Broward County Public Defender Howard Finkelstein thinks that deputies from the Broward Sheriff’s Office are juiced up like Barry Bonds wannabes and that they’ve been hiding it for several years.Finkelstein’s complaint, sent to the Department of Justice last week, contends some devious tactics were involved in not prosecuting the 26…
Marcelo Riveros — a Palm Beach man convicted of raping a young girl “a lot” over several years — was sentenced yesterday to life in prison, plus an extra 25 years just in case.Riveros, 41, was arrested in March 2009 after the girl and her mother went to the cops…
While his wife, Dalia, was on trial for plotting to have him killed, Michael Dippolito was also in the hot seat. Dalia’s defense attorney grilled him for hours on the witness stand, questioning why Michael borrowed money from Dalia to pay off the $191,000 in restitution he owed to victims…
We’ll sum up U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez’ 94-page ruling in Evans v. McNeil for you: Florida’s death penalty is unconstitutional.The crux of his ruling was a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling — Ring v. Arizona — that found that a jury must agree on the aggravating factors in recommending…
The Lohan family and its exiles seem to do strange things in South Florida.Bernadette Catan-Keeler, an ex-girlfriend of Michael Lohan, was arrested by Lighthouse Point police early Sunday after allegedly biting her husband, Mike Keeler — whom she had married earlier in the day.According to the cops, the newlyweds were…
Fort Lauderdale’s recent bumbling over an unlawful ban on photography by the producers of Rock of Ages took a weird turn in court yesterday. Hibernatory City Attorney Harry Stewart and cane-wielding lawyer-provocateur Norm Kent stood off in the courtroom like two Southern grandpas rocking on a porch somewhere, refusing to…
The prisoner in the striped jumpsuit dozed off as he waited for his turn before the judge. That man, Brian Krebs, is accused of stabbing to death beloved drummer/promoter Jimmy Pagano — and knifing four others who tried to stop him — during a fight over a bar tab at…
The cops say a Friday machete attack — possibly started over fruit theft — put both the attacker and his victim in the hospital.According to the Sun-Sentinel, the man on the receiving end of the machete whacks “lost a lot of blood” and was being treated for life-threatening injuries at…
The Haitian pirate-radio station that broadcast on 92.7 FM is no more, thanks to the Broward Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Communications Commission, according to the Sun-Sentinel.That led to the arrest of 31-year-old Mercius Dorvilus, a North Lauderdale resident who the cops say was running the station out of a…
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission isn’t too happy with David T. Beckett after they say his seven-foot Burmese python escaped its enclosure and began wandering around residential areas.FWC says Beckett, 51, was charged with two misdemeanors — illegal possession of a Burmese python without a permit and improper…
Six members of Krazy Locos — a Lake Worth-based gang — were sentenced to prison time yesterday for a few crimes.By “few,” we mean the U.S. Department of Justice’s Southern District Office says the gang has engaged in murder, weapons trafficking, and providing security at brothels as well as slangin’…
For once, the pizza boy taking forever to deliver a pizza was a good thing.Four North Lauderdale women waited in the driveway of a vacant home for so long to rob the pizza boy that two neighbors called 911 and Broward Sheriff’s deputies showed up before any sign of the…
In a murder-for-hire case inhabited by a circus of bizarre, conniving characters, Dalia Dippolito’s sentencing hearing today in Palm Beach Circuit Court lived up to its promise of tabloid-worthy antics.Michael Dippolito, the husband and ex-felon Dalia tried to have killed, took the witness stand wearing a lavender/pink tie and gray…
Dalia Dippolito — caught on camera two years ago promising to pay a hit man to kill her husband — was sentenced to 20 years in prison today by Circuit Judge Jeffrey Colbath.UPDATE: Click here for details on Dippolito’s sentencing.There wasn’t much ambiguity in Dippolito’s murder-for-hire charge. The trial lasted…
The feds say that Mark Phillips, a 62-year-old West Palm resident, helped the Black Tuna gang smuggle pot into the United States when he ran a Fort Lauderdale yacht outfit in the 1970s. In 1979, they put out a warrant for his arrest, but he had fled the country. He…
The Broward Sheriff’s Office has now released a new “detailed” report on the arrest of Daniel Hay Lewis, claiming that Lewis stated he had AIDS several times before attempting to bite a deputy.Lewis, a Hallandale Beach resident, was arrested May 30 while allegedly trying to steal $12,000 worth of garden…
If you’re at the point where you need to punch your 74-year-old mother and crack her pelvis because she won’t give you money to buy drugs, you might be a drug addict.That’s what the friends of 43-year-old Michael Darin Gordon told the cops they saw him do to his mother…
April 6, 2001, is a day that has haunted Elroy “Eighty-Six” Phillips. That’s the day West Palm Beach cops say they bought nearly a gram of coke from him outside an apartment building at 625 Eighth St. They claimed they paid him $50 for the drugs, and for that, he…
If you’ve had your credit card stolen in the past nine-or-so years, it’s possible that it’s the guy cops across South Florida are looking for — because he’s apparently been doing it and evading police for nearly a decade.Coral Springs police released a new surveillance photo of the man using…
A new trial will be scheduled next week after a jury couldn’t decide whether 34-year-old Guy Cherubin and 32-year-old Harold Cherubin kidnapped a Fort Lauderdale woman and raped her in 2006.The men are accused of forcing the woman into their car outside of the Voodoo Fort Lauderdale nightclub, taking her…
Fort Lauderdale has a lawsuit on its hands after letting a movie production company put up bogus no-trespassing signs, which attempted to prohibit photography by citing a random city ordinance.The Hollywood film Rock of Ages is being filmed around the Himmarshee Village area. Several journalists and photographers were told they’re…
Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office Lt. Michael Morris — AKA “Big Mike” — was allegedly doing a favor for a friend when he tossed out a handful of traffic tickets last November. But the good deed ended up landing the Belle Glade district commander in hot water, charged with felony official…
