HNS REPORTS---THURSDAY, JULY 29,.2010
ROYAL HIGHLANDS PAIR CHARGED FOR POT, PUBLIC NUISANCE
Two Royal Highlands men were charged Thursday with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia after sheriff's detectives served a search warrant and found 200 grams of pot. Detectives also charged 21-year old Thomas Benjamin Allopenna and 22-year old Anthony Nicholas Vasquez, both of 11055 Marsh Wren Avenue, with maintaining a public nuisance. Detectives said they had recovered larger amounts of pot on several prior occasions from the home and added the nuisance charge. An arrest affidavit says one March search of the home uncovered two pounds of marijuana.
The Florida nuisance law applies to a home which is "visited by persons for the purpose of unlawfully using drugs, or which is used for the illegal keeping, selling, or delivering of the same." The nuisance law could allow the sheriff's office to seize the suspects' home to pay the costs of investigation and prosecution.
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CCA, COUNTY AGREE ON JAIL INVENTORY PACT
County lawyers said Thursday they received a signed copy of an agreement on the Hernando County Jail transition from Corrections Corporation of America. The private jail operator and the county have listed equipment and furnishings at the jail on which the parties agree as to ownership. CCA would be allowed to remove items it owns without dispute in preparation for the transition from the private operator to the sheriff's office next month. Property with disputed ownership would be subject to review by a third party, who would examine documents and make an ownership determination. That would include the $30,000 dishwasher and other items, such as furnishings and some security equipment. The agreement says CCA would not remove disputed items until ownership is resolved.
The agreement also provides a mechanism for establishing the value of CCA-owned items that the sheriff's office would be purchasing for the jail transition. The pact averts a threatened legal showdown which two county commissioners favored in asking a judge to intervene and stop CCA from removing property. A CCA official called the whole affair a "misunderstanding" in an e-mail Wednesday and said no property had been removed from the jail yet.
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CITIZENS QUESTION USE OF VOTED MILLAGE FOR PARKS
Several voters and a county commission candidate are questioning the county's proposed use of a voted one-tenth mill tax levy to maintain parks. Commissioners voted this week to consider an ordinance next month that lawyers say would let them divert some of the voted millage to help keep existing parks maintained, even though referendum language said it would be used for bonds to buy conservation land. County legal staff said they are comfortable with the proposed ordinance, given the history of the tax. The commission candidate was Ty Mullis, one of three Republicans trying to unseat incumbent Democrat Rose Rocco. He told Hernando News Source he's also hearing people asking how the County Board could use the tax for parks maintenance without a new referendum.
The 1988 ballot language for the referendum that approved the special levy didn't mention using the tax for anything other than acquisition of environmentally sensitive land. The actual language of the proposition that voters approved is quoted in the "Acquisition Manual" approved last year by a citizen committee appointed by commissioners which meets regularly to make recommendations on the program. According to the manual, voters approved this question in 1988:
"Shall Hernando County be authorized to levy ad valorem taxes on all taxable property at a rate not exceeding one-tenth of one mil (.10 mil) for not in excess of thirty (30) years and to issue general obligation bonds bearing interest at no more than the maximum legal rate at time of sale and payable from such ad valorem taxes for financing the acquisition, lands and habitats for endangered species, threatened species and species of special concern?"
The manual also says that the referendum approval was intended to "support the acquisition and management of environmentally sensitive lands."
Three properties have been purchased in whole or in part with the ESL funds, Fickett Hammock, Cyrpess Lakes Preserve and Peck Sink.
Officials noted that the tax revenue has been used for years to maintain lands bought with the special fund. County lawyers also pointed to a board resolution after the referendum approval that they say supports broader use for public lands maintenance, as well as noting the county's failure to issue the bonds contemplated by the referendum question. But legal issues don't seem to concern voters who have questioned the latest move to ease a budget shortfall and avoid layoffs of parks workers. At least some of those voters will likely be in the audience on August 10 when the County Board considers the ordinance that would legalize the new use of the land acquisition tax money.
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CHILD PORN TRIAL OPENS IN CIRCUIT COURT
A Homosassa man facing 125 counts of possession of child pornography, and a potential prison sentence of 42 years, went on trial Thursday in Hernando County Circuit Court. Joe Rogers is accused of downloading 125 images of child porn onto a CD. The 49-year old reportedly admitted to his girlfriend that he accidentally downloaded one image when she found the CD and confronted him. But prosecutors said the multiple images of children engaged in sex acts were mingled among images of legal adult pornography on the disc. A four-man, two-woman jury was seated to hear the case at midday Thursday. Rogers' lawyer is expected to argue that his client didn't know what was on the CD, which was turned over to law enforcement when he apparently broke up with the girlfriend.
According to reports, Rogers turned down a deal for probation in the case because he didn't want to be labeled as a sex offender.
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BOYETT'S GROVE ROBBERY SUSPECT TO FACE JURY FRIDAY
With circuit judges back from a three-day conference, Judge Jack Springstead wants to fit two jury trials in two days. The Rogers trial went first, but it now looks like the last of the three Boyett's Grove robbers to face justice will stand trial on Friday. Adrian House is charged with two counts of principal to armed robbery in the incident at the Spring Lake Highway citrus attraction and zoo. Shots fired during the robbery critically wounded the owner of the business.
The man who allegedly shot James Oleson in the chest already pleaded guilty and got a 25-year prison sentence. Damion Childs was charged with attempted murder and robbery. The third man in the group that burst into the attraction and robbed Oleson and his wife Kathy at gunpoint, Willie Cliatt, was killed two years ago in a shoot-out with police.
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DEFENSE ATTORNEYS DISAGREE ON TERRY'S RECUSAL MOTION
There was no official word at midday Tuesday as to what action Circuit Judge Stephen Rushing might take on a motion for recusal in the case of a former Brooksville police detective. Shawn Terry's perjury case was assigned to Rushing, but Terry's lawyer Ellis Faught filed a motion to recuse Rushing, which would mean sending the case to another judge. The motion reportedly claims Rushing showed bias in rejecting a search warrant prepared by Terry because the subject of the search was a friend of the judge's and a member of his church.
Two defense attorneys who spoke off-the-record had different conclusions. Though typically a recusal motion is automatic, and judges have no discretion to challenge the facts, one attorney said the alleged bias was in a different case and was not directed at Terry, but was based instead on the judge's friendship with Terry's investigative target. He said that might be enough of a distinction to allow Rushing to deny the motion.
But a second defense attorney was convinced that distinction didn't matter. He said the law requires the judge to look only at the sufficiency of allegations in the motion and bars a judge from further consideration of the truth or the significance of the facts. He said he expected that Rushing would grant the motion and send the Terry case to the other felony judge, Jack Springstead.
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WATER DISTRICT HOLDS LINE ON MILLAGE RATES
The Southwest Florida Water Management District Governing Board has approved its proposed millage rates for the General Fund and the seven Basin Boards.
The board adopted a proposed millage rate of 0.3866 mill for the District’s General Fund, which is the same as the current fiscal year.
The total proposed FY2011 budget for the District is $282.9 million, 5.35 percent lower than the adopted budget for this year, which was $298.9 million. The $16 million decrease in the budget is primarily due to a $22.6 million reduction in ad valorem tax revenue and a $7.8 million reduction in state revenue, offset by a $15.4 million increase in balance from prior years.
For the owner of a $150,000 home with a $50,000 homestead exemption, the district-wide tax would be $38.66 a year, or about $3.22 per month. An additional basin tax ranging from $14.84 to $29 a year depends on the watershed basin where the property is located.
Two more public hearings on the District’s total budget will be held in September. The second and final hearing will be Sept. 28 at 5:01 p.m. at the District’s Brooksville Headquarters.
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FOUR MURDER SUSPECTS PLEAD NOT GUILTY
Four suspects in two murder cases pleaded not guilty to first degree murder charges in Circuit Court Wednesday. Stanley Eckard, a 21-year old Spring Hill man charged with killing and burying his brother in the side yard of their family home, was scheduled for a pre-trial hearing in September. Also coming back to the court for September hearings are a trio of suspects accused in the murder of 18-year old Enrique Acevedo and the attempted murder of another passenger in Acevedo's car. The cases of Stephen Wesolek, Sherrie Dicus and Sabrina Dicus are unlikely to go to trial anytime soon, though it appears that the 14-year old Sabrina Dicus will not face the death penalty.
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WOMAN ACCUSED OF DUI AFTER ACCIDENT
Sheriff's deputies say they arrested 54-year old Mary Dorton Fanter of Hernando Beach after a Wednesday rear-end accident at Cortez and Deltona Blvds. The crash caused only about $1,000 damage, but investigating deputies said they detected a strong odor of alcohol while talking to the woman. An arrest affidavit said she failed field sobriety tests and declined a breath test at the Hernando County Jail. She was charged with driving while impaired with damage to property.
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HIT AND RUN DRIVER CHARGED WITH DUI
Sheriff's deputies say a Spring Hill man who drove away from an accident was arrested on a charge of driving while impaired. An arrest affidavit says 37-year old Robert Brian McFarley of 5070 Baldock Avenue was involved in a minor crash near Mariner and Elgin Blvds. Wednesday afternoon. Deputies used a description of the silver Toyota that left the scene and located McSorley at his residence. The affidavit says he failed field sobriety tests and gave breath samples that were more than three times the legal blood alcohol limit when he was booked into the Hernando County Jail.
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SPRING HILL HOME A TOTAL LOSS AFTER FIRE; PETS MISSING
Fire officials say a Spring Hill home is a total loss and three pets are missing after a fire apparently smoldered for hours and left the structure uninhabitable. A sheriff's report says the house at 1416 Findlay Avenue was filled with smoke when firefighters arrived Wednesday morning. The homeowner said no one had been in the residence since 10 p.m. Tuesday night but that there were two dogs and three cats inside. The report says only one dog and one cat were found alive.
Fire officials said the cause of the blaze appeared to be electrical in nature, and the sheriff's report says the power to the home had been turned off at some point on Tuesday. An investigation into the exact cause was continuing on Thursday.
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DEPUTIES CHARGE BROOKSVILLE MAN FOR BASEBALL BAT ATTACK
An arrest affidavit says sheriff's deputies charged 62-year old Charles Marshall Owen of 6063 Desales Street in Brooksville with aggravated battery and criminal mischief Wednesday. The affidavit says Owen attacked a man who was visiting at the home of Owen's tenants Wednesday night and swung a baseball bat at him twice, missing once and then hitting him in the hand. He then allegedly used the bat against the victim's vehicle. When deputies arrived and took him into custody, Owen reportedly denied hitting anyone or anything. The affidavit says deputies took pictures of the victim's swollen thumb and the damage to his vehicle, and Owen was booked into the Hernando County Jail o n the two charges.
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SPRING HILL MAN HELD ON DRUG TRAFFICKING CHARGE
A 38-year old Spring Hill man was charged with drug trafficking Wednesday when he allegedly tried to fill a fake prescription for 220 oxycodone pills. An arrest affidavit says Jeramy Gene Peal of 17302 Eve3lyn Court is also charged with trying to obtain a controlled substance by fraud and giving a false ID to the pharmacist. The affidavit says the pharmacist at a Cortez Blvd. store spotted the script as a fake, and Peal reportedly fled the store when deputies arrived. They found him nearby and took him into custody.
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CROOKS ON CAMERA---DETECTIVES LOOK FOR "SUSPICIOUS SUBJECTS"
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If anyone recognizes these subjects or their vehicle, notify District 3 Detective Stentz. If you wish to remain anonymous or be eligible for a reward, call the Hernando County Crime Stoppers toll free number 1-866-990-8477 or you may email your tip by clicking below.
http://www.hernandosheriff.org/Tips/ You may be eligible for a reward up to $1,000.
Is there nobody in the County left that can read a contract - guess not.
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