Florida

PINELLAS PARK — A 22-year-old woman was killed early this morning after she tried to cross Park Boulevard on a bicycle, Pinellas Park Police said. The woman was identified as Misty Hickman, but police could not provide an address or city of residence for her.

Shortly after 5 a.m. this morning, a Toyota Camry driven by Willie Dyer of St. Petersburg was traveling west in the 4300 block of Park Boulevard when the northbound bicycle crossed the road, police said. They don’t expect to seek any charges against Dyer.

Tom Tobin, Times staff writer

CLAIR MEL — Neighbors of 16-year-old Kendrick Morris said they were shocked at the news of his arrest in connection with the rape and beating of a teen-ager at the Bloomingdale library.

Many in this working-class neighborhood of single-family homes said they saw him regularly, walking a small white dog. They said seemed to be friendly, and would always wave back at neighbors.

Angie Anderson and her husband Leonard, who have lived in the house across the street for about a dozen years, said Morris was a tall, big kid but seemed quiet, unlikely to hurt anybody.

"No joke, I didn’t think he’d hurt a fly," said Leonard Anderson.

Nobody answered the door at the light-green cinderblock home where sheriff’s officials says Morris lives.

(Read the full post about ‘Neighbors of teen rape suspect surprised by his arrest’…)

DUNEDIN — Pinellas sheriff’s detectives are looking for several suspects in the shooting of a 17-year-old Clearwater boy early this morning at the Whispering Hills apartment complex in Dunedin.

Detectives said the boy was shot in the buttocks and is in a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. They declined to name the victim or the hospital because his attackers are still at large. The complex is at 600 Grove Court.

The boy and a friend were walking to an apartment in the complex about 2 a.m. this morning when a suspect wearing a mask and all-black clothing stepped out from a corner of a building and pointed a handgun at them, detectives said.

(Read the full post about ‘Boy, 17, shot at Dunedin apartment complex’…)

I came across the following FLASCO report stating concerns on this issue: “Latin American and Caribbean Security Sector Report 2006″ It states that police were often accused of beating suspects to obtain confessions which were later recanted. Read the full report here: http://www.flacso.cl/flacso/biblos.php?code=2123 An unrelated article in the Diaspora News also reported problems. It referred to the U.S. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2007 (link). The same issue of excessive force also affects Barbados, Antigua & Barbuda, St. Vincent & the Grenadines and the Bahamas, the U.S. report stated. In Barbados, there were also claims of poor prison conditions and societal violence against women and children. (Read the full post about ‘Do the Barbadian Police Use Excessive Force?’…)

ST. PETERSBURG — Traffic tangles are expected this weekend as downtown is filled with hundreds of athletes and thousands of fans. The 25th annual St. Anthony’s Triathlon will bring a Sports and Fitness Expo to Straub Park as well as the actual races, parts of which take place throughout the day Saturday and Sunday. (At left is Sunday’s course map for the three stages of the triathlon. The first stage, the swim, begins at 7 a.m.) Police say motorists should expect delays all weekend, with scheduled road closures and detours around race routes. On top of that, the Boston Red Sox - and their loyal Red Sox nation - will invade Tropicana Field for a series beginning tonight at 7:10 p.m. (Read the full post about ‘Red Sox + triathlon = traffic’…)

Pastor Tommy Mason holds up a protest sign outside the Hernando County Courthouse. [RON THOMPSON | Times] Protesters showed up today at both the Hernando County Utilities Department on Wiscon Blvd. and at the Hernando County Courthouse, holding signs calling for the removal of workers disciplined earlier this week for racial harassment. Two of the workers were suspended without pay and another was reprimanded for their actions. Pastor Tommy Mason of Victorious Christian Life Ministries in Spring Hill wants stronger action taken against the county employees. "This is 2008 and the African-American and Hispanic residents of this county don’t need to be subjected to such treatment," Mason said. (Read the full post about ‘Protests heat up against Hernando County Utilities Department’…)

TAMPA — The Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office filed a formal charge against detention Deputy Charlette Marshall-Jones today, two months after she was arrested in connection with the videotaped incident in which a man was tossed from his wheelchair to be searched.

Marshall-Jones faces one count of abuse of a disabled person, a third-degree felony that carries a maximum punishment of five years in prison.

Brian Sterner, 32, was being booked into Orient Road Jail on Jan. 29 when surveillance cameras showed Marshall-Jones pushing him from his chair to the floor, then conducting a body search of the paralyzed man before hoisting him back in his chair.

(Read the full post about ‘Hillsborough jail deputy formally charged with abuse’…)

TAMPA — Thomas Johnson, 73, told his wife recently that he wanted to drive to Massachusetts. Late Thursday, he turned up outside Miami. Johnson was last seen when at 2 a.m. Wednesday, when his wife woke up and discovered her husband was gone. Johnson, of of 204 Jacob Ryan Court in Brandon, is on medication but left home without it, according to sheriff’s spokesman J.D. Callaway. Hillsborough deputies say he was recovered by police in Hialeah, safe and sound. Rebecca Catalanello, Times staff writer. Casey Cora contributed to this report. (Read the full post about ‘Missing 73-year-old found safe’…)

ST. PETERSBURG — A 24-year-old man running across the road to meet his girlfriend was killed when she accidentally struck him with her car, police said.

According to a police report, here’s how it happened:

Dwayne Daise, 24, was walking north on 46th Street S around 8:20 p.m. He was on the east side of the road.

Susie Smith, Daise’s 26-year-old girlfriend, was driving a 1998 Cadillac south on the same street when she pulled over to the western curb.

Daise ran across 46th Street to meet her, but the right front bumper of the Cadillac struck him, knocked him to the ground and briefly trapped him underneath the car. Smith pulled forward, dislodging Daise from underneath the car.

(Read the full post about ‘Police: Girlfriend’s curbside meeting leaves boyfriend dead’…)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Sen. Pete Domenici was criticized by a Senate ethics panel on Thursday for a call he made to a U.S. attorney, one of nine federal prosecutors who were later fired, sparking a political uproar.

Read the full article by JoAnne Allen, Reuters

Man, a phone call can land a person in a lot of trouble!