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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. Leslie McGuirk claims she was out for a walk when a car came barreling down Seagrape Drive in Oceanaire Heights at negligent speeds. As the acclaimed children’s book author and astrologist rushed to get out of the way, she tripped on a crumbling piece of pavement and fell, according to court documents.
The March 2017 incident left McGuirk seriously injured and unable to work, her lawyers say. The driver who almost hit her was uninsured. So, she enlisted the help of Tuttle Law and sued the county. The municipality failed to maintain the roadway and left no warnings that conditions might be dangerous or hazardous, attorney Douglas Tuttle wrote in the October 2017 lawsuit. The lawyer, who filed the complaint in the 19th Judicial Circuit Civil Court, claimed an excess of $15,000 in damages, but the suit against the county was dropped this month after McGuirk received a $5,000 settlement. 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 County voters will have the opportunity to choose new judicial officials in August as they consider candidates to replace retiring county and circuit court judges.
Six candidates are vying for two spots – the Hon. Robert Pegg’s seat on the circuit court bench, where serious felony cases are decided, and the Hon. Joe Wild’s seat in county court, which rules on traffic tickets, landlord/tenant disputes and other less serious matters. 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. Extensive expert testimony at a hearing last week did not lead to a ruling about whether Mark Deffendall can walk free in the killing of his brother under the provisions of Florida’s revised Stand Your Ground law. After testimony was complete, the prosecutor and defense attorney elected to file written closing arguments, instead of making their final arguments in court, and Judge Cynthia Cox said she will rule on the matter after receiving the written filings.
The 2014 homicide was revisited after Deffendall and his attorney sought immunity under Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ statute for the second time. Deffendall previously was denied the defense, but Cox granted him a new hearing this year after Florida lawmakers reversed the burden of proof in Stand Your Ground cases. Before, defendants had to prove they had good reason to be in fear for their life. Now, prosecutors are required to demonstrate a defendant is not entitled to immunity under the statue by proving that he or she was not acting out of fear for their life. The revised law also eliminates a mandate to retreat before shooting. 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. A circuit court judge is likely to weigh in on whether Florida’s evolving Stand Your Ground statute can be applied retroactively as she revisits an alleged fratricide from more than three years ago. Judge Cynthia Cox, who presides over the felony court bench in Indian River County, has granted Mark Deffendall and his attorney, Assistant Public Defender Alan Hunt, a second chance to apply Florida’s Stand Your Ground statute to his defense.
Deffendall, 43, was arrested in October 2014 after police say he shot and killed his brother, Eric, at their father’s home and airplane hangar on De Havilland Court in Vero Beach. Months after his arrest, Cox denied Mark Deffendall’s initial request to have his case dismissed under Florida’s Stand Your Ground statute. The burden of proof at the time was on the defendant to show the act was in self-defense, and after hearing testimony from several people, including the Deffendall, his family and friends, Cox said he failed to prove his case. Read more here. All Aboard Florida got another break from an indulgent federal government last week when the U.S. Department of Transportation granted the company more time to issue $1.15 billion of Private Activity Bonds to finance the second phase of its high-speed passenger rail service.
“This propels our project as we extend Brightline to Orlando, developing a transportation network that will benefit the entire state,” said Brightline President Patrick Goddard. The tax-exempt bonds were allocated in December and set to expire May 31. So far, investors have not rushed to buy the bonds. The seven-month extension through the end of the year was granted on the condition that the company continue to seek alternative financing. Read more here. Johnny Benjamin, the former Vero Beach spine surgeon recently convicted on federal drug charges, told the jury that convicted him he believes he was set up. The jurors clearly didn’t buy it.
According to court transcripts obtained by Vero Beach 32963, the once-respected doctor who is now facing life in prison denied knowing the drugs found in his baggage at the Melbourne airport last year were supposed to be oxycodone. Someone must have planted them, he testified under oath at his trial last month. The doctor, who has since been stripped of his medical license, pointed the finger at Zachary Stewart, his co-defendant and longtime friend turned medical sales associate. Read more here. Lawyers for Johnny Benjamin, the former Vero Beach spine surgeon facing life in prison on federal drug charges, clashed with prosecutors last week over a defense bid to bring the jurors who convicted the island resident back for the court room for questioning. Donnie Murrell, the lead West Palm Beach trial attorney on Benjamin’s case, asked the judge May 1 to recall the jury. Benjamin was convicted and jurors discharged April 27.
After the panel was excused, a clerk found a document entitled “Here are 30 do’s and don’ts of jury deliberations,” Murrell wrote the court. While the list itself isn’t clearly prejudicial, its presence is proof that at least one juror ignored the court’s instructions and conducted their own outside research. “The concern, of course, is what is unknown here,” Murrell stated. “What other materials, if any, were brought into the jury room? If other material was introduced, how many jurors were exposed to it? Did it have an impact on their deliberations and/or the ultimate verdict? Unfortunately, the only way to determine the answers to these questions is to summon the jurors back to the courthouse and ask them.” 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. Vero Beach’s private island school filed a lawsuit against the mother of a fifth-grader in circuit court last month alleging a breach in the student’s enrollment contract.
The courtroom maneuver, intended to recoup some $19,000 in lost tuition, legal damages and fees, is a familiar financial strategy for Saint Edward’s School, which has filed at least eight similar lawsuits in the last decade. A 2012 New York Times article detailed the emerging trend of private schools suing for past due tuition. Parents face large bills even when their children never attended classes, it says. Contracts are written with very specific deadlines which parents are held to regardless of personal circumstance. Read more here. A federal magistrate was introduced to two sides of Dr. Johnny Benjamin six months ago as he contemplated whether the surgeon, facing felony criminal drug charges, should be granted pretrial release.
There was the Vero Beach physician held in high esteem by his neighbors and peers, a respected community member with no children of his own who once offered to help pay for a high school valedictorian’s college education after hearing about her financial struggle. And then there was the debt-stricken doctor who abused his privilege and profession for personal and monetary gain. This man took advantage of America’s opioid addiction and supplied toxic painkillers to users on the street with little regard for human life. 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. The man who has been serving a life sentence for the murder of Brian Simpson during the 2011 burglary of the Central Beach resident’s home will represent himself as he prepares for a new trial. Henry Lee Jones, 29, requested to be his own attorney in April just weeks after Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Cox refused to allow him a new public defender. His decision came despite the judge’s repeated warnings that such a move could prove dangerous and disadvantageous to his case.
Jones, who was convicted of first-degree murder and burglary, was granted a second trial in 2017 after the Fourth District Court of Appeals overturned his earlier conviction. Justices argued a new trial was warranted because Jones’ public defender was not allowed to question potential jurors about racial prejudice or bias. Jones is black. Simpson, 41 at the time of his death, was white. 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. A Vero Beach construction worker found guilty of stealing from his employer while working on Cache Cay Drive had his sentence reduced last week despite the objection of his former boss.
William Jones, 42, had no comment as he stood somberly in front of Circuit Court Judge Cynthia Cox Wednesday wearing a jail-issued jumpsuit and handcuffs. A jury found Jones guilty of felony second-degree grand theft in March 2016 after a three-day trial. Police say Jones stole and defrauded John Wayne Construction of nearly $27,000 from May through August 2014 while he was working on a 5-bedroom island home off the bank of Bethel Creek. Read more here. |
Beth WaltonWriter, World Traveler, Mother. These are my stories. Archives
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