Mark Phillips, the 62-year-old man arrested last week in West Palm Beach on a drug smuggling charge from 31 years ago, was a “bit player” in the large-scale pot moving operation, according to one of the leaders of the smuggling organization.Authorities allege that Phillips, who ran a Fort Lauderdale yacht…
With a tanking economy and “teentoxing” the hot new fad among youths, South Florida opportunists are cashing in on the emerging underground Botox economy. Considering that “DIY Botox” returns hundreds of Google hits, it probably wouldn’t be so hard to get your own little bedroom Botox shop started. The only…
Broward Circuit Judge John Bowman called 911 from his home last month, explaining that his ex-foster son, Charles Harper, 18, was outside the house making calls from a fake number. This resulted in Harper’s arrest on charges of stalking. Last week, Harper came forward with allegations of sexual abuse by…
Thousands of bicycles are stolen every year, but for some reason, people care more when it happens to someone like Mickey Clean. That’s because, over the last ten years, Mickey has become something of a local celebrity. He’s the guy who does those crayon caricatures in the bars along Fort…
This week, Gov. Rick Scott stirred uncertainty as to whether the recently overturned ban on gay adoption will last. Florida was the only state to ban gay adoption until September, when a three-judge panel in the Third District Court of Appeal in West Miami-Dade ruled that there is no “rational…
In 2002, Broward County Circuit Court Judge John Bowman took Charles Harper, a foster child who had come through his courtroom, to live in his home in Plantation. Last month, Harper, now 18 and living on his own, was arrested on charges of stalking Bowman outside his home. Over the…
Asphyxiation turns your girlfriend on. So one day, during a particularly intense session, you wrap a hand around her throat and press hard. She passes out, which isn’t so rare. But you’re angry because her bluish skin has interrupted the mood. You slam out of the apartment. An hour later,…
Update: Details of the sex abuse allegations from a police report.Original post, 1/24 5:30 p.m.: In December, 18-year-old Charles Harper was arrested on charges of stalking his ex-foster father, John Bowman. Bowman is a circuit court judge in Broward County and presided over hundreds of adoption cases before bringing Harper into his…
Update 1/24: Harper has given a statement to police alleging abuse by Judge Bowman. Read the latest on the case.We’ve learned a bit more about the case of Charles Harper, the 18-year-old who was accused of stalking his ex-foster dad, Broward County Circuit Court Judge John Bowman. Harper is still…
“We have a little dysfunction in the chain of command in Riviera Beach,” defense attorney Steve Sessa told a jury in Palm Beach Circuit Court yesterday. “Because of that dysfunction, that’s why we’re here.”Sessa was arguing that his client, Riviera Beach Vice Agent John Toombs, did not warn a murder…
Agent John Toombs was acquitted this afternoon on all counts. Read more details after the jump.Riviera Beach Vice Agent John Toombs will be in court this morning facing allegations that he tipped off a murder suspect to help him avoid being arrested. Toombs’ trial is the first in the scandal that…
Update 1/22: For the latest details on the case, read our updated story with information from Harper and Bowman.Eighteen-year-old Charles Monroe Harper will be in court this morning to answer charges of stalking his ex-foster father, John Bowman, in December.According to a police report, Harper stood across the street from…
Did Dolphins legend Dan Marino spark up before games? That’s what former NFL offensive lineman Kyle Turley claimed yesterday on the Dan LeBatard Show. Turley doesn’t know for sure but said that stories of Marino sparking up before games is the stuff of common locker room lore. Turley was on…
Our feature story this week tells the harrowing tale of Gregoire-Ronald Chery, who was murdered in Haiti when kidnappers came for a young girl in his family. Chery was a 17-year federal agent who worked in the Miami office of the Customs and Immigrations Service. When he was killed, federal…
One of the central questions in the criminal case against Riviera Beach Detective Lee Ann Schneider is whether her dozens of alleged forgeries on official documents jeopardized any of the cases she was handling. Was she acting maliciously, or just trying to save time?Schneider has been charged with 152 counts…
From director Billy Corben and the minds that brought you Cocaine Cowboys and The U, comes Square Grouper, a new documentary about the heyday of South Florida pot smuggling. The movie has been described as: “a colorful portrait of Miami’s pot smuggling scene of the 1970s, populated with redneck pirates,…
Boynton Beach police have released the surveillance video from yesterday’s bizarre attempted robbery at the Home Depot. That’s the one in which two men wearing women’s clothing came into the store, allegedly tried to steal some power tool batteries, and proceeded to pepper spray store employees in an effort to…
Lamberti wants to close the transient loophole.They’ve been exiled to sleep under bridges and on benches. They’ve been banned from hanging out in places where children gather. Now Broward sheriff’s officials say county sex offenders are lying about being homeless.House Bill 119, a state measure passed last year to prevent…
Now that Rick Scott has nixed the state Office of Drug Control, which was instrumental in getting anti-pill-mill legislation passed, the duty to try to curb the illegal pill-mill industry falls on whoever will take it.Enter Pam Bondi, your new Republican attorney general: After campaigning on a platform of cutting…
Riches generated by his father’s global heating and air- conditioning company have allowed John Goodman to live a luxurious life. He built a topnotch polo team, bought a 79-acre estate in Wellington, and founded the celebrity-studded International Polo Club.Last year, Goodman hired a renowned lawyer to defend him against charges…
A former long-serving federal inmate living in South Florida says the real reason for the proliferation of cell phones in prisons has more to do with privately owned institutions gouging inmates and their families with ridiculously overpriced phone time than it does organized crime.The ex-con — who advocates for other…
Now that President Obama has named Bill Daley, a JPMorgan Chase chairman whose loudest pronouncements over the past months have been to ridicule Obama’s signature accomplishments — as his chief of staff, it should be perfectly clear: Washington and big business go together like bread and butter.People often speak of…
