The nationally known Innocence Project has taken up the case of convicted Manatee County rapist Derrick Williams. They were banking on the importance of a single strand of hair and hoping that it was the key to reversing Williams’ conviction.

The Innocence Project takes on old criminal cases and attempts to navigate through the legal system to allow for up-to-date DNA technology to be utilized to, hopefully exonerate the defendant. State law allows defendants to ask for any DNA evidence that might exonerate them be tested. (more…)

Victor Clavizzao of St. Petersburg was sentenced this week to five years in federal prison for his involvement in a multimillion-dollar mortgage fraud scheme. He will serve three years probation after his release.

Clavizzao acted as a mortgage broker but didn’t have a license. Using “straw buyers” and false income figures, he arranged loans and then kept hundreds of thousands of dollars in loan proceeds. In addition to prison time, Clavizzao is required to repay more than $2 million that lenders lost due to his scheme and pay an almost $6 million fine. (more…)

Former Okaloosa County, Florida Sheriff Charlie Morris pleaded not guilty this week to several counts of conspiracy to defraud the United States, theft, wire fraud and money laundering. Federal prosecutors allege that Morris and his former administrative director, Teresa Adams ran a kickback scheme for at least two years in which they gave fake bonuses to sheriff’s department employees, who were then asked to return some or all of the money to Morris and Adams via cash or cashier’s check. (more…)

Tampa resident Kevin Massimino was sentenced to three years in prison and five years supervised release by a federal judge last week. Massimino pleaded guilty to selling prescription drugs in an operation that involved two Pasco County sheriff’s deputies.

Federal prosecutors alleged that Massimino sold hydrocodone and Xanax which had been stolen by Robert “Fat Bob” Caddick. Caddick was chief financial officer for Medipharm-RX, a local internet pharmacy whose license to sell controlled substances was suspended by the DEA in late 2006. Massimino was previously a Medipharm employee as well. (more…)

A Florida doctor and three of his employees were arrested earlier this month on federal drug charges they illegally gave patients prescription drugs at clinics across Florida. Dr. Jeffrey Friedlander operated Neurology & Pain Center clinics in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota,  Lakeland, Orlando and Jacksonville.

A federal grand jury indicted Friedlander, his physician’s assistant, an emergency medical technician and the office manager of giving prescriptions for narcotics to known drug addicts.

Friedlander’s indictment comes on the heels of drug charges against another Tampa Bay area physician for similar events. (more…)

Police in Pasco County made an interesting DUI arrest in New Port Richey this week. At about 2 a.m. on Thursday, an officer heard repeated honking from a parked car outside an auto body shop. The officer assumed it was an alarm and investigated.

No one was trying to steal the 2007 Suzuki SUV. The officer found Moises Gomez of Trinity in the car, having sex with an unidentified female. The car horn was being triggered by their movements.

The officer allegedly noticed signs that Gomez was intoxicated including slurred speech, watery, bloodshot eyes and the smell of alcohol on his breath. The car was parked. Gomez was technically behind the steering wheel and the keys were draped over the steering column. (more…)

Orange County prosecutors filed notice of their intent to seek the death penalty in their case against Casey Anthony today. Anthony is charged with the first-degree murder of her two-year-old daughter Caylee.

In a case that has captivated the nation, Anthony still claims that Caylee was kidnapped. Her body was found in December in the woods near the family’s home. Casey Anthony has insisted that she left Caylee with a baby sitter in June, but she didn’t report Caylee missing for another month. (more…)

Benjamin Wibben from Fort Myers was sentenced Thursday in a Hillsborough County court to life in prison for robbing and killing a Plant City couple who sold cars over the Internet.

Wibben pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and robbery in the 2005 deaths of Heather and Darren Kaiser. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole and avoided any possibility of the death penalty. (more…)

Former Tampa Bay Storm arena football player Darion Conner was found guilty yesterday in a Tampa court of DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide. Conner’s SUV collided with bicyclist Jonathan Conklin in September 2004. Conklin died of his injuries.

Hillsborough County prosecutors accused Conner of striking and killing Conklin with his Toyota Land Cruiser in the early morning hours of Sept. 4, 2004. A subsequent blood alcohol test showed Conner’s blood alcohol level to be 0.273 – over three times the legal limit of 0.08. (more…)

Anton Goubrial of Tampa pleaded guilty in federal court this week to committing food stamp fraud and wire fraud. Goubrial owns Watson’s Food Store in St. Petersburg, where prosecutors alleged that he defrauded the government out of well over $100,000 by giving customers cash for their food stamps. This is the second recent food stamp fraud case in Tampa Bay area news. (more…)