11-year-old girl won't be charged in heroin dealing
By Wire services
Published January 9, 2004
SOUTH MIAMI - An 11-year-old girl suspected of selling heroin to help with her mother's alleged drug dealing will not be charged, officials said Thursday.
Interim police Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro asked prosecutors not to charge the girl, South Miami spokesman Charles Blazek said. The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office accepts that recommendation, spokesman Ed Griffith said.
Martinez de Castro said his investigators would recommend charging the mother, Alison Lolanda Davis, 36, with child neglect.
Police say the girl, often dressed in a school uniform or pajamas, regularly sold $10 and $20 bags of heroin in front of the home she shared with her mother and 7-year-old sister. Police undercover officers said they made three such purchases after receiving a tip in October.
After a police SWAT team raided the home Friday, the sisters were placed in foster care by the state Department for Children and Families.
Davis is in jail, facing drug possession and trafficking charges.
Lionel Tate could be freed after hearings this month
MIAMI - Hearings have been set that could free Lionel Tate, the South Florida teenager whose life sentence for killing a 6-year-old girl was thrown out last month.
Under a signed agreement, Tate, 16, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and will be sentenced to three years in prison, one year of house arrest, 1,000 hours of community service and 10 years of probation.
The nearly three years Tate has served in prison for the 1999 slaying of Tiffany Eunick will count toward his sentence, meaning he could be free after his bail hearing.
Tate's attorney Richard Rosenbaum said that hearing is set for Jan. 26, and a plea hearing is set for Jan. 29.
Tate's conviction and sentence were overturned last month when a state appellate court ruled that his mental competency should have been tested before trial.
Hillary Clinton to address South Florida Democrats
MIAMI - New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton plans to hold a series of events during a Florida trip next month, speaking at gatherings with Democrats in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
The former first lady is scheduled on Feb. 21 to headline the Broward County Democratic Party's Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Weston, then go to Miami's Watson Island for a dinner to benefit the Miami-Dade Democratic Party.
Courts building reopens after powder scare
PUNTA GORDA - The Charlotte County Justice Center reopened Thursday, three days after officials closed it because a mailroom employee saw white powder leaking from an envelope.
A Tampa laboratory determined that the powder was a harmless plastic residue and dirt, courts spokesman Ken Kellum said.
