Free Republic

A Florida woman has found herself behind bars after she allegedly barged into a gas station while naked and drunk, threatening to kill staff members with a peeler/corer knife. Celia Barrett, 35, was arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated assault, disorderly intoxication, criminal mischief, exposure of sexual organs and trespassing after the incident that unfolded at the RaceTrac at 2551 54th Ave. in St. Petersburg, according to an arrest affidavit from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. Barrett, who was previously trespassed from this gas station back in November, returned on Sunday evening after taking six shots of liquor,...

A giant warehouse near St Petersburg has gone up in smoke after the Russian workers there set the entire facility ablaze. The action was reportedly taken after Russian police raided the Wildberries warehouse to find people to conscript to fight the war in Ukraine. According to Russian media sources the incident is currently under investigation by the state prosecutor's office. According to APA's Russian bureau, there is currently no available information regarding the number of casualties or injuries caused by the fire. The fire took hold of the 50 thousand square metre site and required hundreds of firefighters to bring...

During the traffic stop, she allegedly attacked a Florida Highway Patrol trooper with her fingernails. The incident occurred around 8:30 p.m. in St. Petersburg, FHP said. A Mercedes being driven by Bianchi allegedly raced past a trooper on the Gandy Bridge. As the trooper was trying to take her into custody for driving under the influence, she allegedly became “violent” and dug her fingernails into the trooper’s hands... also charged with resisting officer with violence, battery on law enforcement, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, speeding and no insurance. She was taken to the Pinellas County Jail, where her...

The man charged with having a deceased female body in his vehicle after leading police on a 37-mile pursuit along Interstate 75 is now set for a preliminary hearing. David Maurice Reed, 54, of St. Petersburg, Florida, was arraigned Friday in Laurel District Court on charges of murder - domestic violence, tampering with physical evidence, first-degree fleeing and evading police in a motor vehicle, second-degree criminal abuse, second-degree wanton endangerment with police officer as victim, careless driving, resisting arrest, and no operator's/moped license. Reed was spotted in Madison County on Wednesday, Jan. 18, weaving in traffic along I-75. The vehicle's...

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. – A Florida man is facing charges after police said he assaulted a police horse. St. Petersburg Police said Alisha Lalani, 27, walked up to them while they were on duty on Saturday and used an open hand to slap the rear of the animal. According to a arrest report, the horses were wearing police insignia and flashing blue lights when Lalani approached them. Police said Lalani told them he didn’t know he was not allowed to hit the horses. Lalani was arrested and faces a charge of battery on a police horse.

A Florida woman was arrested on Thanksgiving after driving recklessly toward a closed course for a 5K turkey trot that was in progress, according to WESH. Some 3,000 runners were participating in the Coffee Pot Turkey Trot in St. Petersburg, Florida, when Ashlee Lauren Morgan, 38, was “driving recklessly south on Coffee Pot Boulevard Northeast, approaching the Snell Isle Bridge,” according to the St. Petersburg police department. She was pulled over and three officers requested her credentials. She refused, according to reports, and fled the scene “at a high rate of speed onto the race course.” Another officer attempted to...

He was perhaps too buzzed on Thanksgiving. A Florida business owner has been busted after his girlfriend accused him of drunkenly battering her with her sex toy. Christopher Pacitto, the 45-year-old CEO and owner of Velocity Engineering Services, was arrested after a 4:30 a.m. bust-up with his girlfriend at a St. Petersburg motel on Thanksgiving Day, an arrest affidavit shows. During an argument, the 6-foot-2, 300-pound business owner started packing his bags — then throwing all of his girlfriend’s items out onto the floor, the complaint says. “During that process” he “hit her with a sex toy on her torso,...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — A St. Petersburg woman was arrested Saturday afternoon after police say she allegedly threatened a man with a sword. An arrest report said Quiana Manning, 41, had gotten into an argument with the man over a parking spot in her apartment complex. Police said the woman exited her vehicle and approached the victim’s box truck while wielding a sword, described as being approximately two feet in length. According to the report, the woman raised the sword close to the man’s open driver’s side window and told him “you can get f— up.” The document said...

Inflation is impacting the entire United States population as prices continue to be a burden for families, but certain California cities are feeling the impact more than others. In a new study from WalletHub, cities were ranked on how much inflation is rising. The study pointed to the year-over-year inflation rate of 8.2% last month, but noted that some cities are feeling costs increase more than others. In the report, 23 Metropolitan Statistical Areas were examined. The site looked at the Consumer Price Index information available for the most recent month and compared it to two months ago and one...

Andrei Nikiforov, a lawyer from St Petersburg, was one of the hundreds of thousands of Russians mobilised since last month to hold the frontlines in his country’s faltering war in Ukraine. On 25 September he received his call-up papers. By 7 October, just two weeks later, he was dead. “We don’t know what happened,” said Alexander Zelensky, the head of the Nevsky Collegium of Lawyers, of which Nikiforov was a member. Zelensky and a member of Nikiforov’s family confirmed his call-up and death. “All we have is a date and a place.” That place was Lysychansk, one of the most...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — A St. Petersburg man was arrested Saturday morning on a felony battery charge after throwing chili at someone, according to deputies. A report from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said that George Neil Armstrong, 50, got into an argument with someone Friday morning that began to escalate. The affidavit said that Armstrong poked the victim in the face before he took a bowl of chili out of the microwave and threw it on him. Deputies said Armstrong fled the scene of the incident before law enforcement arrived. However, he was arrested the following morning.

President Biden called three Florida mayors Tuesday as Hurricane Ian nears Florida’s western coast — but didn’t call Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, with whom he has clashed on issues such as COVID-19 policies and migration. Presidents frequently speak directly with governors during emergency events — both to demonstrate political unity and to help coordinate federal and state relief efforts. As the devastating Category 3 storm approached, Biden instead spoke with Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch and Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard. Castor and Welch are Democrats, while Hibbard is a Republican. DeSantis is a potential 2024 Republican...

A Florida woman was arrested for making 12,512 phone calls to police precincts this year. Carla Jefferson, 51, "harasses, belittles, swears at, argues with" whoever picks up her incessant calls to the non-emergency lines of the St. Petersburg Police department and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, according to a court document. Jefferson’s calls account for 10% of incoming phone traffic to the St. Petersburg Department this year, according to officials. Last month, Jefferson called the precinct 512 times in a 24-hour span. The calls were described in the affidavit as "vulgar, threatening, or obscene." Every incoming call made to the...

After years of Russiagate conspiracy theories about how the Russians had somehow rigged the 2016 presidential election using Facebook ads, the Senate Intelligence report awkwardly revealed that the Russian operation had focused most of its attention on black nationalists. The Senate report revealed that "most of the videos" put out by the Russian IRA troll factory on YouTube "pertained to police brutality and the activist efforts of the Black Lives Matter organization" and found that "no single group of Americans was targeted... more than African-Americans" around "race and related issues". But that was an understatement. The Russians had created their...

Early last Thursday morning, police in St. Petersburg, Florida happened upon a man named Enzo Zabala-Cardozo, who was about to fire up and smoke from a glass pipe in an alleyway. Obviously, that is not allowed, but according to Zabala-Cardozo, it was all good! As he turned to walk away from the police, he assured the officers that “meth is legal now.” Zabala-Cordozo offered no other proof or details of his claims, and it was not enough for the police to avoid taking him into their possession. Per The Smoking Gun, Zabala-Cardozo was arrested on a felony drug possession charge...

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — St. Petersburg police are investigating after a person was caught on camera using a flamethrower to torch a Pan-African flag flying on a pole outside the headquarters of a Black international socialist group based in Florida. Authorities were called to the Uhuru house Saturday around 10:15 a.m. to investigate the incident which happed near the intersection of 13th Street South and 18th Avenue South, in St. Petersburg. Security video released by the Uhuru Movement showed the driver of a white sedan park outside the group’s St. Petersburg headquarters before they pulled a flamethrower from the...

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — A New Port Richey man was arrested on a felony charge Saturday after authorities said he threw a hot dog at an officer who was warning him of violating a city ordinance, arrest documents said. Officers said Jason Stoll, 47, of New Port Richey ignored the warnings and continued to sell hot dogs in the roadway Saturday around 12 a.m. after his street closure permit ended. Stoll was asked to put the hot dog down but authorities said he continued his attempt to sell it.

A confrontation described as heated but non-violent thwarted a planned burning of the Confederate flag by demonstrators Saturday in Brooksville. A few hundred counter-protesters — many carrying Confederate and American flags — showed up at the steps of the Hernando County courthouse to cut short a rally in which organizers denounced “rampant white racist violence.” Organizers of the protest included the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, a St. Petersburg group of white people under the leadership of the African People’s Socialist Party, which seeks reparations for black Americans. As about a dozen people protested, they became greatly outnumbered by a pro-Confederate flag...

A Florida socialist political group defended its relationship with Russia after the FBI alleged Kremlin agents teamed up with the organization in a "brazen" attempt to undermine US elections. Federal agents on Friday raided St. Petersburg's Uhuru House — the headquarters of the socialist pan-African political organization — in connection with the alleged election interference conspiracy, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

AP) — A Russian operative under the supervision of one of the Kremlin’s main intelligence services has been charged with recruiting political groups in the United States to advance pro-Russia propaganda, including during the invasion of Ukraine, the Justice Department said Friday. The indictment of Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov reflects what U.S. officials say are ongoing Russian government efforts to meddle in the American political process, to shape public opinion and to sow discord and dissent on hot-button social issues. In this case, the authorities say, Ionov from 2014 through last March recruited political groups in Florida, Georgia and California and...