We just commented here last week on a Minnesota man who pleaded guilty to DUI for driving a lawnmower-turned-motorized-recliner and noted that a similar charge was possible under Florida law. And now, news comes out of Marion County near Ocala, that the sheriff’s department there has charged a man with DUI for driving a lawnmower while intoxicated.

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office reported that Ron Martin and a woman were riding a stolen riding lawnmower down a road in Belleview, Florida last week when they crashed into a school bus. The mower had been reported stolen from a local home earlier that day. (more…)

James Otto Price, III, of Jacksonville was sentenced this month to 30 months in federal prison for willfully preparing false tax returns. The court also entered a money judgment against Price in the amount of $216,454.00, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida.

According to the Internal Revenue Service, Price has the dubious honor of being the first tax preparer in the country to be found guilty and sentenced for committing tax fraud involving the First-Time Homebuyer Credit. (more…)

A Pasco County jury this week acquitted Anthony Boglino of Hudson of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Boglino shot his neighbor one time in the abdomen in May 2008. He faced 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

The jury relied on Florida’s “stand your ground” law in finding Boglino not guilty. (more…)

The former president of a Tampa mortgage company and his wife were sentenced to federal prison this week for defrauding banks and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development for a combined $79 million. According to court documents, Corey and Sandi Brower ran GreatStone Mortgage and were involved in a conspiracy to defraud from 1999 to 2001.

According to court documents, in late 1998 or early 1999, GreatStone officers including the Browers devised a scheme to ease some cash flow problems by defrauding the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and several financial institutions. Apparently, the company obtained funds by submitting loan documents to banks for mortgages which had already been funded with money obtained from other banks.

According to a former employee who also pleaded guilty to taking part in the plan, they would then change the date on a copy of the note and forge a signature of the mortgagee. The documents would then become part of the pyramid scheme in which GreatStone used money from fraudulent mortgages to repay earlier loans fraudulently obtained. (more…)

Dennis LeRoy Anderson of northern Minnesota has pleaded guilty to driving his motorized La-Z-Boy chair while drunk. Anderson left a bar in Proctor, MN in August 2008 in the recliner – after drinking eight or nine beers, according to police.

The chair was powered by a converted lawnmower. It had a stereo and cup holders. Anderson was charged with DUI when he crashed the chair into a parked vehicle after leaving the bar. He was not seriously injured but his blood alcohol content was 0.29. Just as in Florida, a driver is presumed intoxicated in Minnesota if his blood alcohol level is 0.08 or higher. (more…)

Mary Ann DeLazzer of Bradenton was 77 years old when she died last year, the day after Thanksgiving. The manager of the Our Daily Bread soup kitchen, DeLazzer was on her way to work just after 6 a.m. that morning, when 21-year-old woman Julissa Martinez’s car struck the back of DeLazzer’s vehicle on State Road 70 at 30th Street East, in front of Wal-Mart, in Bradenton.

Martinez pleaded guilty to the DUI manslaughter this week in a Manatee County Circuit courtroom. She will be sentenced on January 29. Martinez faces a mandatory minimum of four years in prison, but under Florida sentencing guidelines she should be sentenced to just more than 10 years. The maximum sentence is 15 years. (more…)

Peter James Porcelli II, a Pinellas County telemarketer, was indicted last week by a federal grand jury in Tampa on fraud charges. Porcelli is already serving 13 years in federal prison after pleading guilty in 2007 to wire fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy.

Prosecutors in the 2007 case, filed in federal court in Illinois, accused Porcelli of using his telemarketing company to target people who had troubled credit records, telling them their credit would improve if they paid $159 or more to receive a MasterCard credit card. No MasterCard was ever sent, according to court documents, just additional instructions to obtain a MasterCard pre-paid debit card.

As a result of those actions, dating back to 2001 and 2002, the Federal Trade Commission sued Porcelli and his companies, and obtained a restraining order that prohibited him from offering any credit or loan product for sale to consumers. (more…)

Jeffrey Allen Ware of Weeki Wachee was arrested by Hernando County sheriff’s deputies earlier this week and charged in Citrus County with eight counts of trafficking in controlled substances and eight other drug-related charges, including attempting to acquire possession of a controlled substance by fraud. Law enforcement alleges that Ware ran an illegal prescription drug ring across Central Florida.

They claim that Ware created phony prescriptions for narcotics on a computer, using names of real doctors without their knowledge. Ware then had seven people take the prescriptions to various pharmacies to be filled. Those people would be paid and Ware allegedly sold the pills, which were usually Oxycodone.

Ware was taken to the county jail with bail set at nearly $4.3 million. Six others were also arrested. (more…)

According to a Hernando County sheriff’s report, a 2006 Toyota slammed head-on into a school bus on County Road 550 earlier this week. The driver, Michelle Sutton, allegedly had a suspended license and may be charged with driving under the influence.

The Florida Highway Patrol reported that Sutton’s car was traveling at a high rate of speed and weaving in and out of the oncoming lane of traffic before colliding with the bus. Sutton was taken to the hospital in serious condition. According to the sheriff’s department, an ER nurse found a plastic bag containing about 18 grams of marijuana in Sutton’s shorts pocket.

Sutton told law enforcement that the shorts were her boyfriend’s. She was cited for misdemeanor possession of marijuana, reckless driving and driving with a suspended license. A charge of driving under the influence is pending while officials await toxicology results. (more…)