Crime and Law

Report Slams Bureau of Prisons For Denying Compassionate Release to Sick or Dying Inmates Like Keskea Hernandez

In January, Keskea Hernandez was whisked from her cell at the Federal Detention Center downtown to Larkin hospital in South Miami. The pretty 42-year-old real estate agent had pleaded guilty to mortgage fraud a year earlier. Ever since her incarceration, however, her health had been in free fall. Sh ... More >>

Florida Members of "Crazy White Boy" Gang Arrested for Bragging About Gang Membership on Facebook

How crazy is that Crazy White Boy gang? So crazy members brag about being in gangs on Facebook and, get this, they don't even give a fuck. Whatever. Whatever. They do what they want. Or they did until they got arrested.

Chad Johnson Ordered Back To Jail for Probation Violation

After a warrant was issued for his arrest last week, a judge has ordered that troubled former NFL player Chad Johnson head back to jail for violating the terms of his probation. After domestic violence charges ended his marriage to reality TV star Evelyn Lozada, Johnson was sentenced to a year of ... More >>

Slow Service at a Florida Wendy's Foiled Attempted Robbery

Fast food really isn't all that fast. Especially in Miami (we've got a great work ethic in this town, don't you know), but apparently that pops up in other parts of the state. An attempted robbery at a Wendy's in Longwood, Florida, was foiled after the workers took too long complying with the woul ... More >>

Pennsylvania Mom Thought Dead Found Living Homeless in the Keys for a Decade

The last time Brenda Heist's children saw her, she had dropped them off at school. They returned home to find dinner defrosting, and laundry half done, but mom was missing. An extensive search was undertaken, but Heist was never found. Three years ago, Heist's husband even petitioned to have her leg ... More >>

Lane Rees, Florida Republican Committeeman, Arrested on Child Porn Charges

Lane Rees is a current Republican state committeeman, a former Walton County commissioner, the 2011 Walton County man of the year, a Jeb Bush appointee and a former board chair for the Foundation for Evangelism. He's also now a suspected child pornographer. Rees, who is 61, was arrested yesterd ... More >>

Design District Robberies Could Challenge $312 Million Luxury Overhaul

Florida Man Busted for Kiddie Porn After His Son Confided in Church Leaders

Talk about sins of the father. David James Mahn, a 49-year-old from Montverde, Florida, is now charged with 200 counts of child porn possession after his 16-year-old son confided in his youth group leader.

Karlie Tomica To Be Charged with DUI Manslaughter

It's official: Karlie Tomica will be charged with DUI manslaughter for the hit-and-run death of Shore Club executive chef Stefano Riccioletti. The self-described South Beach "Party Princess" will be in court today where she'll officially be hit with the charges.

Debt Collectors and Prosecutors Terrorize Consumers

FAU Professor Thinks Sandy Hook Massacre May Have Been a Media Conspiracy

Up at Florida Atlantic University, communications professor James Tracy has been regaling students for a decade with his thoughts on 9-11, the Oklahoma City bombing and the Kennedy assassination. He's basically that uncle who spends all week reading Infowars so he can corner you at Thanksgiving to t ... More >>

Deadly Police-Involved Shooting Raises Familiar Question: Are Cops Stepping In Front of Cars?

On Friday afternoon, two small-time criminals entered a CVS pharmacy in Kendall and allegedly began pocketing some of the goods. By the time Miami-Dade Police officers arrived, Yolanda Thomas and Xavier Johnson were already pulling out of the parking lot and making their getaway.Cops pursued the sho ... More >>

Tax Refund Scams Plagued Miami-Dade In 2012

With another tax season descending on us, you might want to secure your W-2 or 1099 a little tighter. Over the past 12 months, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami has uncovered more than a dozen rackets involved in stealing tax refund checks using stolen identities of social security applicants, eld ... More >>

Sandy Hook Forces Politicians to Deal With Assault Rifles That Have Plagued Black Communities for Decades

Florida Led The Country In Death Sentences This Year

Nationwide, the use of the death penalty is in steep decline, with only nine states carrying out any executions at all last year. But in the Sunshine State, sentencing prisoners to die is as in vogue as ever.>In fact, Florida led the country in new death sentences handed down in 2012, with 21 new ... More >>

Florida Hotel Thieves Busted After Pocket Dialing Front Desk

Perhaps only the occasional horrors of AutoCorrect top the accidental pocket dial as the greatest nightmare of modern cellphone use. There's nothing worse than calling a person without knowing it. Especially if you happen to be talking about that person at the time.For two thieves in Naples, Florida ... More >>

Assault Rifle Carnage Is All Too Familiar In African-American Inner-City Neighborhoods

Uncle Luke, the man whose booty-shaking madness made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. Today, Luke reflects on the parallels between the Newtown massacre and the daily carnage in African-American communities.I'm saddened by the sens ... More >>

Florida Man Gets Eight Years in Prison for Snorting Cremated Human and Dog Remains

In one of the stupidest Florida crime stories in recent memory (which is really saying something), three teens broke into a Silver Spring Shores home and found the cremated remains of the owner's father and two pet Great Danes. Thinking they were some sort of drug, the teens decided to snort ashes.N ... More >>

Two Miami Burger Kings Targeted For Armed Robbery

Two Miami Burger Kings were targeted by an armed robber late last night, using the drive-thru windows as a point of entry. According to CBS Miami, two different Burger Kings within three miles of each other were targeted for robbery. Though the robberies seem identical, Miami police have not yet co ... More >>

Convicted Cocaine Trafficker Alexander I. Perez Gets Huge Tax Breaks for a Questionable Sugar Company

Florida Rapper Money-Clipz Sentenced 30 Years for Possession of 300 Grams of Crack

Tampa rapper Money-Clipz has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for possession of over 28 grams of crack cocaine with an intent to distribute. Jeez Louise! First, they tell you that sharing is caring and then they throw you in jail for caring too much. Mixed messages, you guys. If 30 yea ... More >>

American Beverage Institute To Police: No Sobriety Checkpoints, Please

The American Beverage Institute is calling on police to forgo holiday DUI checkpoints in favor of more effective alternatives.According to ABI's managing director Sarah Longwell, "Sobriety checkpoints have been proven ineffective at stopping drunk drivers." Longwell goes on to say that "roadblocks t ... More >>

Mexico's Magical Homicides

Florida Man Suing Sun-Sentinel, Palm Beach Post Over "Jealous Rage" DUI Story

Joseph Loprete has a Google problem. The first search result for his name is a Sun-Sentinel article about his DUI arrest in 2010 for driving his car into his Boca Raton house. The article, citing a police report, calls the accident the result of mixing alcohol and "jealous rage." The 50-year-old bu ... More >>

Filipinos in Miami: Underpaid, Overworked, Underfed

Robert Platshorn, Former Smuggler Turned Medical Marijuana Activist, Faces Return to Prison

Robert Platshorn served thirty years in prison for smuggling pot into Florida. That's more than any other person has served for a marijuana offense in the United States. He'll turn 70 years old in November. But it now appears clear that he will never be free from the federal government. Platshorn ... More >>

Top Ten Rap Felons: Shoot Outs, Beat Downs, and Face Eating

In the gritty rap game, honor is everything. And honor usually means a bag full of automatic weapons at an airport. Alright, not every rapper's got a rap sheet. But if you talk the talk, you're expected to do the time. A mean MC with a big mouth is just a poser without a felony charge. And getting ... More >>

Porn Model Pleads Guilty to Florida Sex Party Murder, Gets 40 Years

Amanda Kaye Logue pleaded guilty Monday to her part in a bizarre 2010 Florida murder, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Logue, who had worked as a porn actress, had been hired as a prostitute to attend a sex party thrown by Dennis "Scooter" Abrahamsen. Though beforehand she conspired with her boyfri ... More >>

FBI Still Mulling Possible Hate Crime Charges Against George Zimmerman

It seems that second-degree murder charges may not be the only legal trouble George Zimmerman faces for shooting unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin. An Orlando-area news station reports that the FBI may move forward on charging Zimmerman with a hate crime. Currently the toughest sentence Zimmerman coul ... More >>

Strip Club Company Sues North Bay Village Over Their First Amendment Right to Naked Dancing

Isle of Dreams, a company that hopes to put a strip club in North Bay Village, just wants to pay some girls to shake their tatas, but the city keeps cock-blocking them at every turn. So now the company has filed a lawsuit against North Bay Village, and claims the city is infringing on their First Am ... More >>

Michele Traverso, Hit-And-Run Driver Who Killed Cyclist Aaron Cohen, Won't Face DUI Charge

The facts seem pretty clear: On Feb. 15, Michele Traverso, a 25-year-old with a suspended license, slammed into two cyclists on the Rickenbacker Causeway after he'd spent a long night drinking in Coconut Grove. Cohen then sped away, leaving one of the cyclists, Aaron Cohen, a father of two, dying on ... More >>

Florida Man Arrested for Child Porn and Sex With His Girlfriend's Dog UPDATE

Usually perverts like to keep their kinks to one genre or another, but apparently Eric Antunes's twisted sexual appetite wasn't fulfilled by just one form of deviance. Police busted Antunes, a Clearwater resident, after getting a tip he had child pornography, but then also discovered he'd been cheat ... More >>

Mugshots Friday: Blowed-Up Dude and the Ridiculously Photogenic Mugshot

Every Friday, Riptide brings you the most eye-catching mugshots taken the previous week (or thereabouts) in Miami-Dade County. Yes, there is some mockery of bad neck tattoos, but also adulation directed at perps who just plain look more badass than we ever will. This is the italicized intro to that ... More >>

A Second Alleged Rape at Fontainebleau During Miami Music Week

​Rafael Munga, 26, was arrested Thursday after allegedly sexually assaulting a woman inside her Fontainebleau penthouse suite, Miami Beach Police say.The victim said she woke up to a naked man climbing into her bed, according to a report by CBS Miami. She left the door to her suite open becau ... More >>

Chris Paciello ratted on mob bosses, new documents show

Mothers Against Drunk Driving Sues Miami Lingerie Company For Stealing Its Name

​What do a nonprofit hellbent on ending drunk driving and a Miami Gardens shop selling crotchless panties and see-through negligees have in common? Far too much, at least according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving. MADD has filed a federal lawsuit against MaddSexy Lingerie claiming it's illegally ... More >>

Paul Mira, Teacher Who Had Sex With 12-Year-Old Student, Avoids Jail Time

Paul Michael Mira, the former PE director at a Miami charter school, has admitted to having sex with both a 12-year-old and a 17-year-old student, but because of a plea deal struck with prosecutors, the man will not have to serve any time behind bars. Instead, the sexual predator who has basically a ... More >>

Don Bartling of Miami Arrested for Having Possibly Thousands of Child Porn Movies on His Computer

​Don Bartling, a 54-year-old Miami resident and a student at Florida International University, has been arrested on charges of downloading and sharing child pornography. Bartling, according to a criminal complaint, told officials that he started downloading child pornography sometime in the past t ... More >>

Prison Legal News Sues Florida Department of Corrections for Banning Its Publication

PLN Associate Editor Alex Friedmann​A national legal magazine for prisoners has filed suit against the Florida Department of Corrections, claiming it's been censored from distributing in Florida prisons due to a vendetta by the state agency. According to a complaint filed today, the DOC has reje ... More >>

Miami-Dade Has the 7th Largest Gang Population in America

​While gang activity is nowhere near as prevalent in South Florida as it is in South California, it should come as little surprised that Miami-Dade has one of the highest gang populations in America, the highest in the Southeast, and the second highest on the entire East Coast. 

Wilson Ramos Kidnapping Scares Marlins' Anibal Sánchez From Returning to Venezuela

Anibal Sanchez, left, cancelled his trip home to Venezuela after Wilson Ramos's kidnappingToday is supposed to be the big day for the newly re-named Miami Marlins. Tonight the team unveils its new uniforms and, perhaps, a new blockbuster signing.But at least five players on the 40-man roster probabl ... More >>

Tower Heist: Brett Ratner's latest is fleet and funny

Three Teens Arrested in Robbery and Beatings of Mail Carriers

​A strange string of robberies stared occurring earlier this month in two North Miami-Dade cities. On October 5, a female mail carrier was beaten and robbed in Miami Gardens. A similar incident occurred involving another female mail carrier in North Miami on the 14th, and on the 17th yet another m ... More >>

$7.6 Million Worth of Pot Seized at Port of Miami

​U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials say they haven't made a huge pot bust at the Port of Miami for months, but sometimes you just have to wait. Authorities report they discovered 3,837 pounds of marijuana, nearly two tons, stuffed inside shipping containers at the port last Friday.

Three Mail Carriers Robbed, Two Beaten This Month in North Miami-Dade

​Neither rain nor snow nor gloom of night would deter Postal Service workers from their appointed rounds, but thugs will. Three times in the past two weeks, mail carriers have been robbed with two incidents in North Miami, and a third in Miami Gardens. Two of the incidents involved beatings, while ... More >>

SpongeBob SquarePants AK-47 Robbery Spree Ends With Arrests

Surveillance footage of a SpongeBob robbery at a 7-11 three months ago.​In the end, the police found SpongeBob SquarePants not in a pineapple under the sea, but hunkered down in an apartment complex off the Turnpike with three of his convenience store robbing cohorts.Last night, Orlando cops final ... More >>

Execution by Firing Squad Could Be Coming Back to Florida

​A conversation in a Panhandle Waffle House may lead to a barbaric change in Florida's death penalty policy. After meeting with constituents, Rep. Brad Drake, a Republican from Eucheeanna, has introduced a bill that would do away with using lethal injections for the death penalty. Instead he'd lik ... More >>

Rhett Fuller spent 21 years running from murder charges; now he's coming home

Florida Court Rules Pasting Kids' Faces on Naked Adult Bodies is Not Child Porn

​Danny Parker, a Sunday school teacher from Lakeland, Florida, was arrested and eventually convicted on child porn charges in 2009 after he was found to have cut out the faces of children from photos he'd taken and then pasted them on the bodies of explicit photos of adults. Now, a Florida appeals ... More >>

Shaquille O'Neal wages war against a Miami computer geek