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Mom seizes the moment
© St. Petersburg Times Reporters and television photographers were clustered at Tampa and Laurel streets on Monday, awaiting news on a hand grenade and rifle found inside the Park Trammel building. A nonmedia person walked up to each reporter. "Who are you with?" she asked. She held a stack of resumes in her hand. "I'm handing out my daughter's resume to the TV crews," the woman explained. "She wants a job in TV." DELAYED BY WAR: As war looms, even the Tampa courthouse is feeling the effects. Attorney John B. Atkinson, who represents the defendants in an auto negligence case that is more than 3 years old, asked a Hillsborough judge last week to put off the trial at least another 120 days. The reason: Atkinson, who serves as a judge advocate with the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, will be called to active duty on March 10. Atkinson represents a dump truck driver accused of plowing into a minivan on Oct. 21, 1999, leaving two people dead and four others seriously hurt, including two children. The civil trial was set to start in early April. Atkinson told Hillsborough Circuit Judge Herbert Baumann Jr. that he was the only lawyer at his firm able to handle the case, so his expected absence meant it had to be delayed. Attorney Thomas Buser, who represents the victims, argued that his clients had waited long enough for their day in court and the trial should go forward. He said Atkinson had a duty to bring his partners up to speed on the case before he left. "I just don't think it's fair," Buser said. If a doctor were called to military duty, he said, did it mean people weren't allowed to get sick while he was gone? In the end, the judge granted the delay, but said the trial would go forward after 120 days whether or not Atkinson was back. COURTHOUSE PROTESTS: Tuesday was a day of protest in downtown Tampa. Outside the federal courthouse, supporters of Sami Al-Arian shouted and paced in front of the building, railing against the U.S. government. A few blocks away, at the state courthouse, a group of people protesting changes to Florida's sex predator registry rallied with signs. At least one person went to the wrong demonstration. A woman and her little girl from Pasco County showed up at the Al-Arian rally. "They thought this is where they needed to be," said Tampa police Sgt. Kenneth Brogdon. "I directed them to the other courthouse." DOUBLED JUSTICE? Joseph Piotrowski, a former Army captain, already is serving a 131/2-year prison term for driving while intoxicated in a crash that killed a 24-year-old Riverview woman and her fetus. He received the sentence after pleading guilty in military court. But Piotrowski is facing prosecution again for the crash, this time by the Hillsborough State Attorney's Office. On Tuesday, Assistant Public Defender Harvey Hyman argued that such a move violated double jeopardy -- the legal principle preventing people from being tried twice for the same crime. Asking a circuit judge to throw out the case, Hyman called it a "sham prosecution." While the State Attorney's Office turned the case over to the military in hopes of swifter and tougher punishment than the Hillsborough court could bring, Hyman argued, the state feared Piotrowksi could get out early and wanted to extend his confinement. Prosecutor Syed Ahmed argued double jeopardy didn't apply since the U.S. Army and the State Attorney's Office were separate powers. He said Piotrowski, who faces charges of DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide, could be tried again under the law of "dual sovereignty." Piotrowski could face an additional 15 to 30 years in prison on the state charges of DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide. Circuit Judge Ronald Ficarrotta said he will consider Hyman's argument.
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