Free Republic

A central Florida woman who was arrested after her shirt got wet at a kiddie splash park in Tavares is suing the city for violating her rights, the woman's attorney told AOL News. "We are trying to vindicate her [and] establish [that] what was done to her was unconstitutional and wrong," said civil rights attorney Howard S. Marks. The incident that provoked the lawsuit occurred in April when Janet Lovett and her husband took their 7-year-old son, who is autistic, to the Children's Splash Park in Tavares. While she was in the park, Lovett was splashed by water, which soaked...

Sunday, July 12, 2009 MOTHER SPEAKS OUT-- Says She Would Have Boxed Obama's Ears For Ogling Her Teen Mother of ogled teen speaks out... "I would have boxed their ears!" The family of the Brazilian girl ogled by President Obama and French Leader Sarkozy told reporters that the photo has "ruined the whole family." The New York Post reported: The Secret Service might want to put a new threat on its watch list: the mad-as-hell mama of the 17-year-old Brazilian beauty ogled by President Obama and French leader Nicolas Sarkozy at the G8 summit last week. "If I were there,...

Saturday, April 18, 2009 there will be a Tea Party and Pork Roast at Wooten Park in Tavares, Florida from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM. A can of food is required for entry and the food will be donated to the Salvation Army. Free pork for everyone.

Two members of the board that appointed Judge Kathe Tuttman now want her booted from the bench, charging that former Gov. Mitt Romney did not inform them of her involvement as a prosecutor in a botched case that freed a child rapist. “This is ridiculous. The Romney people didn’t do their investigation,” Governor’s Councilor Marilyn Pettito-Devaney said. Romney has not responded to numerous requests for comment about the case of child rapist Daniel Parra, who walked free after prosecutors headed by Tuttman missed deadlines in their failed bid to have him committed as a sexually dangerous person in 2005. Romney...

HAS EVERYONE on Beacon Hill fallen fast asleep? Two people were just slain by a Massachusetts thug who was released on personal recognizance rather than having to make steep bail. And who then skipped town and fled to Washington state, where he was arrested last Monday and charged with killing young newlyweds Brian and Beverly Mauck in their home. But so far, the official reaction here has been so muted as to defy belief. We have a governor who, to burnish his tough-on-crime bona fides in last year's campaign, portrayed himself as an experienced former federal prosecutor who had put...

Mitt Romney has had a tough week. Just days after someone push-polled Iowans in an ugly display of bigotry, a new attack has floated into the blogosphere regarding Romney's judicial nominations as Governor in Massachusetts. One of his appointments, Kathe Tuttman, released a violent offender on his own recognizance on an assault complaint -- and the suspect promptly fled to Washington and killed a young newlywed couple: The father of a Washington woman slaughtered along with her new husband - allegedly at the hands of a convicted Bay State killer - said his daughter’s accused murderer never should have been...

BOSTON - Mitt Romney did everything he could while governor of Massachusetts to avoid having a sticky "Willie Horton" criminal case cloud his future presidential campaign. To no avail. Romney is now being dogged by the case of a convicted killer who was charged in the recent deaths of a young couple — after being released over prosecutors' protests by a judge Romney appointed. Rudy Giuliani is trying to tie it all to his rival in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. "The governor is going to have to explain his appointment, and the judge is going to have...

BOSTON (AP) - A Massachusetts judge was just doing her job when she freed a convicted killer now charged with murdering a newlywed couple, the chief judge of the state Superior Court said Monday in a case that has become enmeshed in the presidential campaign. Republican Rudy Giuliani has cited the case to criticize former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's record on crime. Romney, who appointed the judge, has called on her to resign. On Monday, Chief Justice Barbara Rouse said Judge Kathe Tuttman applied the law to the facts that were before her when she made the decision to free...

Twenty months after he put a career prosecutor on the Massachusetts Superior Court, confident in her law-and-order credentials, Mitt Romney called today on the judge to resign because she released without bail a convicted killer who went on to allegedly kill again. more stories like this Thompson: New York City isn't representative of America High school student elected to town post in Branford On the road, Giuliani loves his diner stops Romney disagrees with Gregg on Iowa N.H. slates primary Jan. 8, earliest ever Eric Fehrnstrom, a Romney spokesman, said that Judge Kathe M. Tuttman should never have freed Daniel...

DERRY, N.H. — The uproar over the Massachusetts judge who released a convicted killer now being held on two fresh murders in Washington state has taken a political tilt for the campaign of Mitt Romney, who nominated the judge when he was governor. The GOP presidential candidate on Saturday personally called for the resignation of Superior Court Judge Kathe M. Tuttman, who overruled a lower court ruling and released convicted killer Daniel Tavares Jr. in July, rejecting prosecutors' request to set his bail at $50,000 after he was arrested on assault charges. Tavares had also once threatened to kill Romney....

Presidential hopeful Gov. Mitt Romney yesterday demanded the resignation of his own judicial nominee after she sprang a violent convicted killer over the summer, as new details emerged showing that the judge ignored warnings when she freed the ex-con, now accused of killing a Washington couple. “There was a systematic failure in this case starting with the judge,” Romney’s spokesman, Eric Ferhnstrom, said of Superior Court Judge Kathe Tuttman. “Her decision represented an inexplicable lapse in judgment and was inexcusable. Unless there are facts unknown to us, (former Bay State) Gov. Romney believes Judge Tuttman should resign.” However, a former...

Brian and Beverly Mauck fit together like two pieces of a puzzle, friends recalled Saturday at a memorial service for the young couple. He was fearless, she was a daredevil; he loved football; she was an athlete. The couple, who lived in Graham, Pierce County, were found fatally shot in their home Nov. 17. On Tuesday, police arrested a neighbor, Daniel Tavares Jr., 41. He has been charged with aggravated first-degree murder in their deaths. Charging papers said the slayings followed an argument over a $50 debt. Hundreds of people attended the Saturday memorial service. In a two-hour tribute that...

Mary-Ellen Manning, a member of the Gov.'s Councilor which must give final approval to judicial nominations, said the nominating panel should be disbanded. "The governor should be held accountable for his judicial picks," she said. "It's his biggest legacy."

Freed Mass. Killer Charged In Double Murder Police: Killer 'Insulted' Over $50 Debt POSTED: 10:08 am EST November 21, 2007 UPDATED: 10:30 am EST November 21, 2007 TACOMA, Wash. -- A convicted Massachusetts killer now accused of slaying a neighbor couple told police he shot them after the man insulted him when he tried to collect a $50 debt, according to court documents. Daniel Thomas Tavares Jr., 41, was charged Tuesday with two counts of aggravated first-degree murder, a charge that carries a penalty of death or life in prison without parole. He pleaded not guilty and was ordered held...

TACOMA, Wash. -- Pierce County prosecutors on Tuesday filed aggravated murder charges against the man accused of killing a young couple in their Graham home. Daniel Thomas Tavares Jr. pleaded not guilty to the charges, which carry the possibility of the death penalty. He's being held without bail. Prosecutors have 30 days to decide whether to seek the death penalty. According to a statement of probable cause filed in court, Tavares admitted to detectives that he shot Brian and Beverly Mauck last weekend in their home and tried to cover up the crime. The court documents state that Tavares said...