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Democratic fundraiser dies in apparent murder-suicide

DAVIE - A prominent Democratic fundraiser and his business partner were found shot to death Tuesday in a banquet hall they owned, police said.

Jerome Berlin and his business partner, Michael Pecora, were found dead in a locked office on the second floor of the Signature Grand banquet hall, police said. Police believe the deaths were a murder-suicide.

An employee reported overhearing an argument, then three gunshots in the office at about 11:15 a.m.

Berlin was a Miami businessman who raised millions of dollars for political candidates over the years. He was acquitted in 1991 of federal charges that he and another lawyer conspired to defraud a securities investment firm in 1985.

MIAMI - One of six fired Department of Children and Families workers in Hialeah has been offered her job back.

Jessica Frenes, 27, is considering the offer, said her attorney, Roberta Fox.

Frenes worked as a receptionist for DCF for 17 months before being fired along with five other workers in the Hialeah office last month after allegedly being rude to the grandmother and legislative aide of state Sen. Rudy Garcia, R-Hialeah. Garcia mentioned the problem to DCF Secretary Jerry Regier.

Chelly Schembera, whom Regier hired to temporarily run the Hialeah office, said Regier told her to fire the six workers. Regier said the decision was Schembera's. Regier said last week he would review the firings.

Fox told the Miami Herald that DCF's offer to Frenes calls for her to accept the six weeks since the firing as a "suspension," with no back pay or reimbursement of legal costs coming.

None of the other fired workers has received an offer to come back.

DAYTONA BEACH - Halifax Medical Center's team of six trauma surgeons has informed the hospital that they will stop operating there June 1, citing ongoing concern over the state's malpractice crisis.

If Halifax's trauma center, the only one of its kind in Volusia and Flagler counties, were to close, seriously injured persons would likely have to be airlifted to Jacksonville or Tampa for treatment, officials said.

Both the state Senate and House have passed bills aiming to curb the soaring cost of malpractice insurance in Florida, but they are far from agreement the best way to do it.

In Jacksonville, nine cardiothoracic and vascular surgeons have said they will take an indefinite leave of absence starting Friday unless the state caps awards on medical malpractice lawsuits.

JENSEN BEACH - A 17-year-old girl died Tuesday when she was hit by a train as she tried to get a friend off the tracks, sheriff's officials said.

The name of the teen killed was not immediately released. Her friend, 22-year-old Chris Mountcastle, would not get off the tracks as a train approached, Martin County sheriff's spokeswoman Sgt. Jenell Atlas said.

"She jumped up there trying to drag him off. He jumped off at the last second but she fell and didn't make it," Atlas said.

Mountcastle and two other teens who were with the victim said they had been out all night drinking and playing pool, Atlas said.

No charges have been filed in the accident, about 30 miles north of West Palm Beach. Sheriff's officials are investigating.