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. Dr. Johnny Benjamin’s legal troubles and alleged dealings with illicit drugs started nearly a year before Indian River County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested him at his island home. The doctor was later charged by federal agents for alleged attempted possession and distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death, namely the dangerous opiod cocktail of fentanyl-laced oxycodone.
Newly filed court documents suggest the Vero Beach spine surgeon, who is behind bars in Miami awaiting trial, struck a plea deal in Michigan after a state trooper stumbled upon a suspected marijuana grow operation linked to him. Benjamin, 52, was booked in the Sanilac County Jail Dec.14, 2016, two months after police responded to an alleged electricity theft at the home. The property in rural Sanilac Township had been deeded earlier that year to Marsha Benjamin, a woman the doctor claims he married years ago in Vero Beach, though federal prosecutors point out the county has no marriage certificate for the two on file. Read more here. ASHEVILLE - Police on Wednesday were investigating afternoon reports of gunshots near the mall on South Tunnel Road. No arrests have been made
Officers were in the area looking for the suspects in an armed robbery of Spicer Greene Jewelers when they heard the shots fired around 4:40 p.m, said Christina Hallingse, public information officer for the Asheville Police Department. The incidents are not thought to be related at this time. Read more here. ASHEVILLE - A man was charged with one count of assaulting a government official with a deadly weapon after authorities say he lunged toward a sheriff's deputy with a knife displayed. The crime is a felony.
Joshua D. Gibson, 30, of Canton, was arrested Friday. Warrant documents allege he displayed a knife and moved toward Deputy R. Fisher while the officer was trying to escort him out of a building. Read more here. ALEXANDER - A Candler man was arrested Saturday, charged with defrauding an innkeeper, breaking and entering and simple assault.
Authorities say Cory A. Jackson, 21, broke into a building on Dry Leaf Road in Alexander. Warrant documents allege he caused more than $200 of damages and struck a person inside. Read more here. ASHEVILLE – The question isn't so much why their protests matter, when in reality the deaths of two unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers happened hundreds of miles away. The real question is what happens next locally to keep frustrations from boiling over into violence as they have in other parts of the country, community activists say. "The environment here is ripe for it," said James Lee, a minister at St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church. "It's almost like having an open flame in a room with gas. It's only a matter of time before something explodes."
Hundreds of people have joined in at least seven rallies across Buncombe County since a grand jury decided not to indict Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown and another grand jury in New York City failed to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, who was allegedly selling loose cigarettes. In some cases, demonstrators held pictures of Reynolds High football player A.J. Marion, who was killed in 2013 by an Asheville police officer following a residential break-in, report of a gunshot and ensuing foot chase. Like Brown, Marion was unarmed and the officer was later cleared of any wrongdoing. Black Americans have spent decades under siege, said Tyrone Greenlee, executive director of Christians for a United Community, a local nonprofit interdenominational collaboration of churches that works to address the root causes of racism and racial disparity through advocacy, education and training. Read more here. ASHEVILLE – The protest at Pack Square Park Thursday evening may have been smaller in number than the group which rallied in defense of Michael Brown last week, but that didn't stop participants from making their cries of injustice heard. A crowd of just over 100 people assembled near the Vance Monument in downtown Asheville to protest Wednesday's grand jury decision to end the criminal case against a white New York police officer whose chokehold led to the death of an unarmed black man.
Jurors deliberated for less than a day before deciding there was not enough evidence to go forward with charges against officer Daniel Pantaleo, 29. Pantaleo testified on Nov. 21 that he did not intend to choke Eric Garner, 43, who was being arrested for allegedly selling loose cigarettes. A medical examiner found that Garner's death was a homicide resulting from the chokehold, a move banned by the New York Police Department in 1993. The July death of Garner was captured on video and seen around the world. "I'm just happy I can do something," said Marshall resident Deb Burns of the protest in the wake of the grand jury's decision "I just can't believe it. Ferguson was one thing, but with this, it is incontrovertible. (Pantaleo) should have at least been indicted and had his day in court." Read more here. ASHEVILLE – Police and bomb-sniffing dogs responded to a bomb threat at the William H. Stanley Center on Woodfin Street Monday morning, after a caller made disparaging comments about the issuance of same-sex marriage licenses, said Natalie Bailey, spokeswoman for the Buncombe County Sheriff's Office. No explosives were found and the building was not evacuated.
"We have protocols and procedures in place to keep everybody safe, and in this particular instance everything worked the way it should," Bailey said. "Our folks went out and checked and nothing was found. Once they did that, people were able to go on and get their licenses." Read more here. |
Beth WaltonWriter, World Traveler, Mother. These are my stories. Archives
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