Sheriff's effort to serve needy immigrants has new home
By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN and SICKLER CHRISTOPHER GOFFARD
Published October 7, 2004
For more than two years, Hillsborough sheriff's deputies Vinny Millan and Jose Sanchez have traveled across the county helping Hispanic and Haitian refugees and immigrants.
They've spoken at Sunday church services, chatted with people in coffee shops, handed out toys at Christmas.
Now, for the first time, the deputies have a station of their own, a base where the needy can go for help and guidance.
This morning, Sheriff Cal Henderson is scheduled to cut the ribbon on suite 198B of Northpark Shopping Plaza at 6800 N Dale Mabry Highway, new home to the Refugee Victimization Services Program.
The program, a grant-funded partnership between the Sheriff's Office and Florida Department of Children and Families, is more than 2 years old. But the opening of the substation is an important symbol that it's here to stay, Millan said.
"With the grand opening, I know we're going to be overwhelmed," Millan said. "We will get so many people."
Already, Millan and Sanchez have worked with thousands of immigrants, educating them on U.S. laws, practices and opportunities and helping them wade through the paperwork that keeps them from getting deported.
They have helped abused women get away from men who threaten to have them deported if they tell police where their bruises came from. Working with businesses, they've gotten donations for families.
"We try to keep the newly resettled citizens from becoming victims," said Millan, whose father fled Cuba under Fidel Castro. "Our ultimate goal is to get this population that's been hiding, that's been underground, out into the community."
Millan said it's challenging to gain the trust of some of the immigrants, many of them come from countries where uniformed officers aren't to be trusted. But every once in awhile, something good happens.
Like the Cuban refugee who went to Millan with her two children, 5 and 8. The only toys they'd ever had were broken beads salvaged from the Gasparilla parade.
So Millan and Sanchez went to a local Wal-Mart and received donations of toys, clothes and other goodies.
"Just the expression on their face and the tears of happiness," Millan said. "That keeps you going for a whole month."
The new substation's phone number is (813) 801-6736.
JAIL FOR OWNER, WORSE FOR DOGS: When police arrested Rikky Alan Johnson in January, they took into custody nine pit bullterriers they thought he was training to fight. At Johnson's Tampa home, police said, they found a blood-spattered square box that could be used as a fighting ring, a treadmill, hand-written logs detailing the dogs' training regimen and instructions on how to train fighting dogs.
Among the dogs' names: Venom and Cannabis.
Johnson, who says he is innocent, has been trying to get his dogs back from the county pound. But a jury convicted him in August of owning equipment for animal fighting, and this past Tuesday, a Hillsborough judge sentenced him to 180 days in jail, followed by four years' probation, during which he cannot own any dogs.
A hearing master has yet to decide whether he gets his dogs back. But if Johnson loses his effort to reclaim them, he will be slapped with the bill for nine months of the dogs' upkeep, said to be more than $10,000.
Since they are considered vicious dogs beyond rehabilitation, their likely fate is euthanasia.
Assistant State Attorney Doug Covington, who along with prosecutor Sean Keefe made the case against Johnson, said he feels sorry for the dogs, at least one of which was a puppy.
"If I had a farm, I probably would have adopted some of them," Covington said. "I would have taken the risk. Those dogs didn't do a single thing to deserve this."
JUDICIAL ETHICS FINDINGS REVERSED: A couple months back when Tampa lawyer Beth Reineke was running to unseat Hillsborough Circuit Judge Charles "Ed" Bergmann, the Hillsborough County Judicial Campaign Practices Committee found both had committed ethical violations on the campaign trail.
Their alleged offenses? Bergmann had made the unverifiable claim that a majority of family law attorneys supported his candidacy, while Reineke said Bergmann was "just doing time" on the bench.
After further review - and after Bergmann won the election - the committee has reversed itself, saying neither committed ethical violations. Committee chairman Tom Scarritt said there were questions about exactly what Bergmann said and meant. The committee also re-evaluated Reineke's remark in light of court rulings holding that free speech in judicial races must be protected as long as candidates don't show malice in their remarks.
