Back in 1984 the state legislature’s Criminal Justice Committee drafted a bill calling for all Florida law-enforcement trainees to pass a certification exam before earning a badge. Their purpose was simple: to beef up professionalism within the ranks of Florida’s cops, corrections personnel, and probation officers. But staffers with the…
I am pathological about the Golden State Warriors. For those who don’t know, the Warriors are the NBA franchise that plays in Oakland. They wear blue and gold and, as a rule, they disappoint me. Two seasons ago, when they lost to the Seattle SuperSonics in the first round of…
Life in prison has not been easy for Frank Fuster, the Cuban immigrant convicted of sexually abusing at least eight children at a day-care center in South Dade’s Country Walk housing development. In 1985 he was sentenced to six life terms. He has been the target of routine attacks ever…
As anyone who works there knows, the Juvenile Justice Center is a locale in dire need of distractions. Morale at the cozy complex of courtrooms on NW 33rd Street is running low these days, thanks to a rash of highly publicized crimes against tourists. While prosecutors ship more and more…
Why would the Dade County Commission approve a two-million-dollar contract for undercover cop cars that: A) actually caused police to ration their undercover vehicles? B) subverted the county’s standard bid procedures?, and C) left the county embroiled in a nasty lawsuit? Well, son, as your father used to say, it’s…
“Everything goes on in this world, until you get caught.” — Marty Abrams It didn’t matter that Marty Abrams was the smart one. That didn’t mean you could turn your back on him. Hell, you didn’t turn your back on anyone while the Price Wars were raging. Not your partner…
On July 23, after nearly four years of legal wrangling, the family of Drs. Lisette and Andres Nogues was finally reunited. In September 1989 state child-protection workers had removed the seven minor Nogues children from their Kendall home after Aimee, who was fifteen years old at the time, accused them…
No use lying about it, the game was ugly, a final blemish on the frowning face of the Miami Heat’s 1992-93 season. The Knicks were in town, the swaggering, trash-talking Knicks, tuning up for their playoff date with Air Jordan’s Bulls and embarrassing the Heat without much effort. In one…
Miami commissioner Miriam Alonso has suffered some recent setbacks in her bid to become the city’s first female mayor. Considered a strong front-runner just weeks ago, polls now indicate Alonso will have to scramble if she is to overcome rival Steve Clark in a runoff. (New Times went to press…
A few months back, during one of his regular Wednesday night jazz jams at Tobacco Road, flautist Mark Krumich was approached by a tense man who wanted to know when Krumich’s Roadkill Jazz Orchestra was going to take a break. Krumich, who has run the jam session at the venerable…
With the City of Miami’s mayoral election less than a month away, the Miriam Alonso campaign has shifted into high gear. And no one can deny that Leonel Alonso, Miriam’s husband and chief advisor, has been hard at work plying his own unique form of public relations — all while…
A Prelude Nineteen floors above the gum-stained sidewalks of downtown Miami, in a private room within the First Union Financial Center’s exclusive Miami Club, an assembly of South Florida’s most important but least known individuals gathered recently for their monthly luncheon. Between them they represented some 40 nations, and each…
In the three frantic weeks since German tourist Uwe-Wilhelm Rakebrand was gunned down on the Dolphin Expressway, America’s finest pack journalists have choked the airwaves with reports on our city’s crime epidemic. Connie Chung. Ted Koppel. David Brinkley. Even Oprah paid a visit. And where Oprah goes, Geraldo is sure…
In these last weeks, they all come to pay their respects to Mom: J.J. the Boxer, Tomato Man, Sapphire. If Alan the Crazy Towel Vendor hasn’t been by yet, it’s only because he’s still explaining to the authorities why he tried to visit the President of the United States with…
Part 2: Miriam Alonso knows how to put votes together, but she can’t seem to separate dirty tricks from politics By Steven Almond Miriam Alonso wanted to make the point crystal clear: She was not responsible for the “Miriam Alonso for Mayor” banner that flew overhead during the recent burial…
If all goes as planned, the scene should unfold something like this: December 1995. A conference room in New York’s Plaza Hotel. The owners of the 28 major league baseball teams are seated around a large roundtable. Their suits are somber. The mood is tense. Dick Ravitch, the owners’ mouthpiece,…
On those days when passions flare, when Miami cannot help revealing its more ominous shadings, half the city seems determined to have Miriam Alonso canonized. And the other half to have her eliminated. There is no middle ground when it comes to the woman who would be Miami’s next mayor…
At first people just stare. Then come the whispers. Then, invariably, they ask Gemma Stafford the question: “Are those real?” What they mean is: “Could those huge, curved monstrosities truly be your own?” If Stafford hears it once a day, she hears it a dozen times. “Yes, these are my…
GUNS! UZIS! AMMO! South Florida’s largest selection of assault systems.” “CENTERFOLD MODELS! Available 24 hours for personal escort services. Discreet. Professional. Credit cards accepted.” “SEXY WONDERS! Corsets. Garters. Adult toys beyond imagination.” These are just a few of the temptations beckoning those who have been finger-walking through Southern Bell’s Greater…
Teetering on her high heels, Kathy Schafer has come to have a great problem solved by an even greater man. A silver lame handbag slung over her flower-print dress, the 85-year-old Miamian has endured a half an hour in the sweltering heat of Ellis Rubin’s carport. “I’d come to the…
Expansion team. What expansion team? That’s what the Florida Marlins had most of baseball thinking during the first half of the season. Sweeping the Pirates. Locking the Mets in the cellar. Flirting with .500. Until their seven-game slide into July, the teal men were the talk of the majors. While…
For Roberto Martinez the news was too good to be true. This past March a reporter from the Miami Herald called his office to inform him that Attorney General Janet Reno had declared he would stay on as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. The next day the…
