Reporting with Nick Samuel
INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A 31-year-old man who called in a fake bomb threat to a local elementary school in 2014 was re-sentenced to 10 years in state prison Thursday. “The defendant showed many indications that he is dangerous,” prosecuting attorney Brian Workman argued during the re-sentencing at the Indian River County Courthouse. “The state needs to be responsible for protecting its citizens.” Matthew Hawks, of Vero Beach, was initially sentenced to five years probation after the bomb threat, which targeted Vero Beach Elementary school, reports show. In a series of phone calls to the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office in April 2014, Hawks said, “No one is going to make it,” authorities said. Read more here. TALLAHASSEE - State prosecutors recently strengthened their case against several defendants accused of running a “pill mill” in Vero Beach. The Fourth District Court of Appeals overturned an earlier ruling and found police work done by a local sheriff’s deputy outside his jurisdiction was admissible.
The order usurps Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Cox’s earlier determination that Maj. Eric Flowers, then a narcotics detective with the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office, was acting out of bounds when he secured search warrants for defendants’ property in Broward and Palm Beach counties. Florida statute has no requirement that someone who applies for a warrant be an officer of the law, therefore jurisdiction is not relevant, opined Judge Spencer Levine. Appeals Court Justices Burton Conner and Alan Forst concurred. Read more here. INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A Circuit Court judge has denied immunity to a Vero Beach man accused of shooting his brother dead after a night of heavy drinking and brawling, despite a plea for relief under Florida’s revised ‘Stand Your Ground’ statue.
The Hon. Cynthia Cox issued her ruling June 28, nearly a week after hearing expert testimony about the 2014 slaying. It was the second time Cox ruled that defendant Mark Deffendall’s actions were not excused by the defense. The 43-year-old, who was beaten bloody by his brother in their father’s airplane hangar just before the shooting, is being held at the Indian River County jail without bond. He has been charged with first-degree murder with a firearm. His case has yet to go to trial. Read more here. INDIAN RIVER SHORES — Six undocumented Central American immigrants ran into problems last month when they tried to enter John’s Island to do manual labor. Shores police partnered with the U.S. Border Patrol to detain and initiate deportation proceedings for the workers, who are suspected of being in the country illegally.
The men were taken into custody two weeks ago after John’s Island security notified law-enforcement the workers were unable to produce identification as they attempted to enter the upscale, gated community. They were working with M&M Trucking, a transport company hired by a roofing business to deliver roofing tiles to a home on Manatee Cove. They had been hired to help load several heavy pallets onto the roof, said Indian River Shores Public Safety Lieutenant Al Iovino. The driver of the truck didn’t tell security there were workers in the back, he explained. The guard became alarmed and called police after realizing there were several people in the trailer; none of whom had proper identification. “At that point, you don’t know who you are dealing with,” Iovino said. Read more here. A middle-of-the-night decision by two Indian River Shores Police Officers to go back to the shoreline and look again may have saved a missing John’s Island woman’s life. The Alzheimer’s patient had wandered away from her home on Coconut Palm Road around 11 p.m. last Saturday. Officers searched for her for hours without success.
They brought out a helicopter and police dogs. They scanned the shoreline. They went to a property nearby she was known to frequent. Then, thankfully, they scanned the shoreline again – this time from the vantage point of a backyard deck, shining their flashlights inland toward the water’s bank. The woman, whose name is not being released, was standing waist deep in the canal hiding among the mangroves. It was almost 2 a.m. when police spotted her. She had been struggling to get out of the water, and when she heard the officers calling to her, she fell and went under. Read more here. A federal jury last week found the lawyer who performed escrow work a decade ago for luxury condominium units at the Vero Beach Hotel and Spa guilty of conspiracy and bank fraud. Unlike hotel developer George Heaton and another co-defendant, Eric Granitur, 60, maintained his innocence and took his case to trial. He now faces up to 30 years in prison.
Prosecutors alleged Granitur, Heaton and others lied to lenders about incentive programs, such as cash-to-close rebates, used to lure prospective buyers to the Ocean Drive development during the real-estate slow down. This gave banks a false impression of the viability of the project and allowed developers to secure the funds they needed to complete construction of Vero’s most luxurious hotel without proper scrutiny, argued Joseph Capone, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney. The prosecutor specializes in real-estate fraud and travelled from Washington, D.C. to West Palm Beach for the trial. Read more here. Vero Beach lawyer Eric Granitur went on trial Monday at the federal courthouse in West Palm Beach, charged with conspiracy and making false statements in connection with mortgage loans that helped developer George Heaton keep moving ahead a decade ago with construction of the Vero Beach Hotel & Spa.
Among those set to testify against him was Heaton, who agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for a plea deal that will limit his own sentence to no more than five years in prison. Granitur, 60, who performed escrow work in 2008 and 2009 for condominium units at the hotel, maintains his innocence, but prosecutors allege he and others lied to lenders about incentive programs, such as cash-to-close rebates, used to lure prospective buyers to the Ocean Drive development during the real estate slowdown. Read more here. INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A lack of DNA evidence and the prospect of questionable witness testimony helped a Kentucky man accused of sexual misconduct with a 21-year-old schizophrenic woman stay out of jail.
Judge Cynthia Cox sentenced Farhad Zakerhaghighi, 61, to one-year probation on May 21, months after the defendant plead no contest to misdemeanor battery during a stay at Disney’s Vero Beach Resort. The man was originally charged with felony sexual battery on a person with a mental defect. That offense comes with a maximum 30-year prison sentence. “I did not go to the extent of what these folks are claiming I have done,” Zakerhaghighi told Judge Cynthia Cox during his sentencing hearing last week. “I am throwing myself at your mercy.” Read more here. The day after retired Assistant Fire Chief Brian Burkeen was arrested for an alleged black-market tire sales scheme, Indian River County Commissioner Tim Zorc got an anonymous tip. While the community at-large might have been shocked to see Burkeen’s alleged fall from grace, those who worked alongside him knew what their boss was up to, but were too afraid to report him, the informant said.
“There was a very real fear of retribution among the firefighters, so no one turned Burkeen in, though it was pretty widely known what he was doing,” the message states, according to e-mails obtained by Vero Beach 32963. “[The] County might want to institute some sort of anonymous tip line for waste and theft,” it said. Burkeen, 55, a longtime county official who also briefly served on the Sebastian City Council, was purchasing new tires at Goodyear stores using county funds and then selling them to private buyers he met at work and online, police say. Read more here. FORT LAUDERDALE — Vero Beach spine surgeon Dr. Johnny Benjamin was convicted on five of the seven felony counts against him in federal court. A jury reached its verdict Friday. Benjamin was accused of illegal drug distribution and providing the fentanyl-laced pain killer that caused a Palm Beach woman’s 2016 overdose death.
The case hinged on the testimony from Kevan Slater and Zachary Stewart, two DEA informants whom prosecutors said sold prescription and counterfeit pain pills on the street for Dr. Benjamin. They also assisted in a scheme to build the surgeon’s inventory of illegal pills as the illicit operation spread throughout the Treasure Coast. Both men plead guilty and testified for the prosecution at Benjamin’s trial. Read more here. FORT LAUDERDALE – One by one, prosecutors paraded witnesses into a federal courtroom this past week to build their case against a Vero Beach spine surgeon accused of illegal drug distribution and providing the fentanyl-laced pain killer that caused a Palm Beach woman’s 2016 overdose death.
Dr. Johnny Benjamin sat calmly in court, sandwiched between his lawyers, as testimony was taken on Monday, the second day of the trial. He wore glasses, a dark suit and tie. His mother watched from the pew behind him. If convicted, he faces life in prison. The case hinges on the testimony of Kevan Slater and Zachary Stewart, two DEA informants whom prosecutors say sold prescription and counterfeit pain pills on the street for Dr. Benjamin and assisted in a scheme to build the surgeon’s inventory of illegal pills as the illicit operation spread throughout the Treasure Coast. Read more here. It was just after 6 a.m. on a Sunday morning when I woke to screams of “Help.” I roused my husband, and ran downstairs to see someone banging frantically on our sliding glass door. Panicked, I couldn’t get it unlocked so I ran out the front entrance and called 911.
“Someone is screaming for help at my back door,” I said to the dispatcher. “I don’t know what is going on.” It was then I saw a plume of smoke billowing from my neighbor’s roof. Our homes shared a wall at the Oak Villas Condominiums. A man, whose name I can never remember, was lying motionless on the grass. “There’s a fire!” I told the woman on the phone. “Someone is badly hurt.” Read more here. An island resident has been sentenced to seven years in federal prison for defrauding investors of $64 million in a real estate and financing scheme on the Connecticut Gold Coast. John DiMenna, 75, pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud in September and was ordered to report to prison July 9.
The Bermuda Club resident has been called a “mini-Madoff” for his dishonest business practices in Connecticut from 2001-2015. Court documents show DiMenna and two associates used various entities such as Seaboard Realty, Seaboard Stamford Investment Group and Seaboard Properties Group to secure millions of dollars in capital for the purchase, renovation and construction of hotel and large multi-tenant apartment projects. Read more here. Croce Giambanco and Brennan Baker were like father and son. The owner of Nino’s Café, a popular beachside pizzeria that has mainland locations as well, hired Baker when he was just a boy, impressed by his work ethic.
The two worked together for more than a decade, as Giambanco taught Baker the ins and outs of the restaurant industry. He co-signed on a car loan for Baker and eventually promoted him to manager of the Easter Lily Lane pizzeria, across from Humiston Park. Then, one day, the business owner was forced to notify police that his long-time employee was stealing from the business. It was a call Giambanco said he never wanted to make. Read more here. Detectives on Monday were still looking for suspects in two island break-ins that rattled the nerves of oceanside residents last week. An unknown person smashed the front display window of Estate Jewelry of Orchid Island around 3 a.m. on Tuesday, March 27, and made off with 25 pieces of sterling silver jewelry, valued at around $4,000.
The store is located at 3115 Ocean Drive in the heart of the upscale Central Beach shopping and dining district, across the street from the historic Driftwood Resort. Some of the jewelry was later found by a maintenance worker on the grounds of the Driftwood, according to Estate Jewelry manager Tom Grimshaw. “I feel bad this happened to this city, to the town of Vero – not that it was just our store – but that it happened here, because it doesn’t feel quite as safe now,” Grimshaw said. “It is upsetting that they would have the audacity to do this to anybody on this street.” Read more here. A plea for mercy by the victims of an Indian River Shores home burglary has spared their neighbor, a 33-year-old opioid addict, from spending years of his life in prison. The Hon. Cynthia Cox sentenced Christopher Lockwood to just one year in the county jail followed by two years of probation. He had been facing between 4 and 125 years in prison for his crime.
Lockwood pled no contest in December to burglarizing his neighbors’ Island Club home when they were out of town. He stole an estimated $9,000 worth of jewelry, fine cutlery and cash, pawning the items throughout the Treasure Coast and lying about their origins. Read more here. A Kentucky man accused of having unwanted sexual relations with a 21-year-old schizophrenic woman at Disney’s Vero Beach Resort has pleaded to a reduced charge, avoiding the possibility of spending decades in prison.
Farhad Zakerhaghighi, 61, struck a deal with prosecutors this month, avoiding the felony charge of sexual battery on a person with a mental defect. He pled no contest March 13 to misdemeanor battery and now faces no more than one year of his life behind bars, as compared to a 30-year maximum for the original felony charge. A sentencing hearing is set for May 21 in Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Cox’s Vero Beach courtroom. Read more here. INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A Vero Lake Estates man convicted in 2014 of first degree murder and robbery with a deadly weapon is getting a second chance to revisit his day in court.
Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Cox last month affirmed her decision to grant Bradford Vose’s request for an evidentiary hearing in a motion for post-conviction relief, despite the objection of prosecutors. The parties were due in court again Thursday. The high profile 2010 shooting death of Joseph Farruggio captured headlines for days throughout the three-day trial and lengthy criminal investigation into two 21-year-old Sebastian River High School classmates and a botched drug deal that left one of them dead. Vose, 25 at the time of his conviction, was sentenced to life in prison. His appeal for a reversal was denied in 2016. Read more here. Vero Beach spine surgeon Johnny Benjamin was indicted a second time by a federal grand jury this month as prosecutors added an additional weapons charge to the doctor’s litany of drug charges. Two co-defendants, the informants who cooperated with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency as it investigated Benjamin, were named for the first time and indicted on multiple drug charges.
Zachary Steward and Keven George Slater were charged with one count of conspiring with Benjamin in Palm Beach County to possess and distribute a controlled substance resulting in death; one count of distribution there during the fall of 2016; and an additional count for illegal distribution of a controlled substance in Indian River County as early as January of that year. Each defendant faces 20 years to life in prison if convicted. Read more here. INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — An Indian River County jury will be asked to decide for a second time if a convicted Vero Beach killer deserves to die for his crime. This time, unlike the decision in 1999, its recommendation must be unanimous.
Paul Evans, whom authorities say murdered an acquaintance’s husband when he was just 19-years-old for the promise of money from a life-insurance payout, has been returned to the Indian River County Jail to await a new sentencing. Guided by 2016 decisions made in the U.S. and Florida supreme courts, defendants ordered to death after June of 2002 whose jury was not unanimous are now entitled to have their punishment reviewed. In Evans’ case, a panel of 12 jurors voted 9-3 to send him to the electric chair. Read more here. A healthcare fraud case against the founder of Treasure Coast Dermatology was dismissed in federal court last week after Dr. Tim Ioannides agreed to a $2.5 million settlement with the U.S. Government. The move comes years after a former patient told authorities the physician allegedly billed Medicare for a procedure she never had, a violation of the False Claims Act.
Ioannides, a Vero Beach island resident who owns dermatology offices in Indian River, St. Lucie and Martin counties, insisted he had done nothing wrong. He called the government and its lawyers corrupt, and termed what happened to him a “shakedown.” Ioannides’ deal does not admit liability and the allegations against the doctor were never proven. His medical license is unaltered, though his billing practices and books will be now subject to additional audits as part of an integrity agreement. The patient who brought the original complaint to the government will receive $475,000 in the multimillion-dollar settlement deal. The False Claims Act allows whistleblowers to receive a portion of any financial recovery the U.S. Government is awarded. Read more here. The daughter of a woman shot and killed by an Indian River County Sheriff’s deputy responding to an attempted suicide call told investigators she wished she had never dialed 911. In documents released to Vero Beach 32963, Susan Teel’s family details the horrific events leading up to her tragic death and their thoughts on law enforcement’s handing of the situation.
Interview transcripts were provided by the Office of the State Attorney in response to a public records request. The agency conducted an investigation into the fatal incident last July and brought its findings to a grand jury for review. The officer was cleared of both criminal and administrative wrongdoing, though an attorney for the Teel family has notified the Sheriff’s Office of intent to file a civil complaint. Susan Teel was shot within minutes of Deputy Jonathan Lozada arriving at her home. The confrontation between the distraught woman and deputy happened so fast, her husband, an emergency room physician, didn’t even make it up the stairs before his wife was shot. Read more here. INDIAN RIVERS SHORES — A pair of home health care aids were arrested Tuesday after police claim they defrauded a John’s Island couple and spent more than $500,000 of their elderly clients’ money on luxury goods like cruises and a five-day Rolls Royce Ghost rental priced at nearly $995 a day.
Chiquita McGee, 29, and Sophia Shepherd, 30, both of Vero Beach, are expected to appear in court Wednesday. They face felony charges of exploitation of the elderly, organized fraud and scheme to defraud an organization. If convicted, they could spend up to 60 years in prison. The former contractors with Indian River Home Care convinced their patients, a husband and wife duo, to allow them to open credit cards in their names, but under the victims’ accounts, reports the Indian River Shores Public Safety Department. Read more here. Moments before Susan Teel was shot dead, investigators say the suicidal woman swore at the deputy who had come to render aid and told him, “Go ahead, kill me.” Corporal Jonathan Lozada arrived at the home on Carriage Lake Way in Vero Beach at 8:04 p.m. July 26 after Teel’s daughter called 911 for help, according to a Feb. 1 report written by Indian River County Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Justin Knott. The memorandum clears Lozada, who fired the fatal shots, of administrative wrongdoing, even as questions remain whether his actions that day were appropriate. A grand jury cleared the deputy of criminal charges Jan. 4. The family has notified the Sheriff’s Office of its intent to file a civil complaint, said Attorney Guy Rubin of Rubin & Rubin law firm in Stuart. There are contradictions between what law enforcement reports, and what has come forth in investigative documents, he said. Significantly, the autopsy claims Teel was shot four times, but Knott details three rounds fired. Read more here. A Vero Beach man claims he was having a seizure at the Indian River Medical Center when a Sheriff’s Deputy slammed him into a wall, pushed him onto the ground, handcuffed him and sat on his legs while waiting for backup to arrive.
An attorney for Brian Gines Jr. filed a civil complaint in the 19th Judicial Circuit alleging excessive force, negligence and battery against the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office and its employees for the incident. The then 36-year-old was being treated at the hospital for a seizure disorder in 2014. The condition was so severe, his attorney claims in court filings, it could “occasionally cause him to become violent against his will.” This information, lawyer Jeffrey Fadley says, was well known to hospital staff. Read more here. |
Beth WaltonWriter, World Traveler, Mother. These are my stories. Archives
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