CLEARWATER - A woman arrested in March and accused of charging more than $31,000 on her company credit card has been sentenced to probation.
Kristi Reckenwald, 23, pleaded guilty to grand theft Tuesday and was sentenced to five years of probation.
Reckenwald, who court records also list as Kristi Schultz, was accused of running up the charges while she worked at Munyan Painting in Clearwater.
The charges were made from November until March, arrest reports state.
Man accused of attacking his estranged wife
LARGO - A man already facing charges of intentionally scalding his infant daughter's arm was arrested Tuesday on charges he attacked his estranged wife with a hammer and a butcher knife.
Jeffery Leon Bryant, 32, was arrested in August on a charge of aggravated child abuse. Pinellas sheriff's detectives said Bryant held his 4-month-old daughter's arm under hot water for 15 seconds after she vomited on herself and would not stop crying.
Bryant posted $10,000 bail in September and was released. He then was arrested May 8 on charges of felony domestic battery and aggravated assault. He again was released after posting $10,000 bail, jail records show.
Early Tuesday morning, Bryant entered his estranged wife's Largo home by breaking through a window. He disconnected the telephones and hid inside the front door, Pinellas sheriff's deputies said.
Bryant also armed himself with a 12-inch carving knife and a hammer, arrest reports state.
When the woman came home from playing bingo, Bryant attacked her, striking her several times on the side of her head with the hammer and his fists, deputies reported.
She locked herself in a room and Bryant left. Deputies later found him riding a pink bicycle in the 1000 block of Highland Avenue. He was arrested on charges of aggravated domestic battery, armed domestic burglary and violation of a domestic violence injunction.
The woman suffered cuts, bruises and swelling on her head. She also had a bite on her right index finger.
Bryant, who also was charged with domestic battery in 1997, was held without bail at the Pinellas County Jail on Tuesday. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.
Two men put on probation over rug receipt scam
LARGO - Two men charged with scamming local TJ Maxx stores by returning rugs with fake receipts have been sentenced to probation.
Alfreo Kolek, 32, and Janusz Jarzabek, 26, both of Chicago, have pleaded guilty to charges of scheming to defraud. Jarzabek was sentenced to 18 months of probation; Kolek, to two years. Both also were ordered to pay about $1,400 in restitution to TJ Maxx.
They were arrested in February after Pinellas sheriff's officials learned they were buying rugs at Home Depot stores, then using computers and publishing software to print receipts and tags for TJ Maxx stores.
The pair attached the fake tags to the rugs, then went to TJ Maxx stores and said they were returning them. The prices they placed on the rugs were three times the price they paid at Home Depot, officials said.
Sheriff's officials said the men are suspected of similar crimes in 11 other counties in Florida and in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia.
Manager sentenced over fake phone sales
LARGO - A cellular phone store manager has been sentenced to probation for defrauding the company by reporting fake phone sales.
Kevin O'Bannon, 27, pleaded no contest on June 6 to charges of scheming to defraud and criminal use of a public record. Largo police said O'Bannon, who managed the Largo office of Cellyoular.com in the Icot Center last year, activated more than $20,000 in cell phone accounts for people who never ordered the service.
Police said O'Bannon hoped to receive commission checks for the bogus sales. Company officials noticed his sales figures leap by incredible amounts. An audit uncovered the scheme.
