From the Cradle to the Rave

If Chetrit completes his $153.5 million purchase of the Collins Avenue condominium-hotel, he will be faced with the snobbery and legal firepower of Roney residents who don't want to share their swimming pool with the hotel's guests.

Chetrit is buying the resort from Roney Associates, which filed for bankruptcy protection after the company principals disagreed on the direction of the 35-year-old hotel's future. The bankruptcy occurred just as the squabbling owners embarked on a multimillion-dollar renovation of the building. The Roney's main pool, normally used by hotel guests only, has been closed.

Condo owners are miffed that their pool is overrun with those bottom feeders who can only afford to pay $149 to $199 for a night's stay at the 585-room inn. "My clients have an exclusive right to that pool," asserts Miami attorney Robert Schatzman, representing the Roney Condo Association.

Roney Associates' hired legal gun disagrees. "They say they do," says lawyer Brian Rich. "We say they don't."

Yes, Sadly: More News from NBV

Now that former North Bay Village Mayor Alan Dorne and ex-police Chief Irving Heller are out of publicly funded jobs, they may want to forgo second careers in private investigations, considering the two long-time friends are not very good at keeping their dirt-digging escapades a secret.

That is the impression left by a Florida Department of Law Enforcement report into Heller's alleged official misconduct. In February the FDLE began investigating charges that Heller authored disparaging pornographic cartoons of civic agitator Fane Lozman, and then mailed the pictures to the local activist and other city residents. Heller resigned in March shortly after New Times reported on the then-blooming scandal. Dorne resigned in April after being busted for violating Florida's Government in the Sunshine Law.

Though the State Attorney's Office determined there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Heller, FDLE special agent Ed Fortune wrote that Heller may have unlawfully used state and national databases "to obtain criminal history information" on Lozman.

Dorne and Heller did not return phone calls seeking comment. Lozman, who does have a 1992 arrest in Las Vegas that has been expunged from judicial records, promises to pursue a civil lawsuit against the city and has asked Gov. Jeb Bush to assign a special prosecutor to review the Heller investigation.