Many drug offenders in the Tampa area have the opportunity to participate in a treatment-based drug court. There are drug court programs in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee and Sarasota counties – as well as throughout Florida. In fact, the first drug court in the United States was started in Miami 20 years ago this spring.

Back in 1989, Dade County responded to a federal mandate to reduce the inmate population or suffer the loss of federal funding with the first drug court. A Florida Supreme Court investigation determined that a majority of state prison inmates were incarcerated on drug charges and could not escape the system due to drug addiction. (more…)

A senior judge in Pasco County sentenced Charlton Oliver Jr. to 15 years in prison for the DUI manslaughter of Shelly Bingham this week.

Fathers of three deceased young people were allowed to speak at the sentencing hearing.

Twenty-three-year-old Christian Ward was a passenger in Oliver’s car in 1994 when it flipped off the road while going 140 mph. Ward suffered brain damage and lived in a Bradenton nursing home until he died 11 years later.

Oliver went to trial in 1996 for that accident, where a jury acquitted him of serious personal injury while driving under the influence, a felony, but convicted him of culpable negligence, a misdemeanor. He was sentenced to a year of probation and a $1,000 fine. (more…)

Most Americans spent Memorial Day remembering lost loved ones and military heroes. But May 25, 2009 was a remarkable date in Florida for another reason. It was the 30th anniversary of the nation’s first involuntary execution after a four year suspension of executions by virtue of a U.S. Supreme Court case. In 1976, though, the United States Supreme Court approved of a bifurcated guilt/punishment process for capital cases. In 1977, Gary Gilmore was executed by a firing squad in Utah – but he did not appeal his conviction or sentence.

No other executions were carried out until two years later. On May 25, 1979, John Spenkelink was executed in a Florida prison by the electric chair. His case traveled to the U.S. Supreme Court five times prior to his death. Spenkelink had rejected a plea offer from prosecutors to plead guilty to a charge of second-degree murder and receive a long prison sentence. (more…)

A Pinellas County jury found Lonnie Booth guilty of DUI manslaughter this week. Booth was charged after the November 2005 death of Rose Mitrano on Roosevelt Boulevard. Booth was also found guilty of driving with a license that had been suspended, revoked or canceled.

Prosecutors said Booth was driving 40 to 45 mph when he struck Mitrano, who was walking along Roosevelt Boulevard between Interstate 275 and 28th Street. Booth apparently kept driving despite a deployed air bag, a broken headlight and a smashed windshield. Mitrano came up on the hood of the car and was nearly decapitated, according to law enforcement. (more…)

Hot on the heels of an announcement by the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida that mortgage fraud cases would now be aggressively pursued by a special task force, the U.S. Congress has passed a new mortgage fraud bill aimed at funding such white-collar prosecutions.

President Obama is expected to sign the bill, which had broad bipartisan support. The new legislation authorizes the expenditure of $265 million a year to prosecute mortgage fraud. It is estimated that the funds will allow the hiring of about 160 special FBI agents and more than 200 support staff, including forensic analysts. The FBI currently has less than 250 agents assigned to mortgage fraud investigations, despite a quickly growing caseload. (more…)

You may have heard claims or seen ads touting a “proven method” to avoid paying federal income tax. Prosecutors clearly believe that this is too good to be true. Two Tampa Bay area men have been indicted in federal court for running such a scheme.

Joseph Nelson Sweet has been charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, corrupt interference with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and criminal contempt. Also charged is Jack Lee Malone, who is facing only the conspiracy to defraud the U.S. charge. (more…)

Tampa Bay area doctor Kevin Mark Denny was indicted in federal court this week on felony drug charges – specifically, two counts of acting outside the scope of professional practice by dispensing and distributing oxycodone, hydrocodone and alprazolam (generic Xanax). Denny’s charges come on the heels of similar charges against two other Tampa area physicians – Jeffrey Friedlander and John Rew.

Denny has offices in Tierra Verde and on North Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison. (more…)

Tampa’s U.S. Attorney Brian Albritton expects to see ten times more mortgage fraud prosecutions in his office in the next year. Albritton told local media that his office is helping coordinate a large-scale multiagency task force that plans to bring more than 100 mortgage fraud cases by the end of 2009.

Albritton said he is requiring each of the 105 federal prosecutors in the Middle District of Florida to take on a mortgage fraud case on top of his or her normal workload. (more…)

The Sarasota murder trial of Elton Murphy started this week. Prosecutors charged Murphy with the first-degree murder of gallery owner Joyce Wishart in January 2004.

In opening statements, prosecutors claimed that Murphy picked Wishart out as a rape victim because she was alone in her art gallery in downtown Sarasota. They told the jury that Murphy had a knife and stretchy sock to bind her when he got there. He then locked the door when he left in such a way as to not leave fingerprints. (more…)

Casey Anthony, the Orlando woman charged with capital murder in the death of her young daughter last summer, plans to ask a judge for a change of venue. If the request is granted, the trial will be held outside of Orlando with jurors from another county.

Anthony’s criminal defense attorney said he will file a change of venue motion because of the pretrial publicity the case has generated. One of the attorneys on Anthony’s defense team told a morning talk show that constant media coverage makes it impossible for Anthony to get a fair trial in the Orlando area. (more…)