Jason Beckman is currently on trial for the shocking 2009 murder of his father Jay Beckman, a South Miami commissioner. Testimony from one of a Beckman’s fellow inmates provides a bizarre motive for the slaying. The younger Beckman apparently snapped after his father made a joke about actress Megan Fox…
This week, New Times pulls back the spattered porn curtain on one of the most bizarre and brutal stories in South Florida history. It’s the tale of Miami’s biggest male porn performer, his rise to smut-screen stardom, and his descent into murder. But John Snavely — better known as “Champ”…
After years of trial delays and four days of juror deliberation, a verdict has finally been delivered in the Sean Taylor murder case. The jury found Eric Rivera Jr. guilty of the second-degree murder of the late Miami Hurricanes and Washington Redskins star. See also: Redskins Safety Sean Taylor Shot…
Rafael Herman, a man who never fails to run for mayor of Miami Beach while stirring up more controversy than any chance of being elected, is at it again. Yesterday, the perennial candidate was arrested in an incident that started with him yelling at African-American passengers on a Miami Beach…
Just an hour after losing to the New England Patriots, Dolphins center Mike Pouncy was served with a subpoena in the Aaron Hernandez case. The two were teammates at the University of Florida and remained good friends. Pouncy had earlier courted controversy by wearing a hat with the words “Free…
Hialeah Police made a ghastly discovery early this morning: a burned-out car in an industrial area parking lot with human remains inside. Even more disturbing: The fire caused such extensive damage that police couldn’t immediately tell how many bodies were inside the car…
Kevin McKenzie, a 13-year veteran of the Pinecrest Police Department, finds himself behind bars today after being charged with carrying on a sexual relationship with an underaged girl. The charges came to light when the 16-year-old girl told her mother about the affair. She said that she had McKenzie four…
Sweetwater Mayor José M. Díaz sure knows how to pick ’em. On Thursday, hours after he announced Jesús “Jesse” Menocal would be his city’s police chief, CNN Latino Miami reported Díaz’s nominee was implicated in an old Miami Police internal affairs investigation involving a drug trafficker and a plot to…
Oneal Morris, the backstreet unlicensed “doctor” who injected substances like Fix-a-Flat and cement into her patients’ back sides, has plead guilty. In January she’ll surrender and serve 366 days for one count of practicing medicine without a license. Of course, Morris still faces far more serious charges, including one for…
Mark Gold is one of the kings of Miami’s lucrative traffic ticket racket. His Ticket Clinic is ubiquitous and the University of Miami law alum has reaped the benefits with a $1.5 million mansion on Rivo Alto Island. But Gold doesn’t exactly seem like a happy camper. Two years ago…
The last thing anyone wants to do while doing their grocery shopping if suddenly find themselves in the middle of a police shooting, yet that’s exactly what happened last night to shoppers at a Publix in Hialeah. A police officer working security detail at the Publix Sabor at 1290 West…
Here at Riptide, we chew on the fodder of public corruption, despotism, and power-hungry cops gone bad. But today, we’re thrilled to report, this story won’t be another entry into the annals of Miami mayhem. Late last month, 29-year-old Jessica Robles looked at her three children and came to a…
You know how Donald Trump keeps threatning to run for president? Well, Paraguay’s version of Donald Trump, Horacio Cartes, actually did and won. So of course he has a partying son who lives in Miami who gets arrested after a drunken fight after a party at his ritzy condo. Of…
After several delays, Eric Rivera, one of Sean Taylor’s alleged killed finally faces trial starting today. In the opening statements, prosecutors painted Rivera as an incompetent criminal whose plans with four friends to “score some easy cash” by burgling Taylor’s home went awry when they found the former Miami Hurricane…
On a rural block facing fields of crops a few blocks from the edge of the Everglades in South Dade, a gunfight broke out around 7:45 last night. By the time a swarm of Miami-Dade Police officers reached the remote scene, at least two people were dead and several more…
Today, Ernesto Perez is the president of for-profit Dade Medical College, but back in the early ’90s Perez was known as “Rhett O’Neil,” an almost-rock star. Perez has twice been appointed by governors to serve on the Commission on Independent Education, but in both cases failed to disclose his conviction…
A naked man running around a Miami neighborhood ended up impaling himself on a gate while trying to escape cops earlier this morning. The incident happened around 2 a.m. Police received a call from a screaming woman who claimed she had been assaulted. When they arrived at the scene, the…
Five months ago, Holly Jacobs made the brave decision to become the international face of revenge porn victims. The pretty FIU grad student told New Times that her ex-boyfriend had posted sexually explicit photos and videos of her on the internet, nearly ruining her life. Braver still, Jacobs began a…
More details are coming out in the chilling case of Derek Medina, who shot his wife and posted a picture of her lifeless body and a confession on Facebook. Police have released the 26-page transcript of the statement Medina made to police after he turned himself in after killing Jennifer…
The family of a woman who hijacked a jail golf cart and drove it into a barricade is worried sick that’s she’s not receiving the proper mental health help she needs in jail. They say her rambling and bizarre appearance in bond court, in which she said things like, “I…
Well, this certainly is a whole new way to get stuck on the Palmetto. Earlier this morning a man was found walking along the busy Palmetto Expressway with his feet bare and his hands bound behind his back. When police questioned the man he claimed that he had been abducted…
Miami-Dade Police are on the hunt for a man they believe lured a woman into a sexual assault by offering her a job. The incident happened August 1, when the suspect met his 20-year-old victim at a bus stop at SW 137th Avenue and 26th Street. The man offered the…
