Insurance fraud is a really tough crime to prove, especially when scammers deliberately set fires. To show it’s arson, all kinds of experts have to do painstaking analysis on burn patterns and chemical traces. It’s incredibly time consuming and difficult.That’s assuming, of course, that the crooks aren’t total morons who…
Photo by Eric BartonPhillips served as his own attorney for years while A trying to prove his innocence.A federal judge declined today to release a man from prison where he is serving a 24-year term on drug charges, despite the fact that prosecutors have agreed to drop the charges against…
Ronald Miranda, one of the FBI’s most wanted men who disappeared for 31 years only to resurface in Florida City, will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars. The 65-year-old was convicted last month of the 1980 murder of Mitch Arambel in Los Banos, California. Yesterday a judge…
Last Thursday, a 31-year-old named Brian J. Weiss was holding a meeting in a Hilton hotel near Kennedy International Airport when a man pulled out a .380 Baretta and shot him five times in the head. That man, Gary Zalevsky, then killed himself as four others in the room dove…
Stephanie Kienzle, a North Miami Beach resident who blogs about her town at votersopinion.com, noticed something curious while reviewing voter registration rolls: nine different voters were all listed at an address on NE 171st Street. Even more curiously: That house belongs to a city councilman, Frantz Pierre. Suspicious, Kienzle filed…
Last week, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement reported the lowest crime rate across the state since the agency began tracking statistics in 1971. With population growth factored in, the overall crime rate dropped 0.8 percent from 2010 to 2011. In Miami-Dade, the crime rate dropped 0.3 percent last year.But…
A 15-foot boat carrying roughly 600 pounds of marijuana and hashish was oh so close to smuggling the product into Miami on Sunday. The boat was cruising westbound toward our coast when it was spotted by a Coast Guard Air Station Miami helicopter crew…
Jonathan Davis, a retired chiropractor, was caught in a Hialeah Burlington Coat Factory stalking young girls. Davis recorded images of the girls, touched himself inappropriately, and got the attention of the young girls to say things like, “You can’t have a butt that nice when you’re 8.” Hialeah police are…
Photo by Eric BartonPhillips has spent 11 years in federal prison. A federal inmate who has served 11 years on drug charges he says he didn’t commit has convinced prosecutors to let him out of prison. Elroy Phillips refused to accept his fate after being sentenced to 30 years on…
Lorenzo Green, a man who identified himself as a independent youth basketball coach, has been arrested for luring boys to his home and offering prize money for “masturbation contests.” The Miami Police Department’s Special Victims Unit is looking for more potential victims…
Miami brothers Amaury and Amed Villa have been charged with one of the biggest thefts ever in the United States.According to indictments unsealed earlier today, the Villas stole $80 million worth of prescription drugs from an Eli Lilly warehouse in Enfield, Connecticut back in March of 2010. The duo allegedly…
At the University of Miami, William Joseph was a star of the 2001 national championship team’s fearsome defense, leading the Canes in QB sacks and tackles for a loss. Joseph has since retired from football after an eight-year NFL career, but he’d better hope he’s still got some killer defense…
The Miami Beach Police Department’s brass probably winces anytime they hear the words “You Tube” these days. After this past year — when their cops were caught on tape killing a Memorial Day Weekend visitor and speeding recklessly around South Beach — amateur video is a recipe for MBPD heartburn.The…
According to a new federal lawsuit, the Filipino worker who changed your sheets at W South Beach Hotel, or served you lunch at posh restaurants and country clubs, may have essentially been an indentured servant. Seventeen Filipino immigrants allege that a ring of Miami-based employment agencies charged them outrageous “security…
In the wake of Trayvon Martin’s killing, even Dennis Baxley — the original sponsor of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law and among the most pro-gun legislators in the whole country — has distanced himself from the law by saying it shouldn’t apply to George Zimmerman. Gov. Rick Scott has bowed…
Smell those flowers? Spring is in the air in Miami. So, too, is spring cleaning. But some people seem to have a hard time distinguishing the seasonal pick-up from the year-round five finger discount.Two employees at Miami Palmetto Senior High School have been arrested and charged with grand theft after…
For months, savvy residents at downtown and Brickell high-rises have been on the lookout for the “White Van Gang.” The criminals get their nickname from their favorite method: driving a white van into condo parking garages, loading up as many motorcycles as they can fit into the back, and then…
This morning, just as George Zimmerman was asking a judge in Sanford to grant him bail as he awaits trial for killing Miami teen Trayvon Martin, Good Morning America aired a bloody new photo they claim shows Zimmerman’s injuries sustained during his fight with Martin. An ABC news reporter says…
When the FBI swooped into Miami Beach last week to arrest seven city workers for extorting thousands from a South Beach club, the higher-ups in City Hall shouldn’t have been shocked. The Miami Herald got their hands on the personnel records of the five code officers and two fire inspectors…
“Half the people down here know me as the ‘Hatman,'” Shahdaroba Rodd says. “The other half know me as the ‘Naked Guy.'” Key West resident Rodd likes to bike around town wearing nothing but a G-string and a homemade stovepipe hat. He’s something of a legend at Fantasy Fest, the weirdo…
After all time wasted in Tally by Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff this session — from the wrongheaded, like bills to bring casinos to Miami and move Dade’s reaches further into the Everglades, to the absurd, like her plan making it legal to dye animals crazy colors — it’s somehow poetic justice…
Oneal Morris continues to maintain that she “really is innocent or whatever.” After turning herself in on new charges filed in Broward County, the alleged “Fix-a-flat” butt doctor sent a written plea of not guilty to a Broward judge this morning…
