COCONUT CREEK The former head football coach at Monarch High has been disciplined after a state investigation found he tried to pay a student to take a college admissions test for a star player.
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Authorities seek 2 they say stole motor parts, gear from 3 Dania businesses
Authorities are searching for a duo of thieves who hit three Dania Beach businesses in a row, taking thousands of dollars worth of generators, engine parts and other tools.
According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, the pair first struck the Jersey Dawg food truck at about 11 a.m. March 20. The food truck, which serves hot dogs, burgers and fries, was parked in the 1900 block of Tigertail Boulevard.
They reportedly arrived in a newer-model white Ford F-150 truck and swiped a generator with a red frame, valued at $2,200, the agency said. The generator had been secured to the food truck with padlocks that were cut, according to an incident report.
After that theft, the two men moved on to Sirocco Marine, also in the 1900 block of Tigertail Boulevard, where they pried open a front door and ransacked a storage area before running off with two Honda engine parts that were still in the box, the report said.
Surveillance video from a nearby business showed the two men getting out of their truck at about 12:55 p.m. Both wore gloves and covered their heads — one with a bucket hat, the other with the hood of his sweatshirt.
The video shows the pair loading two boxes onto the truck, and a generator — the one thought to have been stolen from the food truck — can be seen in the vehicle. The engine parts were valued at $2,800 each, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Minutes later, on their last known stop, the men broke into a storage container belonging to Ocean Bay Construction, in the 5300 block of Southwest 27th Avenue, an incident report said.
A camera there captured the two at about 1 p.m. Investigators say they took a generator, cut-off saw, diaphragm pump, compactors and several brass fittings.
The total value of items taken from the three businesses was about $13,000, the Sheriff’s Office reported.
Authorities ask anyone with information to call Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477.
epesantes@tribpub.com or 954-356-4543 or Twitter @epesantes
Law enforcement agencies take to streets to encourage pedestrian, bicycle safety
When his phone rings in the middle of the night, Broward Sheriff’s Office Detective Michael Kelliher knows something terrible has happened.
Kelliher, a member of the Traffic Homicide Investigations unit, only gets called out when someone is seriously injured or dead on the road. Increasingly, he ends up working fatal accidents involving a pedestrian or bicyclist who did not follow traffic laws.
“There is an issue with the pedestrians and the bicyclists,” he said. “Currently, the pedestrians [are a bigger problem than motorists]. Sometimes they are crossing major roadways where they have to go across 10 to 12 lanes of travel.”
Law enforcement agencies throughout Broward County are rallying to help reduce traffic crashes and fatalities involving pedestrians and bicyclists through the “Alert Today, Alive Tomorrow” campaign in partnership with the Florida Department of Transportation and the University of South Florida Center for Urban and Transportation Research.
“Behavior across all modes of transportation is a huge contributor to pedestrian and bicycle crashes,” said Trenda McPherson, the Florida Department of Transportation bicycle and pedestrian safety manager. “Unfortunately, pedestrians and bicyclists are the most vulnerable of all road users.”
Statewide, there were 606 pedestrian fatalities and 7,737 pedestrian injuries in 2014. In the same period, there were 135 bicyclist fatalities and 6,680 bicyclist injuries. Most fatal crashes occur at dusk or at night, when pedestrians and bicyclists are harder to spot.
Broward County had the second-highest number of pedestrian and bicycle fatalities in Florida, according to the most recent statistics from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
During the campaign, which runs through May, authorities will hand out educational materials and issue warnings or citations to pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists who break traffic laws in 14 Broward cities, including Fort Lauderdale, Margate, Lauderhill, Miramar, Sunrise, Wilton Manors, Pembroke Pines, Pompano Beach and Oakland Park.
Kelliher sees the campaign as an opportunity to help prevent an accident.
“I normally don’t get to speak with the pedestrian until it’s already too late,” he said.
On Thursday afternoon, Kelliher and his partner parked at a Walgreens at the corner of West Oakland Park Boulevard and North State Road 7 in Lauderdale Lakes and watched as dozens of people walked into oncoming traffic to get from one shopping plaza to the other.
“We’re out here trying to educate,” Kelliher told a pedestrian he had waved over. “We get called out when there’s a bad accident and we don’t want that to happen to you.”
A man wearing headphones walked onto the median, then ran across the street when he saw no cars were coming.
“I know I’m not supposed to cross here, but I’m trying to catch the bus,” the man told detectives.
Kelliher said most bus stops are in the middle of the block, and riders end up crossing in the middle of the road instead of going to the crosswalk at either intersection.
Pedestrians also take the risk of crossing where they’re not supposed to when a road has a median, he said. But drivers sometimes don’t notice or expect to see a person stepping from the median into the street.
In a span of two months, Kelliher investigated three cases where people had been hit and killed while jaywalking in the 4100 block of North State Road 7.
“It’s harder for drivers to see you in the middle of the street or stepping off a median,” he said. “They expect to see a pedestrian at the crosswalk.”
rpiccardo@tribpub.com, 954-356-4544 or Twitter: @rebecapiccardo
Time runs out for woman accused of stealing pricey watches from men in three S. Florida cities
A woman behind bars for allegedly stealing luxury watches in Hollywood has also been linked to cases in Hallandale Beach and Miami.
Kelsey Hough, 23, faces multiple grand theft charges and is being held on $106,000 bond. She surrendered to authorities Thursday at the Hollywood Police Department.
According to Hallandale Beach Police Maj. Pedro Abut, Hough met a man at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on Dec. 13 and returned to his home in the 2000 block of Atlantic Shores Boulevard.
While at the man’s residence at about 5 a.m., Hough asked for a glass of vodka and persuaded the man to drink from the glass. The man told police he felt drugged and did not remember anything after drinking the vodka.
When he awoke hours later, he saw that his $47,000 gold Rolex was no longer on his wrist, investigators said. A stainless steel Breitling watch valued at $8,700 was also gone.
Surveillance video captured the man, in his 50s, and the young woman in his building’s elevator. She walked in wearing a tight long-sleeved shirt with a low-cut back, slim black pants, hoop earrings and a long ponytail.
Exactly a month later in Miami, police say Hough again spotted a Rolex-wearing man who she targeted. After stops at a club and a hotel, she went home with him. She stayed long enough to swipe his watch, police said.
City of Miami Police Officer Rene Pimentel said Friday that Hough will face a grand theft charge in connection with the Jan. 13 incident.
In Hollywood, where Hough turned herself in, investigators say she and alleged accomplice Alexandria Nicholas met two Rolex-wearing men at a Sunny Isles Beach bar.
They went back to the Hollywood home of one of the men. There, both men drank from shot glasses, according to an arrest report. At one point, one of the men turned away from the drinks while looking for a bottle of champagne in the garage.
Police said both men fell asleep and had their Rolexes slipped off their wrists. The women are accused of stealing five other watches and two passports, all valued at about $60,000, the report said.
Hollywood police learned the identities of the women through tipsters. One tipster said both women had worked at a Miami strip club.
Nicholas, 22, is also charged with multiple counts of grand theft and has bonded out of jail. Hough is scheduled for her first-appearance court hearing Saturday.
epesantes@tribpub.com or 954-356-4543 or Twitter @epesantes
‘It was the miracle on the levee:’ Couple who landed jet in Everglades grateful to be alive
Flight instructor Gary Solkovits was preparing to land a retired military jet at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport when he heard an unusual noise. And then, silence.
“And I became a glider,” said Solkovits, who somehow with his wife, Lois, in the seat beside him, landed the fixed-wing, single-engine jet without power on a remote levee in the Everglades Wildlife Management Area.
It was just before sunset March 16, and the sawgrass was on fire in the distance.
Solkovits, who has also flown gliders, said he had “seconds, less than a minute” between the engine’s failure and the craft’s landing.
“The whole thing was surreal,” Solkovits said. “When I decided that was my emergency landing spot, I was lined up and centered, put the landing gear down and the flaps down.”
He said he was able to touch down, brake and stop the plane just 100 feet from a telemetry tower.
The shiny, 7,500-pound Aero Vodochody L-39C jet, painted in vibrant shades of blue, was manufactured 33 years ago in what is now the Czech Republic and was used by the Russian military, he said.
It survived intact, as did the couple.
“Fortunately I’ve had a lot of training and I teach,” Solkovits said. “We’re blessed and we had divine intervention.”
Besides crediting a higher power, his wife also praised her husband’s skills as an aviator.
“It was the miracle on the levee, like Sully’s Miracle on the Hudson,” Lois Solkovits said, comparing their trip to pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger’s 2009 landing of a US Airways passenger jet on the Hudson River, when all aboard survived.
A small plane made an emergency landing on a levee in the Everglades, officials said.
The single-engine jet made its descent around 7 p.m. near Sawgrass Recreation Park, east of U.S. 27 and north of Interstate 75, said Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesman Mike Jachles.
The two people on board…
A small plane made an emergency landing on a levee in the Everglades, officials said.
The single-engine jet made its descent around 7 p.m. near Sawgrass Recreation Park, east of U.S. 27 and north of Interstate 75, said Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesman Mike Jachles.
The two people on board…
(Rebeca Piccardo)
“It was smooth!” she said. “He did the most perfect landing. If you could see how small that little levee was that took a huge jet fighter.”
The Federal Aviation Administration is still investigating the incident, a spokeswoman said Thursday.
Gary Solkovits is a flight instructor and former corporate jet pilot whose 15-year-old Fort Lauderdale company, Jet Fighters International, trains jet pilots and performs at air shows.
The levee that hosted the jet — with its 30-foot wingspan, 40-foot long fuselage and16-foot-high tail — dropped off steeply in places, he said.
“If we’d landed in muck, it would have been like quicksand, and there was a 17-foot deep canal next to that and then sawgrass,” Solkovits said.
Before the emergency landing, the jet was on its downwind leg, headed toward the airfield. But Solkovits said they were pushed far out west to wait their turn, because there were so many planes in the landing pattern.
Luckily they were not flying over a residential neighborhood when trouble began.
“It was not ideal,” Solkovits said about their impromptu runway. “It beats the alternative, put it that way. If we had crash landed or attempted a landing to the south or north of the levee, none of them is a pretty picture.”
After nine days resting in the Everglades, the jet was met at sunrise Thursday by crews from Gold Coast Heavy Hauling.
The crews left Sawgrass Recreation Park in Weston and drove 6.5 miles in reverse along the levee, north of Interstate 75 between U.S. 27 and the Sawgrass Expressway, west of Pompano Beach. In the convoy were a 30-ton truck crane and a 48-foot long Landoll trailer.
South Florida Water Management opened up gates to allow the group to pass, said Randy Seay, owner of the Opa-locka company that specializes in hauling unusually wide loads.
Mechanics dismantled the wings, tail and other parts of the jet; a crane lifted them onto the trailer.
“This was the first jet we did that didn’t crash,” Seay said. “Usually we’re picking up the pieces and it’s a sad job. But this was not.”
The jet, its parts resting in red frames on the trailer, was hauled to Opa-locka and was to travel Friday to a Lakeland repair facility to be assessed and reassembled.
It’s an expensive project: Hauling may cost up to $10,000, Seay said. The bill for a new engine wasn’t yet known, Solkovits said.
He didn’t put a price on their lives.
“Everybody who came out, the FAA and everybody, said we were really quite fortunate,” Solkovits said. “I look at it that my training kicked in and I was blessed. Otherwise I wouldn’t be talking to you.”
LTrischitta@Tribune.com, 954-356-4233 or Twitter @LindaTrischitta
Cities critical of county’s new spending plan for proposed sales tax hike
Broward County hopes to spend much of a proposed sales tax increase on the bus system. But fewer than 2 percent of Broward residents ride the bus now.
The county on Wednesday released a new spending plan for a proposed increase in the sales tax from 6 cents to 7 cents, even as critics from the cities complained the tax effort is half-baked and continually changing. The plan likely will change at least one more time.
If the effort comes together by mid-April, voters will see it on the November ballot.
Labeled the “Transit 30 Year Vision Plan,” the county’s new document includes only bus and light rail projects — a spending roadmap for 75 percent of the sales tax income. It leaves to the cities decisions about spending the remaining 25 percent of the estimated $12 billion that would be generated over 30 years.
A proposal to raise the sales tax in Broward County by a penny may not gel in time to make it to the 2015 ballot.
Broward commissioners remain at odds over whether to ask voters for a half penny or a penny increase to improve mass transit and reduce gridlock, and they said buy-in from the cities…
A proposal to raise the sales tax in Broward County by a penny may not gel in time to make it to the 2015 ballot.
Broward commissioners remain at odds over whether to ask voters for a half penny or a penny increase to improve mass transit and reduce gridlock, and they said buy-in from the cities…
(Brittany Wallman)
Broward Commissioner Tim Ryan said the county’s bus system would be more attractive if the fleet could be increased by 50 percent, for more frequent and timely buses. Riders complain the buses are inconvenient and dirty, among other things.
“You’re not going to get 10 percent on the buses, but if 5 percent of the vehicles are no longer on the road, that relieves traffic congestion immensely,” he said, adding that without the tax, Broward could “become another Miami-Dade with traffic.”
The county has done little public education about its proposal. A website with information about it was completed late Tuesday; it is at broward.org on the “Commission” page.
In a compact county hemmed in by ocean and Everglades, and filled in with 1.8 million residents and 15 million tourists, getting around is increasingly difficult. City and county leaders Tuesday said they have a way to fix that: an increase in the sales tax.
The possibility of a higher sales tax…
In a compact county hemmed in by ocean and Everglades, and filled in with 1.8 million residents and 15 million tourists, getting around is increasingly difficult. City and county leaders Tuesday said they have a way to fix that: an increase in the sales tax.
The possibility of a higher sales tax…
(Brittany Wallman)
No costs are associated with any project listed in the “Vision Plan.” Some projects are underway with existing funds; light rail extensions are listed without explanation of where they would be built.
The new spending plan includes $461 million to expand countywide bus services. The proposal calls for 1.4 million new hours of service, 424 more buses, the restoration of some routes and the creation of others. Security would be hired for bus and light rail facilities.
The planned downtown Fort Lauderdale “Wave” light rail streetcar would be expanded to reach the airport, port and points west for a total 23 miles of service, according to the proposal. Hundreds of new or replacement bus shelters would be installed.
If it passed, the tax would be the first full-penny sales tax for transportation approved in Florida, according to Greg Stuart, executive director of the Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization. Miami-Dade and Duval counties have half-pennies for transportation.
Palm Beach County will ask voters in November to approve a penny for infrastructure, including schools.
At the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board on Wednesday, planning organization representatives Stuart, Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper and Hollywood Commissioner Dick Blattner criticized the county’s earlier proposal, and had not seen the new one.
They complained that city roads aren’t included, and that the listed projects haven’t been vetted to ensure they’d help cut gridlock.
Cooper and Blattner said the cities want to be sure they’ll get enough of the money. The planning organization voted to support the tax if 35 percent went to the cities. The organization also threatened to withdraw support if the county didn’t agree to the financial breakdown by April 5.
Ryan told the Sun Sentinel on Wednesday that he’d be willing to consider a compromise, with the cities getting 30 percent.
“This issue is so important that compromise is essential in order to get it done,” Ryan said.
He blasted the cities for threatening to support a different tax, one that can be spent on infrastructure such as fire stations, if they don’t get what they want.
“We’re running out of time and if the MPO wants to shoot itself in the foot to appease a few MPO members, then that’s the way it’s going to go,” Ryan said loudly in a telephone interview. “It’s all about parochialism. Everybody asks, ‘What is gonna be done in my city?’ So we’ll show you what’s gonna be done in your city, and hopefully it’s enough.”
Broward County commissioners likely will make their decision April 12, Ryan said, and the cities will weigh in via the planning organization April 14, according to board member Cooper.
Ryan and assistant to the county administrator Gretchen Harkin said that only a political intervention would save the tax.
“I think at this point we’ve kind of exhausted our goodwill toward one another,” Harkin said of the county and independent planning organization. “It’s really at this point at an elected-official-to-an-elected-official level.”
Ryan, Beam Furr and Barbara Sharief say they’d support putting it on the ballot. Chip LaMarca, Dale Holness and Lois Wexler are maybes. Leaning no or making negative comments are Mayor Marty Kiar, Stacy Ritter and Mark Bogen.
bwallman@tribune.com or 954-356-4541. On Twitter @BrowardPolitics or @BrittanyWallman..
Sheriff unveils cameras worn by deputies, says they’re the ‘right thing to do’
Come this summer, scores of Broward Sheriff’s deputies may be wearing body cameras while on duty, a number that will eventually reach 1500, the agency announced Tuesday.
While calling the technology “controversial,” Sheriff Scott Israel said the cameras — already worn by 50 deputies and that will eventually be used for road patrol, K-9, motorcycles and special operations — are “the right thing to do.
“We are a transparent agency,” Israel said. “We are not afraid of what goes on out in the street.”
Outfitting officers with cameras is a response by departments across the country after citizens’ cellphone recordings of police misconduct and at times, brutality, have gone viral.
A 2014 Broward Sheriff’s Office Internal Affairs report listed 248 complaints about employee misconduct and 858 uses of force reports that were investigated, with 436 of those having injuries.
Those figures are higher than in 2013, when there were 149 complaints and 790 uses of force with 333 injuries investigated. The agency said the increase is because it is documenting even minor use of force incidents.
“We hope cameras will reduce the number of complaints,” said Colonel Jack Dale, of the department of professional standards. “I would anticipate, it’s just human nature, people knowing they are on video, I would expect that we see a reduction.”
The agency had already outfitted 50 road patrol deputies in North Lauderdale, Central Broward County, Pompano Beach and Deerfield Beach.
It expects that after a full year, cameras will have recorded 1 million videos. They will be retained for 90 days, based on state statute, and kept longer if they become evidence in a criminal investigation, the sheriff’s office said.
The cameras allow deputies to manually turn them on and off, which agency policy occasionally requires them to do, say when working with confidential informants or undercover officers, discussing investigative strategies with peers or while writing reports.
Deputies cannot edit video recorded by their cameras. To reassure the community that deputies won’t turn off the cameras at inconvenient times, Israel said, “Our deputies are honorable and the greatest deputies in the world. They protect us every day and do things right.
“Of those that don’t get it right, if it’s an honest mistake they’ll be counseled and spoken to,” Israel said. “And if it’s more than that, it will be dealt with in an affirmative action. But at the end of the day, there are policies and they will abide by the policies or deal with the consequences. We’ll get it right.”
Broward County‘s Chief Assistant Public Defender, Gordon Weekes, Jr., said he was concerned that deputies can operate the cameras themselves.
“An officer will never record his or her own misconduct,” Weekes said. “If the whole purpose of the cameras is to document the interactions of law enforcement with the public, I don’t know how allowing an officer to start the recording will accomplish that goal.”
Still, he said he was glad to see the technology is being used in the county, “so everyone can see what officers have to deal with and what the community experiences.
“Good officers will be applauded,” Weekes said. “Bad officers will be routed out. The public can see when law enforcement officers can be fair, unbiased and just. This could be so good for the community, if done right.”
Negotiations with Taser International, chosen after tests with several vendors, are continuing, officials said. Once those terms are complete, more deputies will be equipped with the recording systems.
Earlier this month, Broward County commissioners authorized the sheriff’s office to spend $538,000 to set up the camera technology framework.
Estimated operating costs could be $1,000 per deputy, per camera, per year, and includes expenses for the hardware, licensing, public records storage and management.
Those bills will be paid by the contract cities where the deputies patrol. If a district has 10 cameras, they’ll pay just for those, officials said.
Some police chiefs, like Miramar’s Dexter Williams, are hesitant about adding such costs and new duties to their cities’ budgets. Others like Fort Lauderdale police are researching options. Sunrise Police is further along and has developed a draft policy for its equipment testing phase.
Twenty-eight officers and sergeants in Hallandale Beach have worn cameras since December in the city’s program that has not yet cost $40,000, Police Chief Dwayne Flournoy said.
“I’ve been a proponent of it from the beginning and I think it’s a win-win,” Flournoy said.
The city’s Taser International system is also manually operated by officers.
“I guess we give them a great deal of authority,” Flournoy said. “I’m going to have to trust them that they will act in accordance with policy. And if they do not and we find that they are not acting within policy we will deal with them accordingly.”
He said it’s been going well so far.
“We had one incident where an officer approached someone and the car almost struck the officer but it gave us an opportunity to see what the officer was experiencing and the split second decisions they must make,” Flournoy said. “In this case, the officer had his weapon drawn but did not fire.”
He said in another situation, when a citizen complained about an officer being rude, “we reviewed the footage and we could exonerate our officer from the complaint that was being alleged. And it actually showed the citizen was the one that was agitating.”
He is also president of the Broward County Chiefs of Police Association and said some chiefs are concerned about the public records cost and maintenance, the expectation of privacy for citizens and the chilling effect it could have on an officer’s productivity.
“That they may not perform because they believe they are subject to constant review or are second guessing themselves,” Flournoy said. “I stress to my officers to do what they are trained to do. And as long as we are doing it legally, ethically and fairly, they have nothing to worry about.”
Divers photographing coral reef ahead of Port Everglades expansion plan
ABOARD THE BASELINE EXPLORER Conservationists are working off of Port Everglades to document the plight of coral reefs already battered and, they fear, further endangered by a planned seaport dredging project.
Divers on Sunday began taking pictures, video and measurements of a stretch of the Florida Reef Tract around the Port Everglades channel. The goal is to establish a baseline record of the underwater environment in a roughly one square mile area and track it over time.
The effort comes ahead of an expansion and widening project, awaiting funding from Congress, which will allow larger ships to fit into the port. Officials hope the project will be completed by 2022.
Rachel Silverstein, executive director of Miami Waterkeeper, a nonprofit that focuses on South Florida’s coastal environment and water issues, said she is concerned the dredging will damage the reef near the port. Officials said dredging for the recent PortMiami expansion churned up sediment, smothered coral and damaged sealife, causing more damage than was anticipated, the Miami Herald reported.
This new dredging project has the capacity to impact a really wide area of reef due to suspended sediment,” Silverstein said.
Concerns about reef damage have been a sticking point for years. The estimated $374 million Port Everglades expansion project would deepen the main channel by about eight feet and deepen and widen areas to allow cargo ships to pass docked cruise ships. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has said the project is expected to destroy parts of the reef, but that some coral would be moved from the affected area to an artificial reef.
The Florida Reef Tract runs from the Dry Tortugas National Park in the Gulf of Mexico to the St. Lucie Inlet in Martin County. Florida is the only state in the continental United States with extensive coral reef formations near the coast and it is the third largest barrier reef ecosystem in the world, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection says coral reefs in Southeast Florida have been damaged for years by diseases, bleaching, wastewater discharges and sand relocation projects, used to revitalize beaches.
Silverstein said she hopes more awareness of the issue before the project begins will lead to better monitoring of the sediment kicked up by the dredging and ultimately lead to a reduction in the impact of the expansion on the coral reefs.
Silverstein and representatives from Project Baseline, which is organizing the coral documentation, traveled off the Port Everglades coast Monday to view the reefs. Divers toting oxygen tanks dove to check on the coral, while others were given a tour in two-person submersibles.
Todd Kincaid, science and conservation director of Project Baseline said he hopes divers will be able to track the area before, during and after the project to see how the coral reef is impacted by the work. The group organizes volunteers to record conditions in underwater freshwater and salt water environments, to track if areas are improving or need improvement over time. Project Baseline has about 60 projects in 27 countries around the world, Kincaid said.
“Not only are we looking for data, but we’re also looking for every opportunity that we can to help to get people that would otherwise never go under water to connect to what’s in there environment,” he said.
Robert Carmichael, who has been diving in the Fort Lauderdale area since 1978 and works with Project Baseline, piloted one of two submersibles Monday on board the Baseline Explorer vessel.
‘It used to be a very live and vibrant hard coral reef that was growing,” he said. “What we saw today was about 95 percent of the hard coral is dead. And it just looks like old rock that’s been thrown down there.”
shobbs@tribpub.com or 954-356-4520 or Twitter @bystephenhobbs
Fort Lauderdale woman missing at sea in St. Thomas
As authorities in St. Thomas continue looking for a Fort Lauderdale woman who was swept out to sea by rough waters Friday as she was vacationing with her boyfriend, her parents and other relatives have arrived at the island, according to family friends.
Savannah Rae Finn, 22, is a student at Florida International University. Her parents, Ray and Julie Finn, two siblings and two uncles are now in St. Thomas, according to Michael and Karen Hull, longtime friends and neighbors of the Finns.
“The family is obviously devastated, destroyed by this. There are no words in this type of situation so we just let the family know that we are there for them,” said Michael Hull.
The Hulls said they have been texting with Julie Finn as she made her way to St. Thomas on Sunday.
“It’s weighing so heavily on her that they haven’t found the body … the family just needed to be there,” Michael Hull said.
Chief Liston Thomas of St. Thomas Rescue told the St. Thomas Source that Finn fell into rough water. During a rescue attempt, Finn went face down into the water and appeared to be lifeless, the chief said. The high surf and rough waters prevented crews from rescuing Finn during the search, Thomas said.
According to witnesses, Finn and her boyfriend were washed off from the rocks into the sea, St. Thomas Source reported. The boyfriend managed to climb onto the rocks and was rescued, police told the St. Thomas Source.
Finn worked as a server for three years at Aruba Beach Cafe in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, according to manager Frank Scarpace.
“She was a great employee, and we will miss her,” Scarpace said. “We are all very sad.”
Hull described Finn as an ambitious and focused young woman who was planning to become an attorney.
Finn was preparing to graduate this year and considering taking a year off in Hawaii before entering law school, Hull said.
“Our kids grew up together, we’ve known the family for 18 years, and when something like this happens, you can’t help help but think about your own children,” he said.
Man charged with leaving scene of fatal accident, returning to blame another driver
Authorities say a man accused in connection with a hit-and-run death parked his car at a Wal-Mart and walked back to the scene of the crash, where he told officers the pedestrian had been hit by another driver.
William Desvergers, 27, of Pompano Beach, was arrested Thursday after investigators determined vehicle parts found at the scene of the crash in Lighthouse Point matched the damage to Desvergers’ pickup.
During a first-appearance court hearing Friday, Broward Circuit Court Judge Jack Tuter set a $130,000 bond and ordered Desvergers to surrender his passport.
Investigators said Desvergers was not at fault in the crash that killed 62-year-old Claude Michaud, who had been crossing the street in the middle of the block when he was hit along North Federal Highway on Sept 13.
But now Desvergers is facing charges of fleeing the scene of a crash, tampering with evidence and driving without a license, records show.
On the night of the crash, Desvergers was driving his pickup south when he struck Michaud near the intersection of Federal Highway and Northeast 48th Street, a sheriff’s report said.
The passenger-side front bumper, grille and hood of his 1993 Ford Ranger were damaged in the crash, the report said.
Desvergers turned west on Northeast 48th Street, got out of the car and walked back to the pedestrian lying in the road, witnesses told investigators. According to a prosecutor, Desvergers left the scene after noting the pedestrian was dead.
He then drove around the block to park at a Wal-Mart nearby, the report said.
Desvergers walked back to the scene of the crash, where Lighthouse Point Fire Rescue and deputies had already arrived. He told a deputy the pedestrian had been hit by another driver, the report said.
After speaking with authorities at the scene, Desvergers went home and, with the help of a friend, removed a toolbox from the bed of the truck and put on a camper top “to disguise the vehicle,” the report said.
He told deputies that he left the crash site because his license was suspended, the report said.
Desvergers told the judge that he works remodeling kitchen and bathroom cabinetry and has lived in Broward County all his life.
Staff writer Erika Pesantes contributed to this report.
rpiccardo@tribpub.com or 954-356-4544 or @rebecapiccardo
Teens charged in armed robbery at pawn shop
Two teens accused of robbing a pawn shop in Pembroke Park at gunpoint ran away after their revolver jammed and an employee confronted them with a shotgun.
Alexander Vargas, 18, of West Park, was arrested Thursday and charged with robbery with a firearm and marijuana possession after his 17-year-old accomplice was taken into custody and confessed to their involvement in the Feb. 25 robbery, a sheriff’s report said.
It was around noon that day when two teens with bandanas covering their faces walked into People’s Pawn Jewelry, 2910 SW 30th Ave., holding a revolver and a crowbar.
According to the report, one of the robbers tried to shoot a worker, but the gun malfunctioned. The other robber smashed a jewelry case with a crowbar.
rpiccardo@tribpub.com, 954-356-4544 or Twitter: @rebecapiccardo
Teens charged in armed robbery at pawn shop
Two teens accused of robbing a pawn shop in Pembroke Park at gunpoint ran away after their revolver jammed and an employee confronted them with a shotgun.
Alexander Vargas, 18, of West Park, was arrested Thursday and charged with robbery with a firearm and marijuana possession after his 17-year-old accomplice was taken into custody and confessed to their involvement in the Feb. 25 robbery, a sheriff’s report said.
It was around noon that day when two teens with bandanas covering their faces walked into People’s Pawn Jewelry, 2910 SW 30th Ave., holding a revolver and a crowbar.
According to the report, one of the robbers tried to shoot a worker, but the gun malfunctioned. The other robber smashed a jewelry case with a crowbar.
rpiccardo@tribpub.com, 954-356-4544 or Twitter: @rebecapiccardo