Today, President Obama commuted the federal drug sentences of 61 people who had been sentenced under outdated, draconian, or ineffective sentencing laws. He was set to speak at 2 p.m. According to a White House statement, “More than one-third of them were serving life sentences. To date, the President has…
Mark Dougan is a former Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputy who says he left the department because it was corrupt, and in 2008 set out to air grievances on a forum he created — the website PBSOTalk.com. On it, Dougan published documents such as the probable-cause affidavit in a lieutenant’s pain-pill…
Last year, two off-duty cops were involved in a domestic violence dispute when Stephen Degerdon, then a police officer in Coral Springs, violated a court order and entered the home of his estranged wife, a police officer for the city of Davie. When a neighbor called the Broward Sheriff’s Office,…
The night of May 3, 2014, in the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, federal prosecutor Dana Seetahal sat before a slot machine. Gambling was her favorite form of relaxation and one of her only hobbies. Her law enforcement career had left her little time for much else, and the brainless…
Dalia Dippolito claims she was acting when she asked an undercover Boynton Beach police officer, acting as a hitman, to kill her husband, Michael. Six years later, she says she didn’t actually want to hire someone to kill her rich husband, but that it was all part of an acting…
Some boxers enter the ring scowling dead-eyed at their opponents. But Stan Stanisclasse could never pull it off. His smile came too easily — it’d just creep unbidden across his face. So he began most bouts with a little dance instead, stomping and sliding his feet back and forth in…
On the four-month anniversary of Corey Jones’ death, his friends have reported on social media that a memorial made in his honor has been vandalized and burned. It is located on Interstate 95 and PGA Boulevard in Palm Beach Gardens, where Jones was fatally shot by a Palm Beach Gardens…
Malachi Love-Robinson, 18, was arrested Tuesday in West Palm Beach for allegedly opening his own medical practice, marketing himself as a doctor, and taking more than $3,500 from an elderly woman. The latest in a string of bad decisions, the teenager appeared on Good Morning America this morning, in a…
The City of Fort Lauderdale has a $311 million annual budget, and $95 million of it — 30 percent — is earmarked for the police force. The police get significantly more than any other city department. And yet, according to an agenda item for tonight’s 6:30 p.m. commission meeting, Fort Lauderdale…
A man from New York mailed $32,000 cash to a Fort Lauderdale tattoo shop last August for what his lawyer now characterizes as “legitimate business purposes.” But according to police, those purposes may have involved illegal narcotics, and it doesn’t look like he’ll be getting that money back anytime soon…
Monalisa Weber is a former probation officer for the Florida Department of Corrections. She worked with hundreds of offenders, helping them fill out paperwork and meet court dates. After six years she grew frustrated and resigned—noticing that most offenders didn’t know their rights and that the tiniest infraction while on…
In 2007, then-Governor Charlie Christ appointed Matthew Destry as a criminal judge in Florida’s 17th Judicial Circuit, serving Broward County. Shortly after, Brian Greenwald, then a public defender, was assigned cases that came before Destry. For three years, Greenwald witnessed Destry develop his reputation as the toughest sentencer in the…
A young black man was shot in the head during a traffic stop at 11 a.m. Saturday at Southwest Ninth Street and Avenue D in Belle Glade, a working class city in western Palm Beach County. . Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw spoke at scene this afternoon and stated that…
Maxime Cherilus, a bulky, soft-spoken 22-year-old, had only $1.13 in his bank account. It was October 2012 and his $500 rent payment was due. Two years earlier, Cherilus had to drop out of college because he needed money. He was now balancing two jobs as a cashier at a smoke…
2015 was a rough year for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. Flakka incidents soared in Broward County, making this year especially difficult. The department was met with heavy criticism after a racist video created by four officers surfaced online. It didn’t help that the year before officers arrested 90-year-old activist…
Grayson Flory will not be spending New Year’s Eve sipping champagne in his swankiest outfit. Instead, the 28-year-old activist will be making as much noise as possible on the sidewalk outside of the Broward County jail. Scores of other activists are expected to join him with pots, pans, drums, megaphones,…
Last month, Broward judge Matthew Destry sentenced a 23-year-old to 60 years in prison. Though he changed reduced the sentence after a public outcry, other people say that the judge has a pattern of doling out unnecessarily harsh sentences — in some cases, even longer than the prosecutor recommends. Herbert…
It’s almost noon when Christian Valdes blinks open his eyes. The muscular 32-year-old with short black hair and a goatee quickly realizes he’s hung over. His head is pounding, and his mouth is parched. If he doesn’t get water soon, he may puke. The last thing he recalls is stumbling…
Keith Wallace’s stepdaughter and mother passed away on the same day. Twelve-year-old Shania Jackson—whom Wallace called his daughter and helped raise since she was 3— crossed the street in Hallandale when a car swerved into her, striking her, and then sped off. A few hours later, Wallace’s mother succumbed to…
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office is looking into a stabbing that happened Sunday morning at Sunsport Gardens Naturist Resort in Loxahatchee. The victim is said to be an 18-year-old woman who was staying at the resort for the weekend, passing through from Georgia to the Florida Keys. She was…
Wellington pill mill “kingpin” Jeff George has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for the overdose death of Joey Bartolucci in 2009. George, along with his twin brother Chris, rode the pill mill craze from several years back and became overnight millionaires through their pain pills empire. On February 27,…
In October, officers with the Broward Sheriff’s Office stopped Herbert Smith because he was driving a car with tinted windows. When an officer checked the 23-year-old’s license, it was found to be suspended. A search of the car turned up a magazine filled with bullets. For other people, being in…
