The Week in Review

ANOTHER CRASH AT DEADLY CURVE: Kathy Walvoord awoke to a thunderous crash Wednesday shortly after 2 a.m. She saw cracks in the backyard wall outside her house on Shadybrook Drive and part of her roof lying on it. It was not until she stepped onto the patio that she saw the Volvo, upside down, a tire still spinning, its driver slumped in his seat.

It was the third fatal crash in 18 months along a quarter-mile stretch of Anderson Road. The Volvo's driver, 20-year-old Emanuel Carlo of 4949 Marbrisa Drive, lost control at a high speed and hit Walvoord's concrete wall, according to Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office spokesman Rod Reder, who said alcohol was involved.

Shadybrook Drive, in the Cypress Bend community of Carrollwood, runs parallel to Anderson Road at a point where the road curves. Since 1998, 22 accidents have occurred there, Reder said. Cars have hit three of the 15 or so homes along the block since May.

After a string of accidents this summer, Hillsborough County installed two guardrails along the curve in Anderson Road to protect the homes on Shadybrook and neighboring streets. But the guardrails didn't help Wednesday; Carlo's car plunged off the road just north of where they begin.

HUNTER'S GREEN MAN CAN KEEP ONLINE ESCORT BUSINESS: An online escort service that authorities say is a front for prostitution remains in operation after a Hillsborough judge ruled Monday that there were procedural problems with another judge's previous attempt to shut it down.

Circuit Judge Debra Behnke will permit www.bigdoggie.net to operate until she has had time to examine evidence and decide later this month whether to dismiss charges.

In June, Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies charged Charles S. Kelly, 51, of Hunter's Green and the Web site's co-owner, Steve Lipson of Boca Raton, with racketeering and multiple counts of deriving support from prostitution and aiding and abetting prostitution.

Authorities said women from around the Tampa Bay area paid to advertise their escort services on the Web site and customers paid to access solicitations for "affluent gentlemen" and "sensual couples with a generous nature for erotic companionship."

Defense attorneys say the Web site is protected under the First Amendment. Behnke also ruled that six witnesses whose names had been concealed during the investigation must be made public. Three of the witnesses are customers prosecutors said had been threatened for cooperating with the investigation. Behnke said the threats were not serious enough to warrant keeping their names secret.

DRUG BUST IN TOWN 'N COUNTRY: Authorities arrested seven people Thursday morning during a drug raid at a Memorial Highway residence.

Officers with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, the Tampa Police Department, the Dade City Police Department and the Hillsborough State Attorney's Office confiscated $2,628 in cash, 16 grams of ecstasy and 15 grams of cocaine from 6327 Memorial Highway.

They also seized eight weapons, including handguns, shotguns, and rifles.

Sheriff's officials said the raid was part of a continuing investigation into drug sales in the Town 'N Country area.

Arrested were Graciela Hinojosa, 40; her sons Christopher Cruz, 20, Jose Cruz, 22, and Adrian Cruz, 17; Larry Matthews, 31; Timothy Farr, 19; and David Pursell, 23.

They were charged with possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute, possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute, armed trafficking, possession of a controlled substance and dealing narcotics within 1,000 yards of a school.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright