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Around the state
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 21, 2003
TALLAHASSEE -- The Florida Supreme Court has frowned upon suggesting that judges behave like Nazis and imbeciles whose ages and IQs would not add up to 100.
The state's highest court said Austin V. Tasse, a Fort Lauderdale man who has frequently filed his own lawsuits and has said all that about Florida judges, can no longer file anything without a lawyer.
In an unsigned opinion released Thursday, all seven justices agreed that Tasse may no longer file documents with the court, a step needed "to preserve the dignity of the judicial system."
To establish Tasse's "scandalous and obscene language," the court included excerpts of petitions he has filed with the court, omitting the names of judges he described in derogatory terms.
MARATHON -- A car and a tanker truck carrying live shrimp collided Thursday on Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys, killing three people, injuring two and stopping traffic in both directions more than three hours.
The accident occurred at 10:20 a.m. at the northern end of the bridge along the only highway route between the lower Keys and the mainland, Monroe County sheriff's spokeswoman Becky Herrin said.
The Florida Highway Patrol had to close the bridge, which has one lane in each direction, until about 2 p.m. while investigating the accident, Herrin said.
Identities of the victims were not immediately released.
FORT MYERS -- Two men set off pipe bombs in north Naples to distract police during one bank robbery and shot a teller in the leg during another robbery, according to federal grand jury indictments.
Eddie Butler Cavanaugh, 46, of Naples, and Perry Johnson, 45, of Louisiana, were named in the indictments returned Wednesday.
Both were being held without bail at the Lee County Jail. If convicted, they could get life in prison.
Police say Cavanaugh and Johnson robbed an AmSouth Bank on Feb. 19 and the Royal Palm Bank on June 28, 2002. A Royal Palm Bank teller was shot in the leg after she obeyed the robbers' order to hand over money, according to the indictment.
The men set off pipe bombs around North Naples to distract police as they made off with $42,000 from AmSouth last month, police said.