Byrd excused from testifying in computer contract lawsuit
By Times Staff and Wire Reports
Published November 6, 2003
TALLAHASSEE - Florida House Speaker Johnnie Byrd does not have to testify in a computer company's breach-of-contract lawsuit against the House, a state judge ruled Wednesday.
Circuit Judge Jonathan Sjostrom of Leon County granted Byrd's attorneys' motion for a protective order.
The judge cited state appeals court decisions that said the head of an agency can't be compelled to give a deposition until all other attempts to get information have been exhausted. Even then, courts have ruled, the agency head must be able to provide relevant information not obtainable elsewhere.
The House is being sued by Hayes E-Government Resources, which seeks $2.9-million for having installed a new computer system. The House said a new company had to be hired because of problems with the system.
Byrd's attorneys argued that compelling the speaker to give a sworn statement would be an "annoyance" and "harassment."
Hayes' lawyer, G. Donovan Conwell Jr., said Wednesday he would seek to convince the judge in a hearing next week that it was Byrd who hired a Tampa attorney, Steve Burton, who quickly hired another vendor to finish the project.
Pastor fatally shot while leading church Bible study
FORT PIERCE - Police were hunting Wednesday for the husband of an assistant pastor suspected in the fatal shooting of a pastor who was leading a church Bible study Tuesday night.
Authorities said Aaron Anderson might have fled to the Orlando area after allegedly shooting Benjamin Mobley, 65, of the End Time Tabernacle church. Mobley died of his chest wound in a hospital.
Witnesses said Mobley was leading the class for seven or eight adults and six children when a man entered the room.
"He asked about his wife. Pastor told him she wasn't here, that she didn't come tonight," said Jackie Davis, a member of the congregation. The man asked about his wife again, and Mobley repeated the answer.
Mobley told a class member to begin reading a Bible passage when the man pulled out a gun and accused the pastor of taking his wife, Davis said. "I said, "Pastor! He's got a gun!"'
Mobley began to turn when the man fired one shot, Davis said.
Members of the congregation scrambled for cover as the shooter left the church and drove away.
Okaloosa to fight drownings with EMS patrols on beaches
FORT WALTON BEACH - Okaloosa County will hire off-duty emergency medical services personnel to patrol beaches next year in an effort to help stem a mounting toll of drownings in the Florida Panhandle.
The toll is 23 this year; two of those deaths have occurred in Okaloosa. More than 40 people have died on Panhandle beaches along the Gulf of Mexico over the past three years.
County commissioners agreed Tuesday to use EMS teams on all-terrain vehicles from March to October to help watch county-controlled beaches.
Okaloosa public safety director Dino Villani said his plan is for eight-hour patrols daily, but they may be cut back when the surf is calm.
The EMS patrols will be in addition to lifeguard protection to be provided on weekends, from March through May and Labor Day through mid October, under a county contract with Sunset Beach Service.
Commissioners are also considering establishing a fine for people who ignore red flags and other warnings to stay out of the water when the surf is dangerous. Hearings are planned.
Authorities across the Panhandle say people repeatedly ignore the flags and verbal warnings to get out of the water.
Teen faces attempted murder charges in torching of home
CALLAWAY - A 16-year-old boy will be prosecuted as an adult on three counts of attempted murder for allegedly setting his house on fire while his parents and brother slept, authorities said Wednesday.
Matthew David Voran faces possible sentences ranging from probation to life in prison.
Bay County sheriff's investigators said the teen admitted setting the fire Oct. 18 at his Callaway home after an argument over use of the computer.
Deputies said the teen had threatened his parents in the past and was on conditional release from the Department of Juvenile Justice. One condition restricted his computer access.
Voran's parents returned home to find him using the computer, according to the arrest report. The report said the teen's father, David Voran, ordered him off the computer, and he ran angrily from the house and disappeared.
The father told investigators he saw his son on the front steps around 11 p.m. and 90 minutes later heard "what sounded like snap, crackle, pop" and discovered the fire outside his bedroom door.
He tried to fight the fire with an extinguisher and garden hose, suffering smoke inhalation and multiple burns before firefighters arrived.
Shortly after his father was taken to a hospital emergency room, Matthew returned home and was arrested.
