Teen Who Fell Into Gap in New John’s Pass Bridge is Suing

(Tampa Bay Times, July 12. 2012)

BY MICHAEL FINCH II

MADEIRA BEACH, Fla. — Two people falling off the new John’s Pass Bridge within a month was enough for the state to block off parts of the span.

Fernanda Alvarez wonders what took so long.

She fell through more than a year ago.

Alvarez, 19, of Miami spent three weeks in Bayfront Medical Center with a shattered pelvis and broken arm. Then a senior at Immaculata-La Salle High School in Coconut Grove, Alvarez was an active member on the student council who loved to play soccer.

She graduated in a wheelchair.

“I figured,” she said, “I was going to be in a wheelchair forever.”

• • •

It was March 5, 2011, just weeks after the two new spans of the bridge were opened, when Alvarez decided to cross.

She wanted to watch a friend on a personal watercraft.

Heading to the top, she jogged along the sidewalk-like median separating the two spans. Her friends stayed behind.

Suddenly, she disappeared from sight.

“From where we were standing, you couldn’t see the gap,” said a friend Joseph Raia, 19, who found Alvarez lying on concrete below.

The area in question is a median between the northbound and southbound lanes. It runs partly up the bridge on both sides, then ends abruptly, revealing a 100-foot-long, 3-foot-wide opening designed to provide structural flexibility.

At least one person fell where the median suddenly ends, and at least two others fell from the top of the bridge while trying to cross the 3-foot gap.

Fishermen and locals suggest many others have fallen.

Last month, attention mounted when two anglers fell from the bridge in separate incidents.

While fishing, Aaron Motta, plummeted through the center of the gap and into the water. He was trying to cross the median near the top of the bridge, about 30 feet above the water.

A few weeks later Joseph Schlag, 31, of Pinellas Park fell from the same area and fractured his skull on a concrete piling. He remains at Bayfront Medical Center in fair condition.

Both incidents prompted the state Department of Transportation to put up orange netting and plywood to block access to the 100-foot-long opening.

“We’re still investigating,” said Marianne Scorza, spokeswoman for the department. She said guardrails have been considered.

• • •

Alvarez filed a lawsuit in September against Flatiron Construction Co., which built the bridge, and the state transportation department.

The suit alleges the construction company failed to warn pedestrians of the opening in the bridge and created a “dangerous illusion that the bridge was connected to a walkway.”

She is seeking more than $15,000 in damages.

“They should have put a warning sign up there — something to alert people that there is a danger there,” said Alvarez’s attorney, Daniel Kaufman of Sunrise in Broward County.

The gaping hole in the bridge has left many dumbstruck.

“If there is a hazard, or if it is inviting, I suppose it could be sealed off,” said Bob Szatynski, a project manager for the bridge.

Szatynski, who works for the architectural firm Parsons Brinckerhoff, based in New York City, said the space allows access for maintenance crews and a degree of elasticity on the bridge.

Because the two spans of the bridge “react differently” and move separately on the sea floor, the opening was necessary, Szatynski said.

“Whatever you seal it off with — it can crack,” Szatynski said. “Nothing is completely safe.”

The bridge was rebuilt over four years, reopening in 2010. Each span was constructed separately, and reaches about 30 feet above John’s Pass.

For Alvarez, the bridge is only a horrible memory.

Soccer, once her passion, is off limits. She can walk again, but only for short periods of time.

The 19-year-old decided to focus on visual art instead of sports.

She moved to New York City, where she attends the School of Visual Arts.

“Some days I am in pain,” Alvarez said. “I try and work with my injuries as much as possible.”

Pharmacy Robberies in Lake Park Stem From Pill Crisis

(The Palm Beach Post, Front Page August 15, 2011)

BY MICHAEL FINCH II

LAKE PARK, Fla. — Two men approached Robalo’s Pharmacy on U.S. 1 in the dead of night one recent Friday. They removed the electric meter from an outside wall, then waited 40 minutes before they robbed the place.

When the front glass door was shattered, sirens blared and the two men took off, but not before getting at least some of what they came for: $1,000 worth of diabetes medication.

“They were smart enough to remove the meter,” Nirav Patel, the pharmacy’s owner, said after watching the men fumble through the store on surveillance video, “but I don’t think they were professionals.”

The growing prescription-drug crisis is hitting home in yet another way. Addicts desperate for prescription pills such as oxycodone and Xanax – and to a lesser degree, small-time dealers – are robbing and burglarizing small mom-and-pop pharmacies with increasing frequency, law enforcement officers said.

The problem is acute in South Florida, considered the pill-mill capital by law enforcement agencies such as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Florida Attorney General’s Office and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.

As pill mills disguised as pain-management clinics and doctors’ offices are shut down, the reliable pipeline addicts have come to depend on is disrupted.

They then look to attain the drugs by any means, even scourging neighborhood pharmacies for pills.

In the past six months, Palm Beach County has had at least six crimes, some violent, at small pharmacies.

Owners rethink security

As the crimes become more pervasive, pharmacy owners are sometimes doubling up security measures.

Last year, there were at least 10 armed robberies at pharmacies in the county. According to the DEA, Florida has led the country in such armed robberies since 2007 – and South Florida is leading the state.

For example, on July 7, two men wearing gloves and covering their faces robbed the Apex Pharmacy on West Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach of cash and more than 20 bottles of Roxicodone. The three employees were left tied up inside the pharmacy. But in that case, the video cameras were not working.

Burglaries like the one at Robalo’s are common, too. Around 3:50 a.m. on Aug. 3, officers responded to an alarm at Farmacia Las Americas in Lake Clarke Shores to find the front glass door shattered.

On the surveillance tape, investigators could see four men breaking the door, then taking more than $1,000 worth of prescription drugs.

As of Thursday, police had placed a warning to be on the lookout for the suspects.

A recent surge in crime at local pharmacies has many owners thinking about ways to back up their stores’ small-town charm with some real-world security.

“We are not like a Walgreens or a CVS,” Patel said. “Robalo’s is like a 50-year-old pharmacy, and it still looks like it would have 50 years ago.

“It’s an open store because patient interaction is what keeps my business going,” he added.

But since the attempted burglary, Patel has questioned the premium he places on interacting with his customers. He said he may add a small barricade or two in the store.

Discussing tactics

These days at the monthly meetings of the Palm Beach County Pharmacy Association, President David Mackarey says the conversation inevitably shifts to crime.

Mackarey said “nothing is foolproof,” but he advises a few things at the association’s meetings . Pharmacies should advertise both that they have cameras and that they do not carry oxycodone, he said.

Those tactics failed for the owners of Winships Prescription Center Pharmacy in North Palm Beach. In March, Rodney Mickens allegedly came into the pharmacy on Northlake Boulevard, brandished a gun and demanded ” oxy.”

According to police, the 22-year-old, who is facing armed robbery and aggravated battery charges, passed a sign on the front door that says “We do not carry Oxy, Roxi or Xanax,” hopped across the counter, grabbed a female clerk and held the gun to her head .

Mickens squeezed the trigger twice. When the gun failed to shoot, he fled, police said.

Casey Kelleher, owner of the new Neighborhood Pharmacy in Boynton Beach, uses several types of security.

He installed impact-resistant windows and retractable window shutters for when the pharmacy is closed. He also uses technology that takes fingerprints of every customer he serves.

The inside of the pharmacy, however, remains open to customers.

Kelleher said he often gets telephone inquiries for opiate-based painkillers, many of which he doesn’t have on hand.

“I won’t carry it,” he said of the popular painkillers. “If someone comes in and asks, they’ll have to wait two days. And if you’re not a druggie, you can wait.”

Reputed Top 6 Gang Leader Sentenced to 65 Years in Prison

(The Palm Beach Post, Local Section, August 13, 2011)

BY MICHAEL FINCH II

WEST PALM BEACH — Whether music group or gang, allegiance to Top 6 earned Futo Charles 65 years in prison.

It took jurors less than three hours Friday to find the 30-year old guilty on charges of racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, possession of marijuana and ecstasy. Circuit Judge Karen Miller soon afterward handed him the maximum sentence allowed.

Both the verdict and sentence ended a two-week trial where the death of Eguel Geffrard, a witness expected to testify in the case, elevated tensions both in and out of the courtroom. Miller ordered a partial sequestration of jurors.

West Palm Beach Police Spokesman Chase Scott confirmed Friday that Geffrard, 25, was shot to death while attending a birthday party early Monday morning. His body was found in a West Palm Beach parking lot at the 1600 block of Forum Place.

After Miller delivered the sentence, Charles’ defense attorney Marianne Rantala called it “very harsh.” She had tried unsuccessfully to convince Miller to give Charles a sentence that would “at least give him a chance to live outside of incarceration.”

“They maxed him out,” Rantala said. “I was expecting it.”

Rantala said Charles’ trial was replete with issues that could get his conviction and sentence thrown out on appeal.

On Tuesday, she tried to enter into the court file A Palm Beach Post article on Geffrard’s death. A juror in the case said his daughter contacted him and expressed concerns for his safety, but did not mention an article.

“But I think if any of them had (read the article), in their minds it would have been an immediate guilty verdict,” Rantala said.

Charles had accepted two potential plea agreements in the case since his December 2008 arrest – one for an 8-year prison sentence and another for 15 years.

Miller in both cases rejected those deals, saying the first was too lenient in light of sentences handed to other Top 6 members and the second insufficient because Charles refused to say as part of the deal that Top 6 was a gang.

The indictment of Top 6 members was one of the first issued by the statewide grand jury on gangs in December 2007.

Two other Top 6 members had been convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison before Charles’ trial.

Chief Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Brian Fernandes argued that Top 6 was a criminal enterprise involved in narcotics-related crime that beseiged areas of Lake Worth and parts of Palm Beach County.

Fernandes pressed jurors to believe that association in fact equaled membership within Top 6, arguing that R.I.P. shirts and photographs of men holding up five and one fingers denote gang affiliation.

“They all represent the same thing with their symbol–a five and a one,” said Fernandes.

Members of Top 6 denied they were a gang. Rantala said Top 6 was a rap group, in which Charles played a minor role, and that none of what members did amounted to a criminal enterprise.

Charles, who did not testify in his own defense during the trial, showed little reaction to the verdict and sentence.

On his way out of the courtroom he turned to the gallery, blew his mother a kiss and threw a peace sign to his friend, Jimmy Petitdieu, who during the trial testified that Top 6 was a rap group he produced.

“I love you guys,” he said.

Man Scheduled to Testify at Trial of Alleged Gang Leader Found Slain in West Palm Beach

(The Palm Beach Post, Local Section Front, August 8, 2011)

BY MICHAEL FINCH II

WEST PALM BEACH — The body of a 25-year-old man expected to testify in the case of alleged Top 6 gang leader Futo Charles was found shot dead Monday morning in a parking lot at the 1600 block of Forum Place.

According to sources close to the case, West Palm Beach police are investigating the overnight shooting of Eguel Geffrard, whose body was discovered around 7 a.m. in a bloodied white T-shirt in the parking lot of a medical office building near the corner of Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard and Congress Avenue.

West Palm Beach police spokesman Chase Scott would not confirm the identity of the man whose body was found .

He did say, however, that another man showed up Monday morning at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach with gunshot wounds. Scott did not identify the man or give information on his condition.

Police Chief Delsa Bush, who was at the scene where Geffrard’s body was discovered Monday morning, said police are continuing to investigate the incident, as there were no immediate details on the motive for the shooting or type of gun used.

Meanwhile on Monday, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Karen Miller abruptly adjourned Charles’ racketeering trial and sent the jury home for the day.

The trial, which began last week, was expected to last two weeks. Geffrard was scheduled to testify Monday afternoon, according to sources.

Charles is suspected of leading the violent street gang, Top 6, which authorities say was responsible for a bloody gang war that raged in Lake Worth and Boynton Beach in 2006 and 2007.

The trial for Charles, 30, comes more than a year after Miller rejected the last of two plea agreements prosecutors and defense attorneys attempted to make in the case.

Geffrard, who is alleged to have ties to Top 6, had been arrested 18 times since 2003 for crimes ranging from drug possession to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, Florida Department of Law Enforcement records show. Ten of Geffrard’s arrests happened during 2006 and 2007, when Top 6 was at its climax of alleged criminal activity.

Neither prosecutors in Charles’ case nor his defense attorney, Marianne S. Rantala, would comment on the incident. Charles’ case is expected to resume Tuesday.

Lommel Auguste, a security guard at an office building near the Forum Shoppes, was surprised by all the activity Monday morning because buildings in the area don’t open until around 8 a.m.

“When I came in around 7 a.m., there was one officer and an ambulance,” Auguste said Monday.

Staff writer Daphne Duret contributed to this story.

Rehab, Not Jail for Minor Drug Offenders in Orleans Program

(The New York Times Student Journalism Institute, May 22, 2011)

BY MICHAEL FINCH II

On the second floor of the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, a string of 40- something-year-olds strode down the hall to somewhat of a grand fanfare. Clad in green and crimson robes, elation was on each of the 26 faces graduating from the city’s drug court program.

“Not everyone that comes through this building should be given up on,” Judge Camille Buras said to the court’s largest graduating class since the program began in the 1990s. “Nobody but you know how hard it was to get here.”

After failing twice before, Carmella Stewart, 47, who is now a graduate, said that after her life became unmanageable, she turned to the drug court program, which steers nonviolent criminals away from extensive detention.

“I can’t count the amount of times I had been to jail,” Stewart said. “Now I have structure in my life that I never had.”

In a state that incarcerates more people per capita than any other in the nation, drug court is one of the few avenues that avoids the “arrest, convict and incarcerate” credo that has overrun the city’s jails with inmates. In Louisiana, a first conviction for marijuana possession results in a fine of up to $500, but the penalties escalate so sharply that a fourth possession carries a mandatory 20 years in jail.

The success of the programs, which divert drug offenders to rehabilitation, has kindled a debate over a fundamental question. Should a city like New Orleans, faced with diminishing finances, invest in more prison cells or in pretrial release and diversion programs?

As more outside experts have studied the city’s crime problems since Hurricane Katrina, local political leaders have begun to reconsider their tendency to build larger jails.

In February, the New Orleans City Council decided to limit a new jail to 1,438 prisoners, fewer than half of the 3,500 that survived from a 7,000-bed facility that was heavily damaged by the floodwater.

Arthur L. Hunter, a criminal court judge, said that in order to reduce the number of people placed in jails, the state Legislature must first change laws governing criminal sentencing.

“You have to determine if you want those beds for serious criminals or less serious criminals,” Hunter said. “But there has to be a clear line in the law.”

But local prosecutors are accepting higher percentages of the cases from police and often bringing the harshest possible charges, adding to the number of inmates.

As federal recovery funds dry up, the city and the state do not have the money to pay for many of the recommended programs, judges say.

“They’ll bring in a work release program from Maryland, or pretrial program from Connecticut,” the chief criminal court judge, Terry Q. Alarcon, said. “But there’s never any execution because it cost too much.”

New Orleans has long had one of the highest murder rates in the country, and political leaders are not advocating less jail time for violent criminals. But given the poor education system and the lack of high-paying jobs, many young people get caught up in drug use or the drug trade.

Judge Alarcon said the mandatory sentencing laws leave judges and juries with too little discretion in dealing with many people who are drug users, not dealers.

In one recent case, he said, a juror told him that even though the evidence was strong, the jury had considered acquitting one man facing his fourth drug possession charge. The jurors thought that the 20-year sentence the man would receive was harsh, and that caused them to hesitate before voting to convict him, Judge Alarcon said.

Jon Wool, director of the Vera Institute for Justice’s office in New Orleans, has been a part of the effort to create a pretrial services program in the city.

“The present system, which conditions release on assets rather than an objective assessment of risk, is less responsive to concerns of public safety,” Wool said.

The primary elements to determine pretrial release are whether a person may fail to appear in court or is a risk to public safety.

The criterion that has been developed takes into account criminal history factors, prior failures to appear in court, present pending charges and probation or parole status, Wool said.

The pretrial services program is estimated to initially reduce the number of prisoners by 330.

Over the past year, the city has lost more than 5,000 jobs, which some say contributes to the city’s plight.

Lynda Van Davis, another criminal court judge in Orleans Parish, said that the city has “no industry” to supply jobs, which is coupled with problems in education.

“The opportunities for someone with a high school diploma in New Orleans are limited,” she said. “I have so many individuals that come in at 21 and have never held a job.”

It is important to exercise some leniency sometimes by not sending everyone to jail, Van Davis said.

“We’re punishing some people when the reason why they are going to jail is addiction to drugs,” she said.