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BocaNews.com

“Operation No Excuses” was carried out by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office in conjunction with State Attorney Michael McAuliffe, with a new additional investigative tool at the ready; blood analysis. “This saturation patrol included the additional investigative tool of applying for search warrants seeking a court order to obtain a sample of blood,” said a statement from PBSO. “The purpose of the warrant is to establish the person’s blood alcohol level through a blood sample.” At the end of the evening, no blood was drawn. 38 DUIs were made and 717 citations, so police considered it a good evening.

In addition to PBSO and the state attorney’s office, police from a number of area communities – Boca Raton and Delray Beach among them – were involved. So were the Florida Highway Patrol and the Department of Environmental Management.

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Belkis Gonzalez, 43, has been charged with felonies on both practicing medicine without a license and tampering with evidence. The charges stem from an event in 2006 where she performed a botched procedure in Hialeah and then disposed of a live infant in the trash. Her charges face at least a year in prison and can escalate up to 15 years behind bars.

Horrific news likes this seems to be commonplace today, yet the crime is no less valid than it would have been years ago. I can not even begin to imagine how someone could throw away a nearly fully developed baby that’s alive and not feel a tinge of regret or remorse. Gonzalez’s history in medicine will be noted duly in court and most likely used against her.

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In the case of Daniel Troya and Ricardo Sanchez Jr, both were found guilty of murder resulting from an armed carjacking, drug conspiracy and weapons charges; both are facing life in prison. The incident revolving around this case that we have been following for quite some time was the tragic Turnpike murder incident of an entire family, thought to be drug related. A federal jury deliberated for almost 24 hours before finally reaching a verdict. A few others have been convicted of the charges against them; Danny Varela, 28, and Liana Lopez, 20.

Recapping the events that happened with this crime, a family of four along a dark stretch of the Turnpike was gunned down in a drug debt related incident in 2006. The bodies of Jose Luis Escobedo, 28; his wife, Yessica Guerrero Escobedo, 25; and their sons, Luis Julian, 4, and Luis Damian, 3; were found alongside the road. The bodies laid in a twisted mound in the grass, shot at close range.

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William Edward Ham, 31, was arrested a week ago on charges of felony DUI manslaughter. He is being held without bail at Orient Road Jail in Tampa, FL. Not only was he arrested under a new charge of driving under the influence, but he violated his probation as well. Ham was found passed out behind the wheel of a vehicle by a police officer who stopped behind him at a traffic light. Ham failed to continue through at the green light and thus the alerted officer got out of her vehicle and woke Ham up from his drunken stupor. He then reported tried to give the officer $20s in his severely drunken state.

According to his probation, Ham was not allowed to be in possession or under the influence of illegal drugs or alcohol.

DUI, violation of probation, and DUI manslaughter are ridiculous crimes that people commit every day with no reprehensibility in their minds. Ham was obviously drunk, a repeat offender, and a potentially violent criminal.

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Preston Parker, 21, formerly of the Florida State University football team has turned himself in to authories in Palm Beach Gardens on charges of violation of probation. Police arrested the young man in April 2008 for weapons and drug charges, which is where the probation violation stems from. He technically violated his probation when he was last arrested in Tallahassee on a charge of driving under the influence.

A person is guilty of Driving Under the Influence if all the following can be proven by the state:

1. The defendant was in actual physical control of a vehicle (car, truck, motorcycle, bicycle, boat, motorbike).

2. The person was under the influence of alcohol, a chemical substance, a controlled substance; to the extent that one’s normal faculties are impaired.

3. If the person has a blood alcohol level over the legal maximum (.08% in most states, 0.1 in a minority of states), you can be found guilty of DUBAL (driving with an unlawful blood alcohol level) or the law creates a rebuttable presumption of impairment.

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Henry Farrell, 46, has been charged recently with carjacking. Farrell attempted to carjack a man in the parking lot of a coffee shop in Boca Raton last January. Police say the incident is the man’s 190th arrest, an arrest rap record loaded with many charges from numerous marijuana and cocaine possessions. Family of the man say he suffers from bipolar disorder.

It’s sad to see when recidivism is clearly evident from our court and rehabilitation systems even when millions of dollars are spent each year to have these types of incidents not occur. The man involved is clearly of unsound mind and needs to have some life changes in order to correct himself.

Florida Statute 812.133 defines “carjacking” as:

the taking of a motor vehicle which may be the subject of larceny from the person or custody of another, with intent to either permanently or temporarily deprive the person or the owner of the motor vehicle, when in the course of the taking there is the use of force, violence, assault, or putting in fear.

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ORLANDO, FL

Two rapists have turned themselves in to authorities after perpetrating their recent crime on an 11 year old. Authorities say the two confessed to the crime conducted on the Florida girl as she was on her way to school. She was held at knifepoint then pulled into a car being driven by the two individuals. Then she was taken several blocks away to a vacant house where she was raped. Police received a tip on the phone lines later that day confirming DNA that was found on the victim. Orange County Sheriff’s Office are giving Richard Morales-Marin, 23, and Juan Hernandez Monzalvo, 24, charges of kidnapping and rape.

Sex crimes damage the community at large, not just individuals. People get hurt in the process and there is little offer of forgiveness to the criminals who commit such crimes. This incident is just one of many that continue to happen when sexual offenders are in the vicinity of schools and playgrounds that hold their potential prey. Be watchful of your children and make sure they don’t walk alone to school or talk to strangers without adults they know around.

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Louis Beverly, an ACORN activist, faces charges of fourth-degree burglary, a first in the realm of the foreclosure market. The activist, a part of ACORN (the Association of Community Organization for Reform Now) is facing these criminal charges in response to the breaking and entering of a home in southeast Baltimore a few weeks ago. “This is our house now,” ACORN member Louis Beverly reportedly said after cutting a lock with bolt cutters at the home. A spokesperson at the Pittsburgh Police said charges would be filed in response to any person found living in a foreclosed home even if that person has lived at the residence previously or not.

ACORN launched its “Home Savers” campaign in New York earlier this month and plans to expand the program to at least 22 other cities and three counties nationwide in the coming weeks. Participants like Beverly say they will refuse to move out of foreclosed homes or reclaim properties altogether until a comprehensive federal housing plan takes affect. At least 500 volunteers have reportedly agreed to work as “home defenders” to employ non-violent tactics to block authorities from evicting homeowners. Orlando, Florida, is one of the other cities being targeted by “Home Savers” participants.

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Packed with cocaine and grimly christened “coffins,” sleek jungle-built submarines are steaming their way north from Colombia through Pacific waters to deliver tons of illegal drugs headed for the U.S. market. These vessels travel just below the water surface leaving a small glass cockpit or tubes visible to the world. They are the latest in shipment methods used by drug cartels in transporting large amounts of their products into the US with no detection by authorities. Sometimes three or four crewmen plus a pilot cram into the dingy, humid hulls, suffocated by the noise of a diesel engine rumbling right next to their heads. Key West has been a new target point for unloaders of these vessels and local authorities are worried.

“They call it either the coffin or the tomb,” said Rear Admiral Joseph Nimmich, the officer who commands the U.S. Coast Guard’s Joint Interagency Task Force South. “The intent is to be as low-profile, and to make it as difficult for us to find, as possible.”

Drug trafficking carries stiff charges if prosecuted in a court of law in the US. Drug trafficking can include a fine up to $500,000 and life in prison. This is incredible severe and life-altering in punishment level. You need a lawyer who can minimize the impact this charge could have on your life.

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Christina Garcia of Polk County, Florida, has been charged with two counts of domestic violence in the abuse of her daughter Mercades Nichols. Nichols claimed the two had a verbal argument that progressed rapidly into a physical altercation. Police statement report Nichols saying she was “grabbed by her hair, kicked … several times in the pelvic area and spit [on] her face.” Another fight between the two broke out an hour later after the subsiding of the first confrontation. Nichols is no innocent in this incident. In 2008, she was charged in the videotaping of a beating of another teen in Polk County.

Domestic violence is a destructive crime that separates families, homes, and lives. In this incident, a mother and daughter were amidst the fog of conflict and struck blows to each other. Whenever assault and then battery are evident in some encounter, the results can never be good unless it was in self-defense.

Florida Statute defines “domestic violence” as:

any assault, aggravated assault, battery, aggravated battery, sexual assault, sexual battery, stalking, aggravated stalking, kidnapping, false imprisonment, or any criminal offense resulting in physical injury or death of one family or household member by another family or household member.

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