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Orlando plans election to pick temporary mayor

By Times wire
Published March 22, 2005

ORLANDO - Orlando voters will choose a temporary replacement for suspended Mayor Buddy Dyer on May 3, while he fights a charge that he violated state elections law.

The City Council voted 4-2 Monday to hold the special election. If Dyer is acquitted, he could return to the office.

At least one attorney said he planned to file a court challenge to the election's validity.

Steven Mason, who represents the Orange County Democratic Party, disputed that a special election was required.

Mason said he thinks that Ernest Page should remain in the mayor's office until Dyer's fate is decided.

FORT LAUDERDALE - A man was sentenced to 20 years in prison Monday for the death of his 9-month-old daughter, whom he left in a parked car at the racetrack while he bet on horses.

Antonio Balta, 28, of Elmont, N.Y., allegedly told police he left Veronika strapped in her car seat most of the day while he watched races. He left a window cracked less than a half-inch.

He said he checked on her periodically, but left her alone for 45 minutes before his final check when he she was not breathing.

FORT WALTON BEACH - A man plunged six stories to his death from a hotel roof after telling his father, "I'm going, Dad. So long," authorities say.

Michael Irwin, 41, climbed out onto the peak of the roof and called his father Sunday morning. Louis Irwin came to the hotel, and he and law officers pleaded with his son to come down.

Authorities said Michael Irwin finished a bottle of whiskey, dropped it to the ground and said goodbye to his father. He let go of the peak and slid down the steep roof. Louis Irwin said his son had been suffering over a relationship.

MARCO ISLAND - The search for a pair of missing boaters ended Monday with the rescue of a man clinging to debris and recovery of a woman's body, according to the Coast Guard.

Jose Augustine Delgado, 41, was taken by helicopter to Lee Memorial Hospital for treatment of hypothermia after he was found Monday morning with a life jacket and hanging to debris about 30 miles west of Marco Island. Delgado's wife, 35-year-old Maria Perez, later was found dead by a Coast Guard cutter.

The two had been missing since Saturday.

[Last modified March 22, 2005, 01:20:07]