TAMPA - Muriel and William Conroy, a Tampa couple accused of severely neglecting a 17-year-old daughter afflicted by Hodgkin's disease, pleaded guilty Friday to charges of aggravated child neglect.
Prosecutors said the Conroys' daughter, Mari, was allowed to waste away while an untreated tumor grew, eventually causing brain damage.
The couple also pleaded guilty to child neglect for keeping their other children in filthy conditions. If convicted, the Conroys could have faced as much as 20 years in prison each. In accepting the plea, prosecutors agreed to ask Hillsborough Circuit Judge Jack Espinosa that the couple serve only 10 years.
Manatee panel alters meeting schedule
A Local Rule Review Committee considering proposals to amend the state Manatee Protection Zones in Tampa Bay has changed its meeting schedule.
All meetings take place at the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, 9455 Koger Blvd., Suite 219, in St. Petersburg.
The new schedule is: Aug. 12, 3-7 p.m. The committee will wrap up its discussion of Hillsborough County and then discuss Manatee County zones. Aug. 19, 4-7 p.m., Pinellas County. Aug. 26, 6-8 p.m., public forum. Aug. 27, final committee meeting.
Stay allows appeal in Schiavo case
The 2nd District Court of Appeal issued a 30-day stay of proceedings in the Terri Schiavo case, giving her parents time to file an appeal to save their daughter's life.
The decision Friday came as a Pinellas-Pasco circuit judge considered setting the date that her feeding tube would be removed, allowing her to die.
Circuit Judge George Greer was expected to hold a hearing on the issue within days.
The stay allows Schiavo's parents extra time to file an appeal with the Florida Supreme Court.
Schiavo collapsed in 1990 after her heart stopped from what doctors believe was a potassium imbalance. The loss of oxygen left her in a vegetative state.
Her husband, Michael Schiavo, has testified that his wife did not want to be kept alive artificially.
