort Lauderdale federal court. Mario Fabricio Ormachea Aliaga – known (no kidding) by the perfect Bond-villain moniker, “the Colonel” – is accused of coming to…
Gerard Lopes Belmonte raped his mother before killing her. That’s what prosecutors in his case are alleging, citing DNA tests that reveal that Belmonte’s semen was found in his mother, Natalie Belmonte’s, body. Gerard was arrested and charged with murdering his mother two years ago. But it wasn’t until a…
Corey Graham Jr. learned his fate from a Palm Beach County circuit judge after being found guilty of shooting and killing Belle Glade grocery shore owner Jimmy McMillan in January 2012: Life in prison, plus 15 years. A jury convicted the former Glades Central High School offensive lineman last month…
Police in Fort Lauderdale responding to a domestic call at a South Federal Highway motel were handed a bonus prize this weekend: a small-scale meth lab. The cops were called to the Relax Inn yesterday, where apparently no measure of relaxation was going on (FALSE ADVERTISING?). A women and two…
Brittney Sierra, who was charged with child neglect in connection with the death of her 5-month-old baby, wants a judge to let her out of jail. So she can give birth to another baby. The remains of the baby, who had been missing since July 2011, were found in the…
Jonathan Bleiweiss, the former BSO deputy who offered illegal immigrants help for sex, has been slapped with another lawsuit. Eight undocumented immigrants came forward with the same story back in 2009. Bleiweiss is facing charges stemming from those accusations. This latest suit, which is unrelated to the original charge, says…
When we were diving into the world of fortuneteller fraud for a feature story earlier this year, what hit us over the head as incredible was how often scammers would simply use the same schtick on the victims. Every scam had a similar textbook pattern, down to the types of…
A Palm Beach County family went public yesterday with ugly allegations of sexual abuse at West Palm Hospital. According to a lawsuit recently filed in circuit court, a troubled 9-year-old boy voluntarily submitted to the facility for psychological observation was abused by a hospital staffer known as “Mr. Dan.” If…
Up in West Palm Beach today, a rare legal case is about to unfold in US Federal court: a fortunetelling fraud trial. Rose Marks, the 62-year-old matriarch of a large local gypsy family, is accused to bilking around $25 million dollars over twenty years from a handful of clients. Although…
