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Two dead from weekend falls identified

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PANAMA CITY - The Bay County Sheriff’s Office has identified the two people who fell to their deaths in unrelated incidents this last weekend.

On Friday, Jonathan Cord Holland of Panama City died after falling from the Hathaway Bridge around 7 p.m. He was 36.

Angela Bell Lewis of Cedar Town, Ga., died after she fell from the Regency Towers condominiums in Panama City Beach Saturday around 9 p.m. She was 36.

Both deaths are suspected suicides and remain under investigation.


JCSO investigating shooting

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MARIANNA - Jackson County Sheriff’s Deputies were investigating shootings at separate locations along State 71, according to the sheriff’s Office’s Facebook page.

A 911 dispatcher for the JSCO referred inquiries to a Facebook page. Officials have not released any information about whether anyone was shot or arrested, how many people were involved, who they were, what happened or why. Officials at the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office could not be reached to comment.

BCSO searching for missing woman

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The Bay County Sheriff’s Office is searching for a missing mentally challenged adult.

At 11:00 a.m. Tuesday a missing person report was filed for Shae Morrison, 21, by a family member, officials wrote in a news release.

Shae went missing at midnight Monday. She is mentally challenged and needs to take medication, which she did not take with her, the news release states. Shae has now missed two doses, officials added.

Shae is 5’02”, 160 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. Anyone with information on the location of Shae Morrison is asked to contact the Bay County Sheriff’s Office at 747-4700 or Crime Stoppers at 785-TIPS.

Appeals court says judge can hear contempt case against lawyer

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PANAMA CITY — The 1st District Court of Appeal (DCA) has denied a motion to appoint a new judge in the criminal contempt of court case against a local attorney.

Judge James Fensom charged Bill Price with criminal contempt during a February trial after Price allegedly violated Fensom’s pretrial order limiting the way Price could talk to or about a transgendered witness for the prosecution. Price and his attorney have each appealed to Fensom to disqualify himself and allow a judge with no connection to the alleged contempt to hear the case.

Fensom twice ruled he would hear the case, which Walter Smith, the attorney representing Price, said raises questions about whether his client can get a fair trial in front of the judge who was also the victim of the alleged crime. When Fensom denied the second request to allow another judge to hear the case during a brief hearing Friday, Smith filed an emergency petition with the 1st DCA.

The court provided little insight into how it reached the decision in an opinion filed Monday. The opinion said only the petition was denied on its merits.

Fensom “denied it and the 1st DCA denied it, so we have to proceed with the assumption that we’ll get a fair trial,” Smith said.

Price has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for a trial on the misdemeanor charge Thursday. If he’s convicted, he could be sentenced to up to six months in jail. He also could be exposed to sanctions from the Florida Bar. He is not entitled to a jury trial.

Smith has handled contempt charges in the past when he was with the Public Defender’s Office, but those were primarily cases in which a party in a divorce wasn’t following rules for alimony or child custody, he said.

“I’ve never been in exactly this situation before,” he said. “I just hope I don’t end up charged with contempt.”

There are issues to be resolved, Smith said. For instance, Fensom didn’t reduce his pretrial order to writing until after the jury reached a verdict, and Smith said Price doesn’t recall exactly when the order was made clear to him, if it was.

Smith said he expected Assistant State Attorney Bob Sombathy, who was the prosecutor in the case that led to the contempt charge against Price, to be called to testify as a witness, and his client will testify, too. Smith said he might call Fensom to testify as a witness, and though he said he doesn’t expect that to actually happen these cases are so rare there’s a lot of confusion about the procedure.

“The rules aren’t really well understood,” Smith said.

Girl testifies Cozzie attacked her before murder

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DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — A young Kentucky girl took the stand Tuesday to describe an attack at Cassine Gardens just one week before 15-year-old Courtney Wilkes’ body was found two years ago.

The now 16-year-old girl from Glasgow, Ky., told jurors the boy she knew only as Steven tried to strangle her, pushed her to the ground and demanded she remove her clothes.

“I was scared to death,” said the girl, who was 14 at the time. “He kept telling me to take my clothes off, and I was about to but I said no and just yelled, ‘No, no, no.’ Then he said, ‘OK, OK. I can’t do this.’ ”

Jurors listened to the girl’s testimony during the second day of the death penalty hearing for 23-year-old Steven Cozzie, who was convicted Friday of first-degree premeditated murder for killing Wilkes in the same area of Seagrove Beach on June 16, 2011.

The girl’s grandmother, who picked her up after the alleged attack, told
jurors that because she hadn’t been hurt the family decided not to call law enforcement.

“We just made a poor choice,” the woman said, reaching for a tissue as
she began to cry. “That failure was on our part. Maybe if we’d let (the girl) decide, we would have called the police and there would have been a different outcome.”

This week’s hearing will determine whether Cozzie is sentenced to death or life in prison without parole. The jury will recommend a sentence to Walton County Circuit Judge Kelvin Wells, who will make the ruling.

Cozzie’s attorneys called several members of his family to testify. Each of them described his troubled life.

“He was being bounced back and forth. … He didn’t have a stable life,”
said his uncle, Robert R. Cozzie. “He needed a secure place to grow up, but I don’t think he got that.”

Cozzie’s 21-year-old half-sister testified that he molested her when she was a young girl.

“I didn’t trust him,” she said, crying. “ … But he’s my brother and I
still love him.”

She said while in school Cozzie was picked on constantly, as if he “had a target on him.” She said the small boy would never stand up for himself even when his half-brother beat him.

The Cozzie children grew up in challenging circumstances, his half-sister added. His two youngest half-sisters allegedly were molested by a relativewhile they lived with him and his mother slept with several young boys while Cozzie was in high school. The family moved constantly from state to state and there was constant bullying at home and at school.

“He was a vulnerable person,” she said. “He was easy to mess with
and he couldn’t stick up for himself, and if he did it was just him crying.”

Her brother added to the details of Cozzie’s early
life, such as drug use in the home, sexual exploits between two brothers and constant beatings from family members.

Psychologist Stephen Zieman of Pensacola said if Cozzie had a structured home he could have overcome his obstacles.

“He has an IQ of 83. … That means he is only smarter than 13 percent
of the 23-year-olds in the U.S.,” Zieman said. “This is who Steven is. He just can’t think the way the rest of the world can.”

The hearing will resume at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Walton County Courthouse in DeFuniak Springs.

FHP investigating fatal wreck

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YOUNGSTOWN -- The Florida Highway Patrol is investigating a fatal traffic crash that happened Tuesday afternoon in northern Bay County.

According to FHP’s website, troopers were dispatched to Commander Lane at County 2301 at 4:15 p.m.

The name of the victim and other details had not been released as of Tuesday evening.

One killed, another in critical condition after wreck

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PANAMA CITY - A Southport woman was critically injured and a Panama City man was killed in a single vehicle crash, Florida Highway Patrol officials said in a Wednesday morning news release.

Jessica Finch, 26, was driving a 1998 Honda Civic, south on County 2301 south of Commander Lane when the vehicle crossed the street, the shoulder of the road and then collided with a tree, troopers wrote. Her passenger, Justin Frank Collins, 27, was taken to a local hospital but died as a result of the wreck, officials said. Finch was transported to a local hospital where she was listed as critical, they added.  

The wreck is under investigation, troopers wrote.

Former TWA Flight 800 investigators want new probe

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MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — Former investigators are pushing to reopen the probe into the 1996 crash of TWA Flight800 off the coast of New York, saying new evidence points to the often-discounted theory that a missile strike may have downed the jumbo jet.

The New York-to-Paris flight crashed July 17, 1996, just minutes after the jetliner took off from John F. Kennedy Airport, killing all 230 people aboard.

The effort to reopen the probe is being made in tandem with the release next month of a documentary that features the testimony of former investigators who raise doubts about the National Transportation Safety Board's conclusion that the crash was caused by a center fuel tank explosion, probably caused by a spark from a short-circuit in the wiring.

"We don't know who fired the missile," said Jim Speer, an accident investigator for the Air Line Pilots Association, one of those seeking a new review of the probe. "But we have a lot more confidence that it was a missile."

In a petition filed Wednesday seeking to reopen the probe, they say they have "reviewed the FAA radar evidence along with new evidence not available to the NTSB during the official investigation and contend that the NTSB's probable cause determination is erroneous and should be reconsidered and modified accordingly."

Those calling for a review of the investigation include former NTSB accident investigator Hank Hughes and Bob Young, a former senior accident investigator for the now-defunct TWA. Tom Stalcup, a physicist and co-founder of a group called Flight 800 Independent Researchers Organization, also questions the NTSB's original findings and is featured prominently in the documentary, which is slated to air on the 17th anniversary of the crash next month.

The NTSB issued a statement Wednesday morning saying it is aware of the upcoming documentary.

"All petitions for reconsideration are thoroughly reviewed, and a determination is usually made within about 60 days," spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said. "While the NTSB rarely re-investigates issues that have already been examined, our investigations are never closed and we can review any new information not previously considered by the board."

She noted the TWA Flight 800 investigation lasted four years.

"Investigators took great care reviewing, documenting and analyzing facts and data and held a five-day hearing to gather additional facts before determining the probable cause of the accident during a two-day board meeting."

Robert Francis, the former vice chairman of the NTSB who headed the investigation, declined to comment.

The former investigators calling for a new probe say new evidence that a missile may have taken down the jet includes analysis of radar of the jetliner.

Speculation of a missile strike began almost immediately after the crash. Theories that an errant missile may have been fired from a U.S. military vessel were widely refuted, but conjecture about a shoulder-fired missile launched by terrorists in a small boat has never completely gone away.

The petitioners contend that the testimony of more than 200 witnesses who reported seeing streaks of light headed toward the plane should be reconsidered. The NTSB said after the first investigation that it found no evidence of a missile strike. It explained that what witnesses likely saw was the jetliner pitching upward in the first few moments after the explosion, but some witnesses still maintain that the streak of light they saw emanated from the waterline and zoomed upward toward the plane.

The petition filed with the NTSB to reopen the probe claims "new analyses of the FAA radar evidence demonstrate that the explosion that caused the crash did not result from a low-velocity fuel-air explosion as the NTSB has determined. Rather, it was caused by a detonation or high-velocity explosion."

John Seaman, the longtime leader of an organization of TWA 800 victims' families, noted there have been several attempts over the years to reopen the investigation.

"Unless something was to develop that would be very clear and compelling, then a lot of these interested parties are not really helpful," said Seaman, whose niece died on the flight. He spoke to The Associated Press in a telephone interview from upstate New York on Tuesday, ahead of the formal filing of the petition.

"They reopen wounds," he said of the petitioners. "Personally I can't keep going over it again and again. I think most families feel that way."

The documentary airs on the EPIX premium television channel. An EPIX spokeswoman declined to say how much the filmmakers were paid for the documentary.

 

 


Jury to hear fatal crash case

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PANAMA CITY — Testimony begins Friday in the trial of a man accused of driving under the influence in a fatal car crash in 2011.

Tarrance Jerell Harrell, 22, is accused of being behind the wheel of a speeding car that crashed so violently at U.S. Business 98 and North Cove Boulevard on Oct. 22, 2011, that it tore the vehicle in two pieces and killed Danielle Guilford, a passenger in the car. Police believe Harrell then concealed from investigators that he was driving at the time of crash, effectively delaying a blood test that revealed his blood-alcohol content was 0.059.

Harrell’s defense attorney, Jean Marie Downing, isn’t conceding her client was driving the car.

“This is going to be a case about who was driving,” Downing said Wednesday.

Downing didn’t want to say much about the trial, but her recent court filings provide a glimpse into the defense strategy. She has filed a handful of motions asking Judge Michael Overstreet to suppress evidence in the case.

According to those motions:

After the crash, Miah Hill, an acquaintance of Harrell, told police she had been driving. Hill later said she lied to protect Harrell because he was on probation.

Police swabbed the driver’s side airbag after the crash and submitted the swabs to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for DNA tests. The test result showed Hill’s DNA was on the airbag but not Harrell’s. The passenger side airbag had Hill’s blood, but was not swabbed for DNA.

Downing argued in one motion that the DNA analyst should not be allowed to testify about her opinion of how Hill’s DNA came to be on the airbags if she wasn’t driving, but the state’s argument was that the analyst has years of experience with DNA transfer. Overstreet has not ruled on the motion, according to the Clerk of Courts’ website.

Overstreet ruled against Downing on a motion seeking to keep from the jury the fact that Harrell was on probation for drug and gun charges. Downing argued such evidence would prejudice the jury against Harrell, but  prosecutor Robert Sale argued it was necessary to explain why Hill told police she was driving.

Harrell is charged with DUI manslaughter, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison, and vehicular homicide, a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison.

Two more suspects arrested, charged in Panama City gunfight

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PANAMA CITY -- The second and third alleged shooters in a Panama City gunfight earlier this month have been arrested.

Jerome Watts, 25, was arrested in Pensacola, and Tevin Brown, 22, was arrested in the Eastgate Estates area of Panama City, according to police. Each had been sought by authorities after a June 8 incident in which the occupants of two vehicles exchanged gunfire in the 1000 block of Elm Avenue. 

Investigators believe Brown and Watts were targeting 29-year-old Ronald L. Richardson, who was driving a Dodge truck. Richardson told officers, according to PCPD, that he returned fire after Brown and Watts began shooting at him from a Jeep Cherokee. No injuries were reported in the shootout. Brown and Watts fled in the Jeep, police reported, while Richardson was arrested and charged with felon in possession of a firearm, and discharging a firearm from a motor vehicle. Richardson was also charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Watts was located and arrested June 12 after Pensacola police found a bullet-riddled Jeep Cherokee matching the description given by PCPD. Brown was located by a U.S. Marshals Regional Task Force on Tuesday near 11th Street and Kurze in Panama City.

Wattsand Brown were each charged with felon in possession of a firearm, discharging a firearm from a motor vehicle and discharging a firearm into an occupied vehicle, as well as drug-related charges that do not appear connected to the gunfight. Brown was also charged with three counts of attempted murder in the incident.

BCSO warns of ID theft scam

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PANAMA CITY -- The Bay County Sheriff’s Office is warning people to take a closer look at any email purporting to be from FedEx.

A scam reported to the BCSO attempts to gain access to a victim’s personal and financial information. This is how it works.

An email from “Fed;Ex” (note the semicolon) informs the reader that a package for them could not be delivered and is waiting at the nearest Fed;Ex office. The reader need only print out the shipment label attached to the email and bring it to the office.

When the email recipient opens the shipment label it launches a virus on their computer that steals personal and financial information.

Anyone who gets an email like that should delete it. Don’t open the attachments. More information on the scam is available on the website for the real FedEx, www.FedEx.com.

Missing woman home safely

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PANAMA CITY -- Shae Morrison, who was reported missing Tuesday afternoon by a family, has returned home safely, according to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office.

Morrison had been staying with someone she met online. She was last seen around midnight Tuesday and her family was concerned because she left without her medication. When she saw news reports and learned her family was worried, she called home.

BCSO seeks suspect in robbery

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PANAMA CITY -- Deputies are looking for a man suspected of beating and robbing a woman on a Panama City street.

A deputy found a woman lying on the ground crying just before 3 a.m. Saturday and learned she’d been beaten and robbed by a man she and others had been out with that night. When she and a friend separated from the group, 20-year-old David Izaiah Faciane allegedly attacked her and took money and cigarettes.

Deputies have a warrant for Faciane’s arrests. They believe he might be travelling in a gold Hyundai that he might have stolen. Anyone with information should contact the Bay County Sheriff’s Office at 747-4700 or CrimeStoppers at 785-TIPS (8477).

Victim didn’t ‘like’ Facebook pic

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PANAMA CITY -- Deputies arrested a man and a woman for allegedly stripping a boat they were supposed to repair and posting photos of it on the Internet, according to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office.

Timothy Hayes and Jessica Hayes are both charged with grand theft, criminal mischief and dealing in stolen property. Jessica Hayes also is charged with presenting a false identification to regulated metals.

According to the BCSO, the owner of the boat gave the vessel to Hayes and Hayes, the owners of Hayes Mobile Marine, a year ago for repair. The owner made several attempts to get the boat back until he saw a picture on Facebook of the boat stripped to the hull and called deputies.

The hull of the boat was recovered on McKenzie Avenue last week.

Cozzie’s fate in jurors’ hands

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DeFUNIAK SPRINGS —Twelve jurors have spent seven days listening to testimony during the trial and penalty phases of the first-degree murder trial of Steven Cozzie.

Thursday, each will be asked to decide whether he or she believes Cozzie should be put to death or spend the rest of his life in prison.

In closing penalty phase arguments Wednesday, Assistant State Attorney Bobby Elmore laid out the reasons he believed Cozzie should die for the “heinous, atrocious and cruel” means he used to kill 15-year-old Courtney Wilkes of Lyons, Ga.

“Now it’s for you to decide whether what Steven Cozzie did to a special, precious, exceptional child deserves the ultimate punishment,” Elmore said. “I submit if it does not, no crime does.”

Defense Attorney Sharon Wilson pointed to the “parade of horribles” that Cozzie’s 23 years on earth have been and asked jurors to take mercy on “a very sick boy.”

“I call him a boy because mentally and emotionally he is a child,” she said.

Cozzie was convicted Friday of first-degree premeditated murder for the June 16, 2011, killing of Wilkes, who he lured away from the South Walton beachfront condominium she was staying at with her family.

He convinced Wilkes to visit Cassine Gardens Nature Trail in Seagrove Bach with him. When she mentioned she needed to leave, he attacked her with a shirt, strangled her into submission, then raped her and beat her to death with a heavy piece of lumber.

In addition to the murder, Cozzie was convicted of kidnapping, aggravated child abuse and sexual assault.

After they receive final instructions from Walton County Circuit Judge Kelvin Wells this morning, the jurors will retire to their quarters and decide individually what their recommendation will be. The conclusion of the majority will serve as the recommendation to Wells.

By law, Wells must give “great weight” to the recommendation, but ultimately the decision will be his. He can impose sentence immediately or take the jury’s recommendation under advisement and pass sentence at a later time.

Wilson noted in her closing that Cozzie’s “parade of horribles” had been laid bare during the course of the weeklong trial and two-day sentencing phase.

At trial, Elmore presented graphic evidence as he described the gruesome nature of the crime and the injuries inflicted on Wilkes one month before her 16th birthday.

During the sentencing phase, it was the defense team’s turn to discuss the awful circumstances of Cozzie’s upbringing. Family members and later psychologists described physical, emotional and sexual abuse inflicted on a mentally deficient child by his father, step-mother and siblings at home and by others elsewhere who found him “weird” and an easy mark for bullying and exploitation.

“I’m not asking you to forgive Steven Cozzie,” Wilson said. “Do we execute a 13-year-old in a 23-year-old’s body?

“Mercy is not something that can be earned. Mercy is something granted. I’m asking you all to grant mercy to Steven Cozzie,” Wilson said. “I’m asking each of you to recommend a life sentence for Steven Cozzie.”

Elmore told jurors Cozzie new what he was doing when he lured Wilkes to the place he intended to rape and kill her. He had attempted a violent sexual attack on a 14-year-old at the same place a week before Wilkes’ murder, he argued. Life in prison would allow Cozzie to see the sun and the stars, a luxury he did not afford his victim, Elmore said.

“He deserves the ultimate penalty for what he did, how he did it and for the thoughts he was thinking as he did it.”


'Highly Questionable' Method: Bra Searches by Lakeland Police are Criticized by State Attorney

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LAKELAND - State Attorney Jerry Hill sent a letter to the Lakeland Police Department this week criticizing the actions of an officer who, in an unjustified hunt for drugs, instructed a woman to shake out her bra and searched her car as she pleaded with him to stop.

Officer statements and documents show the bra-shaking search has been used in other cases, Hill wrote to Lakeland Police Chief Lisa Womack.

"This highly questionable search method is not only demeaning," Hill wrote, "but is ineffective and possibly dangerous."

He went on to say that if a suspect had a weapon hidden under her shirt, such a method could allow her to grab it.

Officer Dustin Fetz asked the woman to lift her shirt above her stomach, pull her bra away from her chest and shake it, all without a reason to suspect she carried drugs during a May 21 traffic stop, according to Hill's letter and a State Attorney's Office investigation report.

Unsatisfied with her first attempt, Fetz made her lift and shake her bra a second time.

Again, no drugs tumbled out. None were found in a search of her, her boyfriend or the car they were in.

In his letter, Hill cited a DUI arrest in which another woman threatened to have an officer fired for sexual harassment after the same type of search.

"Even a suspect who provided breath samples of 0.198 and 0.188 was able to grasp the impropriety and the demeaning nature of this type of search," Hill wrote.

"I hope training and supervision deficiencies can soon be corrected," he wrote at the end of his letter.

"Continued use of these practices will have an adverse impact on the case involved."

Hill told The Ledger on Wednesday that sending such a letter is an unusual step. But because the search has apparently been used by other LPD officers, he wanted to address it in writing.

"It was done in this instance because it's a possibility that it's a widespread issue in a very large agency and appears to be a major training deficiency," Hill said.

"I think they needed more than a phone call, which would have indicated that it was limited to a single instance."

Womack said she was a Florida Police Chiefs Association Conference this week and had only been able to review Hill's letter and report Wednesday.

The department intends to investigate the matter and, if needed, change its procedures.

"I take the information contained in the report very seriously," she said. "And we will look into all matters completely."

LETTER TO EDITOR SPURRED INVESTIGATION

The State Attorney's Office began an investigation into the case after The Ledger printed a letter to the editor about it June 2 from Richard Wiley, a retired Lakeland lawyer who knows the woman involved personally. Wiley praised Hill's willingness to investigate the incident.

"What happened is an abomination," he said. "I wanted to bring it to the public's attention because I thought this had to stop."

Womack ordered an internal investigation the day after the letter ran, prior to receiving a formal complaint.

The department placed Fetz, a full-time LPD officer since 2008 with a $48,331-per-year salary, on paid leave for four days in the wake of the state attorney investigation. He returned to work Tuesday.

According to the State Attorney's Office, Fetz had a reason to stop the driver, Zoe Brugger, who could not be reached Wednesday. She was driving with a broken headlight. And she could have been arrested because she didn't have a valid driver license.

But Fetz's actions during the stop violated her constitutional rights, according to the report written by State Attorney Investigator Mike Brown. His conduct did not constitute a criminal offense, however.

Brown's investigative report details what Brugger and Larry Fields, her boyfriend, said occurred during the traffic stop:

Fetz stopped Brugger on West Beacon Road as she drove home after picking up Fields from work. He asked the couple for consent to search the vehicle, which Brugger had borrowed from a friend. They adamantly told Fetz he did not have permission to search.

Fetz escorted Brugger behind the vehicle, where he asked her to lift her shirt to and shake out her bra. Brugger didn't want to perform the act, Brown wrote, but she felt threatened and wanted to go home to her newborn child. She didn't sense his request was sexual, but Brown wrote that she "believed he was on a power trip and had it in his mind that they had drugs."

Fetz persisted in asking for consent to search the vehicle.

Brugger then relented, wanting to go home. Then she changed her mind before Fetz could start the search. But he proceeded anyway, searching the vehicle for 10 minutes, even as she shouted for him to stop. Video of the traffic stop shows Fetz popping open the driver door as Brugger and Fields, who followed the officer's orders, sit on the curb.

'A KNOWN TECHNIQUE'

During the investigation, Fetz told the investigator that the bra-shaking search "is a known technique that is used by some LPD officers but cannot recall ever formally being trained to do this," according to the report.

When the search turned up no drugs, Fetz gave Brugger a ticket and notice to appear in court. She said Fetz told her, "I'm done scaring you, and now you can go home."

"Looking back on the incident, he (Fetz) recognizes that he was overzealous in his attempt to locate illegal drugs or contraband in the car," Brown wrote.

Officer Jeremy Williams, who arrived at the scene as backup, told the investigator he and Fetz heard Brugger withdraw her consent before Fetz searched the car. Williams told Brown he considered the search improper.

The investigator also wrote that Fetz had said he was completing a "vehicle inventory" to tow and impound the vehicle. But Brown noted Fetz did not have an inventory sheet needed for the search and failed to follow department policy to call for a supervisor's approval to tow the vehicle.

The investigation raised another issue because police dash-cam footage of the stop had no audio. Fetz said he left the audio equipment hanging inside his patrol car, violating LPD policy.

Fetz and another officer at the scene told the investigator there are "many members of LPD that don't use this equipment even when it is issued."

"Had the audio equipment been utilized," Brown wrote, "there would be little to no speculation as to what occurred during that traffic stop that evening."

 

 

Man gets five years in prison for Wounded Warrior scam

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PANAMA CITY BEACH — A Panama City Beach man was sentenced to five years in prison Thursday for using thousands of dollars in donations meant for the Wounded Warrior Project to finance his partying.

Joseph Gable Wood, 44, pleaded no contest to organizing a scheme to defraud, three counts of grand theft and five counts of petit theft, according to a State Attorney’s Office news release.

He began collecting money in February 2012 for an event called “Tour De Beach,” which he promoted as a fundraiser for the Wounded Warrior Project. State prosecutors accounted for $13,000 Wood received, but believe the total amount was closer to $20,000. On the “Tour De Beach” Facebook page, which is still active, Wood claimed to have collected about $37,000 from the event.

When sponsors tried asking Wood how much money was raised, they received no response. Sponsors then contacted the Wounded Warrior Project, and the group reported Wood made no donations. Wood told police in October that he’d been living off the donations, and had spent most of the money on social events and alcohol. He also admitted “Tour De Beach” was a scam from the beginning.

Wood posted photos of disabled soldiers and Americans flags on the “Tour De Beach” Facebook page, and reported more than 700 people attended the event. Sponsors included the Bay County Sheriff’s Office officials and local military personnel. After Wood was charged in the scam, several “Tour De Beach” sponsors used the Facebook page to express their anger.

“He took many of us for a lot of our time, took others for their money and time, and most importantly, stole (from) our nation’s heroes, the Wounded Warrior Project,” wrote Wynter Nash, of Panama City.

Ghost Rider Leather and Helmets, a Panama City clothing store, shared a similar sentiment on the Facebook page.

“It’s a shame that all of us who contributed to this event had to find out the hard way that you can’t trust everyone, no matter how authentic they may have seemed,” they wrote. “I hope this does not stop anyone in the future from donating to our veterans and other good causes. We’ll just have to make sure to check into the person in charge first.”

Wood also was sentenced to five years probation following his prison sentence, and he has been ordered to pay back the money.

Attorney, judge settle contempt case

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PANAMA CITY — The criminal contempt of court case against a Panama City attorney came to an anticlimactic end Thursday afternoon in the same courtroom where it started four months ago.

Bill Price was facing up to six months in jail if Judge James Fensom found him guilty of the misdemeanor criminal charges, but he ironed out the details of a plea agreement as his trial was set to begin.

Under the agreement, Price will not be adjudicated guilty and reserves his right to appeal the charge, but he must pay a $300 fine and will serve 10 hours of community services and six months of probation. Price must complete four hours of Florida Bar-approved legal education courses in the areas of evidence and ethics, because those are the areas where he crossed the line with the judge.

Fensom also required a letter from Price to himself outlining the missteps Price made during a February felony trial and apologizing for them. Fensom admonished Price for his behavior during the trial, which he said was “at the bottom” compared to the conduct of every lawyer in every trial in which Fensom had ever been involved.

“I became completely frustrated in the trial through your actions,” Fensom told Price after accepting his no contest plea.

Fensom charged Price with indirect criminal contempt following the February trial of Juliana Ellzey, whom Price defended against charges of leaving the scene of a crash involving death. 

Fensom, who twice declined to disqualify himself from the case at the separate requests of Price and his attorney Walter Smith, said he nearly charged Price with direct criminal contempt, which would have resulted in an immediate hearing during which Price wouldn’t have had a right to an attorney and could have been punished immediately. Ellzey’s trial was an especially emotional ordeal for her and her family, and Fensom didn’t want to add a contempt hearing in the middle of it, he said.

The case was followed with interest in the local legal community especially, and the courtroom was crowded Thursday with defense attorneys and prosecutors alike.

Survivor says defendant drove

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PANAMA CITY — Armando Spruill was sitting behind the driver of Miah Hill’s car early in the morning on Oct. 22, 2011 when it ran the red light at Business 98 and North Cove Boulevard. When another driver started to proceed across the path of the speeding car, the driver swerved and lost control, so Spruill grabbed onto the seat in front of him.

“I immediately grabbed hold of the driver’s seat to brace myself,” Spruill testified Thursday, going on to describe the crash. “… After everything we stopped. I was still holding the seat.”

The car smashed into a utility pole so hard it was torn in half, killing passenger Danielle Guilford. Spruill let go of the seat to sit back down, only to find himself on the pavement.

The testimony came during the first day of the trial of Tarrance Jerell Harrell, 22, charged with DUI-manslaughter and vehicular homicide.

Defense attorney Jean Marie Downing said in her opening statement Thursday morning the physical evidence wouldn’t support the state’s contention that Harrell was driving, but Spruill and Hill both testified Thursday he was driving.

Hill told police after the crash she was the driver, and her DNA was found on the driver’s side and passenger’s side airbags. An officer at the scene that morning testified that a few hours after the crash Harrell approached him with tears in his eyes and admitted to driving the car.

There were discrepancies about how fast the car was going when it crashed. A police officer who investigated the crash estimated based on video footage of it that the car was going “no less than 90” miles per hour, while another witness estimated it was going “above 50. Anywhere from 50, 60 — fast.”

Guilford was sitting next to Spruill in the back seat, almost directly at the point of impact. Guilford was thrown from the car and dead by the time a paramedic who saw the crash got to her, which was only a matter of seconds, while the other people in the car suffered minor injuries.

After Harrell told the officer he was the driver police took a blood sample that showed his blood-alcohol content was .059. He was arrested four months later. He could be sentenced to up to 30 years for vehicular homicide if he’s convicted. The trial is expected to conclude Friday.

Robbery suspect seen in PCB

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PANAMA CITY BEACH -- A robbery suspect was seen Thursday walking in the area of Sunset Avenue on Panama City Beach and the Bay County Sheriff’s Office continues to ask the public for help finding him.

BCSO said David Izaiah Faciane. Faciane, 20, is wanted on several warrants, one of which is strong armed robbery.

Faciane is a white male, about 150 pounds, and 5 feet, 11 inches tall with brown eyes and hair. He has several distinctive tattoos.

Anyone with information on the location of Faciane is asked to contact BCSO at 747-4700 or, to remain anonymous, contact Crime Stoppers at 785-TIPS.

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