America largely phased out the use of privately run, for-profit jails and prison facilities in the early 20th Century after the public realized that the practice of making a profit from caging people was a particularly heinous piece of the capitalist economy. But amidst a government privatization push under Ronald…
Moments before a rented Dodge Journey swerved in front of chart-topping musician XXXTentacion’s BMW outside a Riveria Beach motorcycle shop June 18 and two men pumped the 20-year-old full of bullets, surveillance cameras inside the dealership captured a short, heavyset man nicknamed “Big Rob” walking around the store.
After a 2014 appointment at Massage Envy turned into a sexual assault, a South Florida woman filed a report with the Coral Springs Police Department. But it wasn’t until detectives began investigating that she learned she wasn’t the massage therapist’s first victim — according to police, Gabriel Mata had previously sexually battered another client at the same Massage Envy location.
Michael Boatwright, a 22-year-old Broward resident, was arrested on July 5 on marijuana possession and probation-violation charges. Boatwright has been sitting inside the Broward County Jail ever since — and it now looks like he might wind up staying there for quite a while, since he was charged this morning…
Singer Chris Brown was arrested last night shortly after walking offstage at his Coral Sky Amphitheater concert in West Palm Beach. Brown was arrested for an outstanding felony battery warrant stemming from an incident in which he allegedly punched a photographer in a Tampa nightclub last year. The Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office says the singer was booked into jail at around 11 p.m. and released after paying a $2,000 bond.
Though the rapper had received widespread criticism for allegations of brutal domestic abuse, investigators have not yet determined a motive for the murder of XXXTentacion or made any arrests.
On November 2, 2014, Jennifer Harper called 911 about a domestic dispute with her husband. But when Broward Sheriff’s deputies arrived at the couple’s Weston home that night, they decided to take her, not her husband, into custody.
May has been an absolutely awful month in South Florida for police-misconduct videos, from the Miami Police Department cop charged with assault for taking a flying kick at someone’s head, to the Miami-Dade County cops who shot a man for holding nothing but a screwdriver, to the Miami Beach officer…
By the time Demarcus Semer’s headlights flashed through the living-room window of the Fort Pierce house, the rest of the guys were already inside. Most nights, the group of childhood friends got together to rap and play videogames at 20-year-old Rhashaad Owens’ North 19th Street home, a three-bedroom ranch with…
Last October, Cutler Bay resident Dustin Hughes stamped his profile picture with an image of a Confederate flag and the message “Heritage not hate.” But hate is exactly what has landed Hughes in jail on felony charges.
Everyone knew Nikolas Cruz was deeply disturbed. He’d been in and out of mental health treatment. He’d been kicked out of school. His Instagram page was full of photos of dead animals and weapons. He was so frightening to teachers that he’d been banned from even carrying a backpack into school.
Late one Tuesday night, a heavyset man in a worn-out sport coat lumbered out of a sprawling restaurant on Hollywood Beach to his parking spot, the one closest to the building. His basset hounds, Amos and Tillie, tagged along. Even at 78 years old, Joe Sonken was usually the first…
At her home in the tiny village of Palm Springs, just outside Lake Worth, Anna Mae Kiger started each morning the same way. After rising around 7, she walked down the driveway to pick up her newspaper. Then the 75-year-old Air Force veteran hoisted an American flag high up a…
The clip begins with police lights blasting red and blue strobes across an entire block of NW Fourth Street in Fort Lauderdale. A teenage girl stands handcuffed next to a white Infinity SUV as her mother screams at the officers and asks what they’ve done wrong, what law they broke,…
The arrest last week of eight people for racketeering is part of a conspiracy to get back at jail escapee Dayonte Resiles for the embarrassment he caused the Broward Sheriff’s Office, the inmate said from jail. Resiles stunned attorneys and judges in the Fort Lauderdale courthouse when he fled out a…
Caked in mud, the black Chevy pickup made a careful left turn from the main highway onto a dirt driveway in rural Southwest Florida. Four young men in jeans and scuffed-up cowboy boots hopped out to meet their new business partner, a lanky, middle-aged Hawaiian guy named Curtis Blackledge. After…
For years, the graying, muscular teacher with a bright tattoo of Buddha inked across his back has been a sought-after yoga guru in South Florida. Every weekend, dozens of students from Miami to Palm Beach have gathered at the Colony Hotel in Delray Beach for classes by the man called Yoga Fox, who boasted of crafting his own style of yoga — complete with live harmonium playing — after years of intense study.
Annie had three evil spirits inside her. Well, actually, two: One was pregnant with a cute little baby evil spirit. Annie, a tough, athletic 31-year-old, learned of the problem during a walk near her Manhattan apartment, when a slightly chubby, blond teen dressed in a long, loose-fitting shirt stopped her…
The shots rang out before either cop could reach for his holster. The only thing the two Broward Sheriff’s deputies could do was call for help. “We’re shot!” came a voice over police radio. Then it was quiet. When the bullets stopped flying that November night, Dep. Corey Carbocci lay…
In a broken-down speedboat off the coast of Cuba, Marty and Dana Gottesfeld watched the sun creep closer to the horizon. Salty wind whipped Dana’s chestnut-colored hair as her husband buckled himself into an orange life jacket. The facts were stark and unavoidable: Their boat was stuck in the middle…
Alone in his car on the side of the highway, Corey Jones made his tenth call for help. Tinny music echoed through the speaker of the 31-year-old drummer’s iPhone. A streetlight shrouded the gray Hyundai Santa Fe in orange and highlighted bunches of trees along the I-95 ramp where the…
The three kids heard something in the night but figured mom was just arguing with her boyfriend Carlos. So they went back to sleep. Friday morning, 8-year-old Noah got up for school and awoke his siblings, 4-year-old Martha and 3-year-old Michael. Mom and Carlos still hadn’t stirred, so he walked…
