Free Republic

A former assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted U.S. Capitol rioters got better bail than some of the accused in the January 6 case after he allegedly stabbed a driver in a fit of road rage on Tuesday. Meanwhile, former assistant U.S. attorney Patrick Scruggs—who prosecuted some of those accused of storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021—has been charged with aggravated battery, aggravated assault and armed burglary. Scruggs, who spent 10 years with the U.S. Attorney's Office, posted $65,000 bail the same day he was arrested in Tampa, Florida. Scruggs was released from the Pinellas County Jail on Tuesday...

Officials say a Pinellas County deputy was killed overnight in a hit-and-run crash at a construction site on Interstate 275 near Roosevelt Boulevard. The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office has announced the suspect in the hit-and-run death of a deputy was taken into custody after an eight-hour search in the Ulmerton Road and I-275 area. According to Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, Deputy Michael Hartwick, 51, was killed when he was struck by a front-end loader being driven by a construction worker just after 10:30 p.m. Thursday night. The suspect was initially believed to be Victor Vasquez-Real by deputies. The individual allegedly...

A man in black bloc behaving suspiciously near a right-wing rally outside the Pinellas County Courthouse in Florida on Jan. 6 was apprehended by deputies after he tried fleeing on foot. Garrett James Smith, 22, was arrested and found carrying an active pipe bomb, Antifa propaganda and a written document on what to bring for his direct action. He had recently returned from Portland, Ore. "He was running fast, he was running away from something," Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said at a press conference on Friday. Smith was purportedly targeting dozens of the attendees of a rally protesting the...

What a bad year to be a Florida manatee. For the first time on record, more than 1,000 of the sea mammals have died in a calendar year — and it’s not even December yet. That could amount to 1 in every 7 of the state’s manatees gone in less than 11 months. Many of them starved, thanks to a die-off of seagrass, a problem worsened by human-made pollution. In the short run, Florida owes it to this iconic mammal to find ways to mitigate the damage. It’s also time to put the manatees back on the endangered species list,...

Long before she was tall enough to sit behind a steering wheel, Paula Nelson-Blattner was experiencing the best and the worst of the Howard Frankland Bridge. “As a kid, I was always nervously asking my parents, ‘Did you check your gas?’” said Nelson-Blattner, 52, who got the creeps crossing the concrete span, perched as it is atop golf-tee shaped pillars as far as 58 feet above the waters of Old Tampa Bay. “Of course, once you’re close enough to read the warnings, not a gas station is in sight and it’s far too late to turn back.” The “check your...

U.S. law enforcement officials are investigating a hacker’s unsuccessful attempt to tamper with a Florida city’s water supply, an event that cybersecurity professionals view as yet another wake-up call that should cause the government to examine its role in protecting critical infrastructure from more skillful attackers. On Monday, local officials from the city of Oldsmar and the surrounding Pinellas county said a “bad actor” used software that provides remote access to a public water treatment facility to increase the level of sodium hydroxide—the main ingredient in drain cleaners, which is used in small quantities to adjust pH levels—to a dangerous...

A hacker recently tried to poison a Florida city’s water supply, police announced Monday. Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said someone remotely accessed a computer system that controls the City of Oldsmar’s water treatment facility on Friday. The unidentified person increased the amount of sodium hydroxide being distributed into the city’s drinking water to a “dangerous” level, Gualtieri said at a press conference. The chemical, also known as lye, is used in small amounts to control the water’s acidity — but can be deadly if ingested in large quantities. A worker at the plant immediately noticed the change and reversed...

FLORIDA — Gov. Ron DeSantis announced last week that while vaccines for COVID-19 are coming soon, he won’t require anyone to get vaccinated if they don’t want to. But a GOP state lawmaker said that state law, as currently written, could allow him or any other governor to mandate vaccinations, and he will file legislation in the coming days to repeal that law. “Right now in Florida, under the public health emergency statute chapter 381, they can literally take you, test you, quarantine you, but also force you to take a vaccine. They can restrain you and force you to...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - A Florida man is charged with providing material support to the Islamic State extremist group, including attempting to buy multiple weapons and scouting potential targets for an attack in the Tampa Bay area, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. A criminal complaint charges Muhammed Momtaz Al-Azhari, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen, with attempting to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. The charge carries a potential 20-year prison term. **SNIP** According to the affidavit, Al-Azhari scouted a number of targets in the Tampa Bay region, including beaches, parks and even the Tampa FBI field...

Pinellas County’s world-famous beaches have been nearly empty for three weeks, but that could change on Thursday. During an emergency meeting Monday for the Pinellas County Commission to extend emergency orders, a majority of the seven commissioners said they want information for a Thursday meeting so they can consider opening private pools at condominiums and parts of the county’s beaches for exercise and recreation. One such scenario could allow residents to use the shoreline for walking and jogging, but not allow crowds to congregate in beach chairs or under canopies. Another could allow private condominium pools to open, but would...

With Hepatitis A cases skyrocketing across Florida, reported cases among food workers are also on a steep rise. That’s creating a real public health issue, as ingesting the virus through food or water is the easiest way to contract it. Yet the DOH chooses not to notify the public of some food worker cases, according to a spokesperson, as the agency weighs the risk to patrons against the risk of a public health scare. In the case of this grocery store employee last week, who was hospitalized after symptoms worsened over the course of several days, the DOH determined there...

Michael Drejka, the 47-year old shooter of 28-year-old Markeis McGlockton over a July 19 dispute about a handicap parking spot, has been arrested and charged with manslaughter, reports the Tampa Bay Times and other news sources. He is being held on $100,000 bail in Pinellas County Jail.We previously covered this case immediately after it occurred here:Law of Self Defense VIDEO: Just because it's lawful to present the gun doesn't mean it's lawful to press the triggerand here:Law of Self Defense: VIDEO: Shove-Shoot Case Sheriff's StatementDrejak has a potential, if marginal, justification claim of self-defense here. The key issue is whether...

In my humble opinion, it appears as though Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri may be ready for the rubber gun squad. The good sheriff said Thursday that law abiding citizens exercising their Second Amendment rights will be "thrown down on the ground with a gun pointed at them — or worse."

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri is defending the actions of one of his deputies seen on a video breaking up a fight on St. Pete Beach. The video, which has been viewed a million times, captured Sgt. Bryan Bingham tussling with two men on St. Pete Beach on Sunday. On the video, you can see Bingham grab 25-year-old Joshua McMahan by the neck and throw him to the ground. Bingham said he used a pressure point technique on the jawline and directed McMahan to the ground after he spit in his face. "So what Sgt. Bingham did was use appropriate...

The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office has gone to the dogs. Well, at least its rugs have. [snip]

Republican David Jolly has defeated Democrat Alex Sink and Libertarian Lucas Overby for the U.S. House District 13 seat. With all precincts reporting, Jolly received 48.43 percent of the vote, while Sink received 46.56 percent of the vote. Overby received 4.83 percent of the vote, with 8,799 votes cast for him. The candidates were vying for the House seat previously held by Congressman C.W. Bill Young. Young, who died in October, served from 1971 to 2013. The Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections said voter turnout for the special election was just about 39 percent. Most of those - about 26...

CLEARWATER — There was a Jeykll and Hyde quality to Thursday's court proceedings, where three 15-year-old boys pleaded guilty to beating a 13-year-old student on a school bus last month. The boys appeared remorseful and respectful, their heads sometimes bowed. It was all “Yes, sir” and “No, sir,” sometimes in unison, as Circuit Judge Raymond Gross painstakingly asked them a series of questions after their attorneys announced the trio would be pleading guilty in the July 10 beating. But then Assistant State Attorney William Schopper asked that the video of the attack — the one that's gone viral and turned...

Three teenagers charged in a vicious school bus beating were sentenced to indefinite probation Thursday in a Florida juvenile court. The probation sentence for the trio of 15-year-olds came with multiple conditions including community service, random drug tests and electronic monitoring, meaning ankle bracelets for as long as 60 days. In addition, the teens must also take anger management classes, comply with mandatory curfews and stay away from the vicitm. Joshua Reddin, Julian McKnight and Lloyd Khemradj had all pled guilty earlier Thursday to aggravated battery charges in the attack on a 13-year-old boy on a Pinellas County school bus...

Former Florida Rep. Allen West had harsh words of criticism for nationally known civil rights activists like Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton, who have remained silent on a video showing black teens beating a white boy, 13, on a school bus: “Ya’ll just make me sick.” The video, which went viral this past week, depicts a July 9 assault on a Pinellas County school bus. Three black teenage boys, all age 15, beat a white boy, while the bus driver — who has since resigned — tries to verbally halt the altercation but does not physically intervene. The...

Gulfport, Florida police released video of a horrible racial beating on a school bus. A white student is seen brutally beaten by three older black teens as he stood up to leave the bus. The boy suffered two black eyes, bruising and a broken hand. WFLA reported, via Free Republic: Gulfport police recently released surveillance video from a school bus that shows the bus driver’s perspective of a beating earlier this month. In the video from July 9th, the victim is sitting in the second seat of the Pinellas school bus with his head down. The violence starts as soon...