Free Republic

A police lieutenant was canned early Sunday after crossing over the blurry blue line — when her fellow officers discovered their drunken colleague driving backwards, honking, through the streets of Florida. Now ex-cop Christi Ruhtz, 41, was discovered with bloodshot, glassy eyes and reeking of booze in Pinellas, Florida around 2:00 a.m————————snip———————-Rhutz, who’d been with the Pinellas County Sherriff’s Office since 1998, was immediately fired, according to the report.

Deborah Gibson, who claimed she dated Roy Moore when she was a teenager just announced her intention to run for Florida House of Representatives. There’s only one problem; she is not legally allowed to run for Congress. Before choosing to run, she changed her party affiliation from Republican to Democrat, and in doing so disqualified herself from running for office because of Florida state law. She had to be informed by the local news of this fact. Watch the video of her being informed that she can’t run for Congress after announcing her candidacy

The Broward County Sheriff’s Office has identified to Fox News the captain who, according to sources, directed responding deputies and units to “stage” or form a “perimeter” outside Stoneman Douglas High School, instead of rushing immediately into the building, as the mass shooting unfolded there. Multiple law enforcement and official sources said the commands in the initial moments after Nikolas Cruz allegedly opened fire would go against all training which instructs first responders to “go, go, go” until the shooter is neutralized. As law enforcement arrived, the shooter’s identity and exact location were still unknown.

Everyone paying attention knows now that the Parkland massacre by a severely troubled and dangerous young man was the result of a failure of a host of government institutions. The FBI received several specific warnings and ignored them. The Broward County sheriff's department also ignored countless notifications, as did the local police. Much of the inefficiency was probably due to sheer incompetence, people not doing the jobs they were meant to do. But much was the result of a truly ridiculous program invented by the Obama administration, the Promise policy. Jack Cashill has written about this in depth, as the...

A Florida Highway Patrol officer is in hot water after video showing him apparently racing a Lamborghini Aventador with his police car hit Instagram this week. Shot from the inside of a second Aventador, it shows the Dodge Charger patrol car and the Italian supercar with New York tags cruising along next to each other before the drivers hit their accelerators and pull away. The Lamborghini predictably leaves the Dodge in the dust. The exact location of the race has not been revealed, but the FHP knows who the trooper is and is considering if disciplinary action is necessary.

An escort and "her protection" were arrested in Florida after they apparently showed up to the wrong house. Linda Elkins and Bosha Dawes, both 26, are facing loitering charges after Cape Coral Police said they showed up to a home on SE 10th Terrace and rang the doorbell just before 3 a.m. "I would have answered the door with my shotgun," Rachad Leanari, a neighbor, told Scripps station WFTX in Fort Myers, Florida. The couple who lives in the home called police. They told officers Dawes rang their doorbell with something white covering his face. Elkins was with him. The...

ORLANDO, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - A mom from Orlando was hauled off to jail after a trip to Walmart. Orlando Police say 34-year-old Shanteria Baker took her eight kids to Walmart and had all of the children help her shoplift. Investigators say Baker's children range in age from four to 18 years. Police say Walmart security "observed Baker along with each child make several selections of women's clothing, women's accessories, cosmetics and grocery items." The kids placed the items into one cart while baker began to separate out the food items, according to her arrest affidavit. It also says...

The state attorney's office will determine if a woman will face hate crime charges for attacking a fellow Lyft customer. Miami Beach police detectives say an angry and drunk Sherry Moody first yelled gay slurs at a fellow passenger and then kicked, slapped and scratched 57-year-old Jose Gonzales during their Jan. 26th ride. Her stiletto heel caused a puncture wound to his face. Gonzalez said Moody became angry that Gonzalez was scheduled to be dropped off first before she attacked him. The Lyft driver kicked her out, and she later turned herself in to face felony battery charges. Lyft released...

A student who flushed her hamster down the toilet when Spirit told her she couldn't fly home with it, is now attempting to sue the airline for causing emotional distress. Aldecosea, a Miami Beach High graduate, insists her doctor approved her hamster as a certified emotional support animal, and had the medical certificate to prove it when she went to the airport. She's bought the adorable rodent after developing a large but benign growth in her neck last year. 'She was so loving. It was like she knew I needed somebody,' said Aldecosea, a six-feet tall volleyball star who helped...

Sentencing is scheduled for April. 20 – coincidentally, a celebratory day in cannabis cultureIn a guilty plea deal, the Miami Lakes man who hid $22 million of suspected marijuana trafficking funds in five-gallon buckets will keep $4 million, his home, his hydroponics garden supplies store and five Rolex watches. Luis Hernandez-Gonzalez, 46, on Wednesday pleaded guilty in federal court to money laundering and structuring bank deposits to avoid the federal government's reporting requirement, known as smurfing, his attorney confirmed to NBC 6. Marijuana trafficking and other charges were dropped as part of the plea agreement. The June 2016 raid on...

Lisa A. Barreca, 53, was arrested Monday on an attempted murder charge in the shooting of her husband Eric Barreca A South Florida woman is accused of shooting her husband multiple times during an argument over HOA complaints. Lisa A. Barreca, 53, was arrested Monday on an attempted murder charge in the shooting of her husband Eric Barreca, Boynton Beach Police said. According to an arrest affidavit, the incident began with an argument over HOA complaints that quickly escalated. Eric Barreca said he followed his wife to the garage, where she grabbed a firearm from her car, the affidavit said....

Blame the ex-Police man. A song by the band’s former frontman Sting sparked a wild brawl between a Florida couple that culminated with a man chomping down on his boyfriend’s lip. Byron Haynes and his live-in beau, Yakeme Moore, were bickering inside their home in the seaside city of Bradenton Sunday, when Haynes, for some reason, flipped out when he heard the singer’s 1985 tune, “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free,” according to documents posted by The Smoking Gun.

You don’t see this every day on Duval Street. A Michigan man who has been taking his “Trumpmobile,” a pickup hauling a 36-foot-long, 13-foot-tall footbridge on a trailer dubbed the “Trump Unity Bridge,” arrived in Key West over the weekend, blaring songs such as Lee Greenwood’s “I Love the U.S.A,” Neil Diamond’s “America” and Jimmy Buffett’s Key West mantra, “Margaritaville,” as he tooled around the island. “I was really impressed, proud and honored,” Rob Cortis, 55, a Detroit native who calls Livonia, Mich., home, said of his weekend Key West tour. “Key West was all beautiful. A couple of people...

SPRING HILL, Fla. (WCMH) – A Florida man was arrested Wednesday after deputies say he tried to order a burrito in the bank drive-thru. It happened at the Bank of America in Spring Hill, Florida, WFTS reported. The manager of the bank called the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office after finding a man unconscious behind the wheel of the car in the drive-thru. The manager said that he managed to wake the driver up after banging on the window for “some time.” When he woke up, the driver reportedly asked the manager for a burrito.

Midway into a Florida murder-for-hire plot, a boyfriend-girlfriend hit team realized they’d zip-tied and duct-taped the wrong woman — and then killed her anyway, officials said. Victim Janice Marie Zengotita-Torres, 42, of Kissimmee, was forced into the trunk of her own car, tortured for her ATM card and then suffocated with garbage bags, officials said. The mother of a 14-year-old son, she was found Monday, dumped in Ormond Beach, six miles north of Daytona, ABC News reported.

An overly honest man reported himself to police for drink driving, in one of the most bizarre 911 calls ever. Michael Lester, of Polk County in Florida, called 911 on New Year’s Eve and told the operator he had been drink driving ‘all night’. He could not even tell the operator where he was when asked, he told her ‘I don’t know, I’m too drunk.’ However, he was reticent to give his surname, when asked he said: ‘I think I’m going to get something to eat, they can catch up with me.’ He said when asked again: ‘No, I don’t...

AMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – A Florida woman is responding after a man accused her of owning a bobcat that attacked him inside a condo at a downtown Tampa high-rise. Marcos Hernandez, who is represented by the Morgan & Morgan law firm, filed the lawsuit last month in Hillsborough County against SkyPoint Condominium Association, Inc. and Christine Lee. Lee tells News Channel 8 that his claims aren’t true. She says the alleged bobcat is actually a domestic long-hair tortoiseshell cat named “Calli.”

The Pembroke Pines Police Department is searching for a burglar who stole an assault rifle, a Taser and a vest from a police cruiser. The suspect – described by the PPPD as a "black or Hispanic light-skinned male with a distinctive tattoo on his right arm" – also took ammunition in the theft. "We believe this suspect was involved in numerous burglaries – in the same time frame where at least another weapon was taken," PPPD Capt. Al Xiques said. Anyone with information on these crimes is urged to call Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS.

INDIANAPOLIS -- A Florida woman stalked and left threatening messages for NASCAR driver Tony Stewart and his family for more than a year over anger that he failed to give her an autograph at a race, according to criminal charges filed last week. Kathi Russell, 68, of Cape Coral, Florida, was taken into custody on Tuesday on felony charges of stalking, terroristic mischief and intimidation for an alleged campaign of harassment against Stewart lasting from March 2016 through October of this year. According to a probable cause affidavit filed in the case, Russell made hundreds of anonymous calls to Stewart...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A tearful Corrine Brown made her plea to the court Thursday afternoon, asking the judge to consider all she has done in her life and to show “mercy and compassion.” Brown, 71, was convicted in May of 18 counts of conspiracy, fraud and filing false tax returns. She said those charges run contrary to everything she's ever done in her life, and that she considers her decades of public service an honor and a privilege. Corrine Brown Headlines Corrine Brown with her attorney, James-Smith Corrine Brown's attorney: People 'deserve second chances' After tears, tough questions, Corrine Brown...