By Compiled from Times wires
Published September 17, 2003
TALLAHASSEE - The number of callers who hung up before getting help when they called the state's child abuse hotline nearly doubled in August.
There were 2,462 unanswered calls, or 6.9 percent of all calls to the hotline. The hangup total was the highest in more than a year and compared with 1,261 in July, the Miami Herald reported.
August was the first full month of the Department of Children and Families' switch to a new computer system for the hotline, called HomeSafenet.
The hangups for the most part represent callers who got tired of waiting after being put on hold.
Lawmakers have mandated that the hotline not average more than 5 percent abandoned calls.
"There's always, unfortunately, some abandonment rate but it concerns us if that abandonment rate goes up or is going up," DCF Secretary Jerry Regier said. "Our HomeSafenet people are looking to see if it's a technology issue or if it's a people issue."
Car-surfing death case ends with no-contest plea
PENSACOLA - A teenage driver pleaded no contest to vehicular homicide Monday as his second trial was about to begin in the death of a girl who was "surfing" atop his sport-utility vehicle when it swerved into a tree.
Jessica Mills, 13, died instantly on May 30, 2001, when thrown into the tree.
A jury last year convicted James Oscar Dickinson III, now 19, but Circuit Judge Terry Terrell granted a new trial when a witness claimed that a 14-year-old passenger had confided that she jerked the steering wheel, causing the SUV to swerve.
Jessica's father, Bobby Mills, said Dickinson was to blame in any case.
"He took those two little girls along. He had the keys and he was driving. You've got to own up when you mess up bad," Mills said.
Terrell set sentencing for Oct. 29. Dickinson could face nine to 15 years in prison.
Man accused of fondling boys at Boy Scout camp
ISLAMORADA - A Miami man was arrested on charges he fondled four teenage boys from Pennsylvania at a Boy Scout camp in the Florida Keys.
Keith Walker, 26, was accused by the boys of reaching into their bathing suits during a scuba diving class at the Florida Sea Base Camp on Aug. 13. The boys, ages 14 and 15, immediately reported the abuse, said the camp's general manager, Dennis St. Jean. A "very remorseful" Walker was fired one hour later, St. Jean said.
Walker had cleared the camp's background check and taught there for three summers, St. Jean said. He had no criminal record in Florida.
