Adoptions of state wards on the rise, DCF chief says
By wire services
Published January 17, 2004
TALLAHASSEE - The number of children adopted out of the care of the Florida Department of Children and Families rose by 37 percent in the second half of 2003, the agency said Friday.
From July to December of 2003, 1,432 DCF children were adopted, compared with 1,048 in the same period in 2001, DCF Secretary Jerry Regier said.
"I am very encouraged that more of Florida's foster children are finding permanent, loving homes. It means a better quality of life for these children," Regier said.
He said the agency's "No Place Like Home" campaign, which aims to recruit more parents and streamline the adoption process, is one reason for the increase.
Racist mailer makes use of Bar's list of lawyers
MIAMI - After attorneys across Florida this week received racist literature from the National Alliance, a neo-Nazi group, the Florida Bar Association acknowledged that it provided the requested mailing labels.
Refusing to do so would have violated the state's open government laws, Bar president Miles McGrane said.
"We're a quasi-government agency and required to provide a list of members according to the Florida Sunshine laws," McGrane said. "We find it reprehensible what occurred, but we can't change policy."
For 10 cents each to cover overhead, the Bar sent the labels to John Ubele of New Port Richey, McGrane said.
Escambia deputies shoot escapee at end of chase
PENSACOLA - Deputies shot an inmate several times after he escaped from a hospital after jumping a guard and taking his gun.
Alston Lewis, 27, was flown to West Florida Hospital with multiple wounds. The hospital would not disclose his condition.
Lewis fled Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola and fired on deputies during a 40-mile chase before being shot at a gas station, Escambia County sheriff's spokesman Greg Pearson said Friday.
Lewis was jailed on charges of burglary, grand theft and resisting arrest without violence Sunday, said Escambia County Jail director Dennis Williams. He was taken to the hospital Wednesday for treatment of an undisclosed pre-existing medical condition.
Williams said that while being administered medication, Lewis overpowered a deputy Thursday night, handcuffed him, took his gun and forced a hospital employee to give him her car.
Pearson said Lewis fired at deputies from the car until stopping at a gas station in Century, near the Alabama border. Deputies shot him when he got out of the car.
Three teens face possible first-degree murder counts
PENSACOLA - Three teenagers fatally shot a man they robbed of money and crack cocaine and dumped his body near a swamp, an Escambia County sheriff's investigator said Friday.
Curtis James Moss Jr., 28, apparently was shot Monday night. His body was found Tuesday southwest of Pensacola, sheriff's investigator Buddy NeSmith said.
Anthony Demetrius Horton, 16, Natasha Jean Harrison, 17, and Dylan Eddie Hendriex, 19, were arrested Thursday and held without bail on open murder counts. A grand jury will determine specific charges and whether the two juveniles will be prosecuted as adults.
Adult charges of first-degree felony murder are possible when another crime, such as robbery, is involved. In that case, there would be only two possible penalties: death or life in prison without parole, although at 16, Horton is too young for the death penalty.
