NEWPORT NEWS, VIRGINIA -- A Panama City Beach man who struck and killed a bicyclist with his vehicle in Newport News, Va. last week will not be charged in the incident, according to Virginia State Police.

Nicholas Fisette, 27, was driving his Mini Cooper on Aug. 24 when he struck 65-year-old Donald Brookshire. Brookshire was critically injured, and died later that morning at a Newport News hospital. Investigators determined that Fisette’s vision was obscured by trees, and he did not have a chance to stop his vehicle after Brookshire pedaled in front of him.

Fisette was not injured in the incident.

MARIANNA — University of South Florida researchers began exhuming human remains of more than 50 students at the former Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna on Saturday. 

It’s the first of several excavations USF researchers have planned this year at the shuttered reform school, where over several decades, dozens of students were beaten, tortured and sexually abused, according to some former students, who also said they believe other students were killed at the boys school, which was once the largest of its kind in the country.

Forensic anthropologist Erin Kimmerle, lead researcher in the project, said she hopes to have four to six graves fully excavated by Tuesday. Researchers had already determined Saturday that some of the remains were wrapped and buried in coffins. They believe the coffins were constructed in the carpentry shop on the Dozier School campus. 

Researchers will use the remains to construct a biological profile that includes the age, sex and ancestry of the deceased.

“It’s everything about you that we can tell from your biology, and that gives us a picture of who the person was,” she said.

From there, researchers will cross-reference a list of Dozier students, then compare DNA samples to confirm the identity. Remains that are identified will be returned to their families.

“They want to bury them in family plots and next to the boys’ mothers and things like that,” Kimmerle said.

 Unidentified remains will be reburied on the Dozier School campus with a casket and marker.

Skeletonized remains will be examined for fractures and other damage to determine if violence had taken place. But whether those conclusions can be made depends on the preservation of individual remains, Kimmerle said.

Researchers believe the burial site contains the bodies of black Dozier School students, and suspect another campus burial site for white students exists. The school was segregated until 1968. Kimmerle said Saturday that researchers likely won’t be able to confirm a separate burial site for white students until sometime this winter.

Several former Dozier School students and their relatives stopped by the campus Saturday to speak with reporters and USF officials. They described being beaten at a white concrete shed on campus known as The White House, where students were allegedly taken to be physically punished. School officials’ primary tool in the punishments, many former students have said, was a leather strap with a wooden handle. Johnny Lee Gaddy, 67, said Saturday he was beaten with the strap until he was “bleeding like a hog.” Other former students have said they were whipped until they passed out.

“They had no heart for children, no compassion for children,” Gaddy said.

Gaddy was sent to the reform school in the 1960s for truancy, as was 68-year-old Richard Huntly. Huntly said Saturday that he, too, was regularly beaten for behavior ranging from fighting to disobedience. Other beatings, he said, seemed to occur at random.

“I was just scared to death during that time,” Huntly said. 

Huntly and Gaddy were with a group of former Dozier School students who believe they should receive financial restitution for their years of physical labor at the school, which was owned and operated by the state. The school “made slaves out of us,” Huntly said. He and other students regularly cut timber and sugar cane, and operated tractors. During one instance of such outdoor labor, Huntly’s toe was severed in an accident.

Another former Dozier school student, 67-year-old Roger Kiser, stood outside the school’s razor-wire fence on Saturday and said he’s become “a little numb” to his experience at the school. 

“I’ll never forget being beaten at The White House,” he said.

Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet voted earlier this month to allow USF to exhume the bodies. The project has received $190,000 in funding from the state and a $423,528 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. Researchers have one year to exhume, identify and rebury human remains, as well as locate additional burials at the school.

The Associated Press contributed to the report.

An earlier version of this storyis posted below:

MARIANNA -- University of South Florida researchers began exhuming human remains of more than 50 students at the former Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna on Saturday morning. 

It’s the first of several excavations USF researchers have planned this year at the shuttered reform school, where over several decades, dozens of students were allegedly buried, some in unmarked graves. Former students have alleged they were beaten, tortured, sexually abused and that some students were killed at the school years ago.

Forensic anthropologist Erin Kimmerle, lead researcher in the project, said she hopes to have four to six graves fully excavated by Tuesday. Researchers had already determined Saturday that some of the remains were buried in coffins. They believe the coffins were constructed in the carpentry shop on the Dozier School campus. 

Researchers will use the remains to construct a biological profile that includes the age, sex and ancestry of the deceased.

“It’s everything about you that we can tell from your biology, and that gives us a picture of who the person was,” she said.

From there, researchers will cross-reference a list of Dozier students, then compare DNA samples to confirm the identity. Unidentified remains will be re-buried on the Dozier School campus with a casket and marker.

Skeletonized remains will also be examined for fractures and other damage to determine if abuse or murder had taken place. But whether those conclusion can be made depends on the preservation of individual remains, Kimmerle said.

Several former Dozier School students and their relatives stopped by the campus Saturday morning to speak with reporters and USF officials.

Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet voted earlier this month to allow FSU to exhume the bodies. The project has received $190,000 in funding from the state and a $423,528 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Check back later today for more information.

PANAMA CITY — A United States Coast Guard air crew rescued four divers about 20 miles off the coast of Panama City overnight Friday.

None of the divers were injured.

The divers were supposed to return from an excursion earlier in the day, and a family member contacted authorities when they didn’t. 

A Coast Guard helicopter crew, staged at Destin for the holiday weekend, and a Coast Guard Station Panama City response boat began a search and rescue operation with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission about 8 p.m.

The divers were floating together in the water with lit flashlights when a Coast Guard helicopter located them. The aircrew hoisted the four people and brought them to awaiting EMS at Tyndall Air Force Base for a medical evaluation.

Coast Guard officer Justin March said the divers, whose identities were not released,  were experienced and suffered no injuries.

It is unknown how they got separated from their boat.

Coast Guard officials said the case demonstrates the importance of filing a float plan with family or a friend, including all information that would help rescuers in case of emergency; how many people aboard, destination, how long you will be out and a description of the boat.

“In this case we had enough information to determine this was a search and rescue case and effectively search when they were supposed to return, where they launched from, and where they were going,” Lt. Cmdr. Jennifer Adams, Sector Mobile, said. “The actions of the divers to have a plan, have the right equipment and stay together may have saved their lives.”

An earlier version of this story is posted below:

PANANA CITY -- The Coast Guard has rescued four divers about 20 miles off Panama City.

The condition of the divers was not released Saturday.

A Coast Guard statement says it received a report that the divers had not returned on Friday. A helicopter crew spotted the four divers holding up flashlights in the water. The aircrew hoisted the four people and brought them to awaiting emergency personnel at Tyndall Air Force Base for medical evaluation.

Lt. Cmdr. Jennifer Adams says the actions of the divers to have a plan, the right equipment and stay together may have saved their lives.

A 32-year-old Pensacola man was killed after a gun apparently accidentally discharged at a home in Lynn Haven, according to the Lynn Haven Police Department.

Investigator Steve McNeil identified the victim as Anthony Jamar Pickering.

Police said he was killed at 1 a.m. Saturday at a home at 415 Kentucky Ave. from “an accidental discharge while handling a firearm.”

The only other person at home at the time was Pickering’s brother Allan Jermaine Pickering.

“Police would like to stress that this does not appear to be an act of violence and there is no danger to the community,” McNeil said in a press release.

The investigation by police and the Medical Examiner’s Office is continuing. Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the Lynn Haven Police Department at 265-4111 or the CrimeStoppers at 850-785-TIPS.

FOUNTAIN - Fire officials were on the scene of a blaze at a mobile home in the 12000 block of Moore Park Sunday night. The fire destroyed the home but no one was injured, officials said. No other homes in the area were damaged, officials said. The cause of the blaze was unclear Sunday night. 

PANAMA CITY BEACH - A woman has been charged with aggravated domestic battery in the stabbing of her boyfriend Monday morning in Panama City Beach.

Police responded about 8 a.m. to a local hospital, where a man had been treated after being stabbed with a box cutter. The man was leaving for work, investigators reported, when his live-in girlfriend threw the box cutter and it penetrated his back about 2 inches.

Police interviewed the man’s girlfriend, 34-year-old Amanda Leigh Strickland, and reported that she made incriminating statements regarding the stabbing. Strickland was arrested and is being held in Bay County Jail.

PANAMA CITY — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit in which the plaintiff claimed gender discrimination against Bay District Schools.

Plaintiff Mike Richardson claimed James Thompson, his supervisor in the district’s maintenance department, made several comments of a sexual nature about his spouse and even proposed a money-for-sexual-favors exchange. Thompson was later arrested in Richardson’s home on solicitation of prostitution charges during a Bay County Sheriff’s Office sting operation.

Richardson, who still works for the school district, claimed emotional and mental damages and sued Bay District Schools for gender discrimination in the amount of $75,000.

The case was dismissed before it went to trial.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard Smoak found “it is undisputed Thompson’s behavior and comments were completely inappropriate and disrespectful,” but the plaintiff didn’t show the situation had created a hostile work environment because of Richardson’s gender.

Bay District Schools declined to comment for this story, as the case is in the appeals process.

“This one is unusual,” said James Garrity, attorney for the plaintiff. “The twist here is some cases say if you are a bystander to the harassment you simply don’t have a claim, and we respectfully disagree with [Smoak] on that.”

Richardson’s spouse, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer one morning in October 2009, received a phone call after coming home that day. On the other end of the phone was Thompson, who propositioned her for sex and also told her she was a pretty woman and had “perky boobs,” according to court documents.

Two hours later, Richardson arrived home from work and mentioned his friend and boss would be able to help them with medical expenses with more work time, or at least in some way.

“I don’t want anything to do with him,” his wife said. She then told him about the call from his boss.

After the initial incident, Richardson confronted Thompson and another did not occur for more than a year. Then, after a maintenance department Thanksgiving dinner, Thompson followed Richardson to the parking lot. Thompson told him he was no longer interested in other women; he only wanted Richardson’s wife, Richardson testified.

The propositions continued until March 2011, when Richardson recorded a conversation in which Thompson offered $500 for sex with his wife.

Richardson, however, did not turn the recording in immediately. He said he did not want the fallout to ruin a trip to Hawaii.

When he did report it, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office organized a sting. Thompson was arrested in Richardson’s home and charged with solicitation of prostitution.

Thompson eventually confessed to deputies and reached a plea deal. He was required to pay $900, serve 20 hours of community service, undergo six sessions of counseling, write a letter of apology to Richardson and his wife, and have no further contact with them.

He resigned shortly thereafter. Thompson declined to comment for this story.

Smoak ordered Richardson to pay $55,000 in attorney fees for Bay District Schools, writing, the “plaintiff’s case was not just weak; it was devoid of any facts that could prove a sex discrimination claim.”

Earlier this month, Richardson parked his truck outside the maintenance department near Haney Technical Center with signs alerting people to his situation. The message stated: “Victims should never owe money or lose their job.”

Garrity has filed an appeal and hopes the ruling is reversed.

A few weeks ago Richardson and his spouse did receive some good news: The cancer has gone into remission.

Richardson said, despite all the trials and tribulations, he would not go back on any of his decisions.

“I look at it the same way I did before,” Richardson said. “After all I’ve been through, I’d do it again because you have to do what is right for your family.”

PANAMA CITY BEACH — Deputies suspect wild animals are killing the house cats of an upscale neighborhood, but people who have seen the corpses believe the pets are being killed by people.

Deputies are investigating the death of Skeeter after Bay Point security reported finding half the cat’s body in a road. The corpse had been disposed of by the time a deputy responded to the report, but a security guard showed him photos.

“The cat appeared to be cut in the center and the head was missing,” the deputy wrote in a report.

Skeeter is the only dead cat that has been reported to the sheriff’s office, spokeswoman Ruth Corley said Tuesday. Investigators have photos of the corpse but not the corpse itself, which makes it difficult to determine whether the cat was killed by another animal or a human, Corley said.

Two veterinarians have seen the pictures and said they suspect the cat was killed by a fox or a coyote, both of which are not uncommon in the neighborhood, Corley said, but without the body the vets won’t make an official determination.

“He’s a sly fox then,” Sandi Hasek, Skeeter’s owner, said Tuesday. “He kept my cat for two weeks before he killed him.”

Skeeter disappeared almost three weeks before they found the body, Hasek said. At first she figured another animal had killed Skeeter, but now she believes the cat was killed intentionally by a human.

Hasek said her husband, a physician, took a look at Skeeter’s body and didn’t find any of the puncture wounds, bite marks or scratches that would be expected. Hasek said she believes the cat was killed recently with a big knife, disemboweled, and the corpse was purposely discarded where neighbors would find it. Skeeter’s head was found the next day in a different area of the neighborhood.

Hasek voiced her concerns on television news Monday night. By Tuesday afternoon, she said, she had received phone calls from six neighbors with missing cats.

“We’re assuming the same thing has happened to him,” Katherine Dennis said. “It’s just a mystery. I have no proof other than my cat is missing.”

It’s been nearly three weeks now since Dennis’ cat Sam went missing. Rumors had been swirling for about a month, ever since Ray Spock, another Bay Point resident, found half a cat at the end of his driveway.

“Sandi just verified it,” Dennis said. “I had already heard the stories” by the time Sam disappeared.

The cat, Spock said, appeared to have been chopped in two and gutted. His driveway is a low spot in the area; stormwater runoff and the debris it catches collects there, and because of the heavy rain at the time the cat might have washed up there he said.

Or it could have been thrown there. Spock is confident about this though: the only kind of animal that could’ve caused those wounds has opposable thumbs and the ability to use a knife.

Spock said a neighbor suggested a coyote had killed it.

“It doesn’t look like a coyote to me,” he said.

If cat parts continue to turn up in Bay Point, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office wants to know about it, Corley said. If the cats are being killed it’s a crime and the corpses are evidence, so investigators would want to see it, she said. Corley was aware of some of the rumors and she said evidence might “put some of these fears to rest.”

Until then, several Bay Point residents are concerned and suspicious.

“There’s some sick kid — or someone — in the neighborhood doing this,” Dennis said. “It’s a sadistic act.”

APALACHICOLA — The former executive director of the Apalachicola Housing Authority has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $11,000 from her employer at the tail end of the nearly four years she served as director.

Selena Jo Noblit, as well as her defense counsel Randolph P. Murrell, signed a plea agreement Aug. 29 with Eric K. Mountin, assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Florida that could result in her receiving up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.

Noblit, 42, also agreed to pay a $100 special monetary assessment prior to her sentencing in mid-November before Judge Robert L. Hinkle on the single count of theft concerning programs receiving federal funds.

Because the housing authority receives in the neighborhood of a quarter million dollars annually in operating subsidies from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the case was investigated by HUD’s Office of Inspector General and prosecuted in federal court in Panama City.

A statement of facts, also signed by Noblit, Murrell and Mountin, accompanies the plea agreement and outlines Nobilt’s misdeeds.

The statement said Noblit was promoted in July 2008 from housing manager / occupancy specialist to director, which enabled her to receive an American Express card to cover operational expenses for the housing authority.

The statement said that after American Express requested payment from the executive director who preceded Noblit, the only individuals with access to the account and whose name was still connected with the credit card, “HUD became aware of suspicious purchases” on the monthly statement.

Between June 2011 and May 2012, Noblit made about $8,871 in personal purchases, said the statement of facts. In all, she racked up $11,126 worth of personal charges, based on a review of American Express and various department store records.

Personal expenses included purchase of food, junior clothing, tools, restaurant dining, dental care, a theme park visit and vehicle refinishing.

The statement of fact went on to say that when she was interviewed at her residence by HUD investigators in Aug, 2012, a month after she was fired as housing director, Noblit said her husband had repaid the unauthorized charges a week earlier, when he went to collect her personal belongings from the housing authority office. She said he delivered cashier checks for approximately $11,000 as payment for the charges.

Noblit “admitted she began using the American Express card for personal expenses in 2011, but intended to repay the expenses,” reads the statement of fact. “She explained that she was unable to ‘co-mingle’ her personal money with the (housing authority) money, and wanted to repay the charges from her paycheck, but did not know how to do so.”

First established in 1962, the housing authority oversees 54 public housing units on two sites within the city.

Earlier this year, Steve Lanier, an Apalachicola native and former comptroller at Weems Memorial Hospital, was named as the housing director, replacing interim director Paul Mills. Lanier completed a Navy career a few years ago in Key West.

PANAMA CITY — As part of his plea deal in the firebombing of a Muslim doctor’s home last year, Daniel Blankenship, 22, was supposed to testify against co-defendant Patrick Pippen. But Pippen, 22, was acquitted in the case last week without Blankenship taking the stand.

Prosecutor Bob Sombathy explained that Blankenship was essentially useless as a witness.

Blankenship was heavily intoxicated during the firebombing incident involving himself, Pippen, and 24-year-old Anthony Wait. In the incident, a device similar to a Molotov cocktail was hurled at Dr. Aziz Ahmad’s home.

“(Blankenship) was obligated to testify if we called him, but we were never going to call him,” Sombathy said. “He apparently was just stone-faced drunk and there was just nothing that he had to say that we could use.”

Blankenship also passed out at some point the night of the firebombing, according to Sombathy.

“He couldn’t provide anything helpful to say to us,” Sombathy said.

Sombathy would not comment on Pippen’s acquittal, other than to say, "We put up the best case we could.”

Pippen was found not guilty of principal in the first degree to arson of a dwelling and possession or manufacture of a fire bomb.
Blankenship pleaded no contest in February to accessory after the fact to arson and was placed on probation. The plea deal was offered because although Blankenship was drunk during the incident at Ahmad’s home, prosecutors believed he wasn’t completely unaware of what was happening.

Pippen had told police he put gasoline in a Mason jar and used a rag as a fuse, but that Wait threw the firebomb. Both men told police that Blankenship was just along for the ride. 

Initially, some people believed the doctor was targeted due to his religion. However, Police affidavits indicate Wait targeted Ahmad as retaliation because hs grandmother died in Ahmad’s care. Wait’s trial is set to begin in October.

Ahmad has declined to comment on the case until each suspect’s trial is completed.
 

MEXICO BEACH - Police here are searching for three individuals who broke into Toucan's Restaurant and did not take anything, according to a news release. 

The incident happened on August 11 around 11 p.m. and video surverilance captured the individuals try to break into one section of the restaurant and fail. They then went to another section of the restaurant and broke in but nothing was reported taken, officials wrote. The three individuals, a man and two women, appeared to be in their teens to early 20s, officials wrote.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the Mexico Beach Police Department at (850) 648-5984. Anonymous tips can be reported to CrimeStoppers at (850) 785-TIPS.

PANAMA CITY -- A man who tried to steal a bicycle is looking at 10 years behind bars as a habitual felony offender after he was convicted Wednesday of burglary, according to the State Attorney’s Office.

Barry Reynolds grabbed a baseball bat last October when he found Donald McClure, 54, rummaging around his garage and porch. Reynolds saw McClure handling a bike and physically restrained McClure until police arrived.

McClure was convicted of burglary of a structure, a third-degree felony that would typically carry a maximum penalty of five years. Prosecutors are seeking to have him sentenced as a habitual offender, however, because McClure has been in and out of Florida prisons since 1986.

Judge Elijah Smiley scheduled a sentencing hearing for Sept. 20.

PANAMA CITY — A man accused of raping a woman he allegedly kidnapped to return to forced prostitution will not be allowed to keep copies of the evidence the government will produce in his jail cell, a judge ruled Wednesday.

The government prevailed in a hearing on a motion to prevent Jacobo Feliciano-Francisco from holding on to documents that will identify witnesses against him, as well as other suspects in a criminal conspiracy who have not been charged, when he is in the Bay County Jail.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine Risinger was concerned that Feliciano-Francisco might attempt some measure of retaliation against the witnesses.

“…The Government contends it would be inappropriate for the defendant to receive a physical copy of his discovery to keep in his possession at the Bay County Jail,” Risinger wrote in a motion filed in August. “Indeed, allowing the defendant to maintain a separate copy of his discovery materials that contain witness names could assist him in engaging in further retaliation and witness intimidation while incarcerated.”

Feliciano-Francisco’s attorney, Maria Dykes, opposed the motion. In a response, she wrote that she would have limited time to spend with Feliciano-Francisco at the jail and it would be helpful to prepare his defense if he could access documents there. Any efforts to retaliate against witnesses could result in additional charges, she noted.

Feliciano-Francisco has pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment charging him with kidnapping, retaliating against a witness and transporting or coercing a person for prostitution during his initial court appearance in August.

He was arrested in Hattiesburg, Miss., after a woman walked into a police station and told officers she had just escaped from a brothel a block away after being kidnapped from her Panama City Beach home earlier in the day.

The woman, who had been forced to work as a prostitute testified in a federal trial in Tennessee that resulted in 13 convictions, relocated to Florida out of fear for her safety following a confrontation with an unknown person about her cooperation with the government, according to court records.

Feliciano-Francisco is scheduled for trial in December.

A man got drunk and refused to leave the bar, so police came. After the man calmed down, an officer offered to drive the man and his bike home.

Good deal right? Except when they arrived at the home, the man’s wife was waiting for him and he had a change of heart.

“Once he saw her, [he] stated he did not want to go inside the house and would rather go to jail for detox,” the officer reported.

He got what he wanted.

The Blotter is a lighthearted look at some of the unusual things found in local law enforcement reports.

Deputies responded to a domestic violence call just after 1 p.m. Sunday. The female victim was extremely intoxicated and bleeding from her bruised up face.

She told a deputy that the man who beat her up had done so after she refused him sex.

They had argued alright, the man said, but he hadn’t hit her. She had hidden his car keys so he couldn’t leave and that’s why they argued, but she got her injuries from falling down several times throughout the house.

A neighbor came over during the investigation. She corroborated part of the guy’s story when she said the victim was always falling down drunk. For instance, the day before the neighbor had watched the woman fall face-first into a toilet tank.

The deputies told the man to leave. They were going to forward the case to prosecutors and leave any charging decisions to them.
 

FARMINGTON, MAINE — Authorities say a local man who fell 40 feet from the roof of a University of Maine at Farmington building will face charges as soon as he's released from the hospital.

Police say two men climbed onto the roof of a university gym at about 2 a.m. Tuesday.

The Sun Journal (http://bit.ly/17BkxPw ) reports that officers on patrol spotted them and ordered them down.

Twenty-one-year-old Devon Pease of Farmington tried to escape by climbing down, but fell 40 feet to the pavement and sustained serious injuries.

Twenty-five-year-old Joshua Farthing of Panama City, Fla., was issued a summons for criminal trespass and released after a fire department ladder truck helped him down.

Neither man was a student at the school. Police did not say what they were doing on the roof.

PANAMA CITY BEACH -- Longtime Panama City resident and community leader Julian Bennett, 84, was critically injured Friday afternoon in a crash in Panama City Beach.

Bennett, 84, was driving his car eastbound on Hutchison Boulevard about 12:30 p.m. when he struck a car traveling southbound on Alf Coleman Road, according to a Panama City Beach police incident report. Both vehicles were entering the intersection at the same time. Natasha Turner, the 26-year-old driver of the vehicle struck by Bennett, was apparently not injured. Bennett was leaving lunch with two of his sons when the crash occurred. Further details on the incident were not immediately available.

Bennett, who was Bay County’s School Board attorney for about 20 years and owns several local establishments, including Sharkey’s and the old Mark IV hotel, was taken to the intensive care unit at Bay Medical Center Sacred Heart Health Center. He was initially in critical condition, but was later upgraded to stable condition, his son Michael Bennett said late Friday afternoon. Michael Bennett said his father received stitches for a head injury because he took a “pretty good whack” in the crash.

“His vitals are good,” Michael Bennett said. “We haven’t seen the x-rays yet. He’s still unconscious, and that’s the only thing worrying us. We’re all praying for him.”

In January, Bennett received the Bay County Chamber of Commerce’s highest honor, the Lauren Merriam Memorial Award. Contacted by phone Friday, Bay County Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Carol Roberts said news of the crash left her “speechless.”

“Mr. Bennett has been such a valuable part of this community and has given his time especially in the field of education,” she said. “My entire career I’ve listened to Mr. Bennett. … He’s always had a passion for kids and our education system.”

PANAMA CITY BEACH — A young mother and her boyfriend were arrested for allegedly punishing her 4-year-old son to the point caregivers at his daycare notified authorities of the child’s extensive bruising.

Kaitlin Marie Walsh and Robert McWhorter, both 24 of Panama City Beach, remained in the Bay County Jail as of Friday evening on bonds of $25,000 and $50,000, respectively. Walsh is charged with neglect of a child and McWhorter is charged with aggravated child abuse.

The two were arrested Thursday evening after an investigation by the Bay County Sheriff’s Office and the Department of Children and Families found evidence that McWhorter had slapped the child in the face and buttocks, leaving “extensive bruising and scrapes,” according to records. The boy’s injuries were allegedly inflicted the day before at the couple’s home.

The boy told investigators McWhorter caused the bruise on his ear. Walsh initially said the injuries were the result of a rash, but a doctor at the Children’s Advocacy Center said they were the result of multiple blows.

Walsh later admitted that McWhorter caused the injuries as punishment for an unknown offense, but that she felt the punishment was appropriate and she saw no problem with the way the punishment was administered.

McWhorter and Walsh have some traffic infractions but no significant criminal history in Bay County. Their Facebook pages indicate they have been dating about a year.

PARKER -- Six people were arrested Friday after police found three small children playing in East Highway 98 unattended, according to Parker police.

Arrested were Tiffany Jean Bell, 23, David Edward Goetz, 34, Kenny Dale Ashby, 21, Christina Michelle Watson, 33, and Ricky Eugene Fesler, 43.  All have a Parker address, but police did not release the address.

 They are all charged with multiple counts of child neglect, possession of a schedule I controlled substances and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Also arrested was Ovie Clay Ashby, 17. He has been charged with possession of a schedule I controlled substance, felon in possession of a firearm and resisting an officer without violence.

Police discovered narcotics, narcotics paraphernalia and a loaded firearm in the residents’ home. They also discovered that the floors of the home were covered in urine and feces and the narcotics, and the loaded firearm was accessible to the children, police said.

Eleven children that were living in the home have been turned over to the Florida Department of Children and Families.

PANAMA CITY BEACH -- A pair of aggravated battery suspects were literally caught red-handed by Bay County Sheriff’s deputies this week.

Steve Burke, 40, and Charlie Sides, 40, each had blood on their hands when they were pulled over Wednesday night in Panama City Beach, the Sheriff’s Office reported. The men were stopped on suspicion of reckless driving about 11:15 p.m. at Panama City Beach Parkway and Dolphin Drive.

Minutes earlier, a man had reported that Burke and Sides attacked him with a yellow pole at his home. Burke and Sides were detained in the traffic stop, and Burke gave permission for his blue Chevrolet Camaro to be searched, according to BCSO. Deputies found a yellow painter’s extension pole that was taken into evidence.

Burke and Sides were arrested, and they were each charged with aggravated battery. They are being held in Bay County Jail.