Jersey Fugitives Come to Florida to Get Lost

In June, New Jersey detectives asked Karen Sosa to give them an interview. They hoped the secretary could offer a clue about how more than a half million dollars disappeared from a Bloomfield car dealership between 2007 and 2008. When she didn’t show, that was a clue. When she vanished…

Body of Plantation Woman Found in Lake: 12 Years Too Late

More than 12 years after she disappeared, leaving not a trace to console her grieving relatives, Gail Schoening’s body was discovered in a submerged magenta Mitsubishi Eclipse not 100 yards from her Plantation condo at Gatehouse on the Green. A New Jersey blog, mycentraljersey.com, reported yesterday that Shoening’s body was…

Sympathy for Beverly? Maybe in 2006; Not in 2007

Suspended Broward County School District member Beverly Gallagher was a deeply flawed but still sympathetic figure three years ago when she gave New Times’ Bob Norman the amazing interview that was the centerpiece for this article.Norman had busted her cold, finding that Gallagher had landed a job with the Community…

In Miramar, Beware of Gazebos

One of the puzzling parts of the criminal complaint against former Miramar Commissioner Fitzroy Salesman is why Salesman, if he was truly bent on helping crooked contractors get city work, didn’t shoot for the moon. Why not reel in a contract for more than a million dollars? After all, Salesman…

Broward Corruption Probe: How Did It Start?

That was the $64,000 question at this afternoon’s press conference. Based on the affidavits filed in the criminal complaints, we know that the investigation — nicknamed Operation Flat Screen by agents — began in approximately April 2005. And it started with then-Miramar Commissioner Fitzroy Salesman, who has much to regret…

The Story Behind the Story of Seth Tobias’ Death

​Hedge fund manager Seth Tobias was found dead, floating in the pool of his massive Jupiter mansion, after Labor Day weekend 2007. The $5 million, nearly 7,000-square-foot estate is in gated Bear’s Club, literally situated on a golf course. Tobias, who was 44 and involved in a tumultuous (to put…

[UPDATED] Chickens Coming Home to Roost in Broward Corruption Probe?

Over on Pulp, Bob Norman’s reporting that Broward County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion was arrested this morning and that former Miramar City Commissioner Fitzroy Salesman may be next. UPDATED: Pulp confirmed the Salesman arrest. And now the FBI’s accusing Broward County School Board Member Beverly Gallagher, according to the Sun-Sentinel. More…

Blue Van Connected With Robbery, Shooting in Dania Beach

The blue van above is thought to have been used in the robbery of a Brink’s Security office in Dania Beach this afternoon. According to Broward Sheriff’s Office, a Brink’s employee sustained a gunshot wound in the robbery, which occurred at the Merrill Industrial Center. The thieves must have had…

Lake Worth: Drunken “Robbers” Are a Way of Life

Nobody’s missed the news about the 91-year-old man in Lake Worth, Robert Thompson, who jumped out of bed naked and held an “intruder” at gunpoint until the cops arrived, right? But what’s missing from the Fox, Associated Press, and Sun-Sentinel reports is one crucial piece of information: In Lake Worth,…

Bespectacled Bank Robber Returns to Boca

Never has there been a bank robber so mild-mannered, so sloppy about revealing his face, and so strangely uncatchable. And he just struck again in Boca Raton, where the camera caught his face square. How is it that we’ve not caught this guy yet?…

Is West Palm Unfairly Maligned for Palm Beach County Violence?

Just posted to Youtube, that’s the first of a six-part History Channel Gangland episode that aired in July about Top 6, the gang-slash-record label thought to have a role in violent clashes in Lake Worth and Boynton Beach, where its conflict with gang rivals has been the bloodiest. It’s a…

Lauderdale Police Name Suspect in Shooting of Teen

Rodney Squires is the suspect in a shooting that occurred around 12:30 this morning at a home for teens in Fort Lauderdale. The police department’s release: Preliminary investigation has revealed that the victim was in the parking lot at 1036 Northeast 3rd Avenue listening to music with three juvenile females…

World’s Most Boring Bank Robber Suspect on the Loose in PBC

Those are four photos of the man who the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Sheriff’s Office believes is behind a string of bank robberies. They’ve got a description match on at least eight of them, starting in May with most recent one last Friday, when he must have forgotten to wear his…

Couple Charged in Murder-for-Hire Plot

Move over, Dahlia Dippolito. The Broward Sheriff’s Office has its own undercover hitman and he allegedly convinced a couple to hire him for the murder of a key witness. Erik Kelly and a girlfriend, Tiffany Jamaluddin, are both facing charges of conspiracy to commit murder.Kelly was already in BSO custody…

Unemployed Pompano Man Can Get Arrested in This Town

Oscar Wolford couldn’t find work, so according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, he tried his hand at fraud. The 32-year-old Pompano Beach man was arrested at a Deerfield Beach hotel Monday after deputies got a tip that Wolford used false I.D.s to open bank accounts with bad checks, then withdrawing…

Deputies Charge Cypress Bay’s Bathroom Peeper

In a reversal of its original decision, the Broward Sheriff’s Office is now asking county prosecutors to bring a misdemeanor case against the 17-year-old caught snapping cell phone photos of girls going to the loo at Cypress Bay High School in Weston.From the BSO news release:The victim, a 15-year-old student,…