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Tampa uncuffed

National media find more local news than space for interviews

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER and CHRISTOPHER GOFFARD
Published March 24, 2005

The battle over Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. Little Jessica Lunsford's kidnapping and murder. John and Linda Dollar's alleged torture of their adopted children. Debra Lafave's upcoming trial on charges that she had sex with a teenage student.

The Tampa Bay area has produced lots of national attention-grabbing criminal and legal news lately. That means local pundits - lawyers, "experts," loved ones associated with the various stories - need somewhere here to film their appearances to be shown on MSNBC, Fox News and the like.

But local studio space got tight as national media converged here to cover the Schiavo saga, the murder of 9-year-old Jessica in Homosassa and the latest court proceedings for Lafave, the blue-eyed, blonde teacher accused of having sex with a 14-year-old boy last summer.

Even the big dog MSNBC couldn't get a slot at WEDU, the PBS station in Tampa where national shows frequently send local guests for live interviews.

Richard Lobo, president and chief executive officer of WEDU, said all this news falls during the station's pledge period (and that of other public radio and TV stations in the area), when space is set aside for taking in donations.

"Most everyone is kind of maxed right now in terms of production," Lobo said. "A great deal of it has to do with breaking stories. We usually don't have to turn anyone anyway. I don't know that this happens very often."

Tuesday was especially difficult, with national producers scrambling to find somewhere for Tampa Bay-based guests to film their interviews. It was Schiavo's fifth day without her feeding tube, and the day her case went before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. Also, Lafave appeared in court Tuesday morning for a pretrial hearing, and developments continued to emerge in the case of John Couey, the sex offender accused of killing Jessica.

Some media outlets resorted to interviewing people from television trucks parked near the Pinellas Park hospice where Schiavo lives.

It doesn't exactly have the polish and glamour of a studio's faux cityscape backdrop, but it'll do in a pinch.

A MASTER OF SECURITY: The No. 2 guy at the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office is 47 years old. After 21 years with the department, he oversees its annual $240-million budget.

But this week, he's just a proud student about to see his studies pay off.

Chief Deputy Jose Docobo is in Monterey, Calif., at the Naval Postgraduate School, where he graduates Friday with a master's degree in national security. The master's program started two years ago with help from the Department of Homeland Security. It's the only master's degree program in the nation that trains students in homeland defense.

Docobo was among 15 people selected from around the country for this second class of students. Half of them are active military personnel.

The 18-month program required that Docobo go to California every 10 weeks for two weeks at a time. He also had lots of online homework to keep him busy.

His thesis topic? Integrating Community Policing Into National Homeland Security Strategy.

Docobo is the first person in Florida - military or civilian - to earn the specialized master's degree.

"It's been very challenging," Docobo said before he left for the West Coast earlier this month. "But it's been a tremendous experience."

PERSONS OF INTEREST, IN PERSPECTIVE: Before he was arrested and confessed to kidnapping and killing Jessica Lunsford, Couey was labeled a "person of interest" by Citrus County Sheriff's officials.

This week in Tampa, police named Dominic A. Coretto of Clearwater a "person of interest" in their investigation of the deadly beating of Larry Paul Sanders II, 26.

The vague phrase is law enforcement's way of making clear they are looking closely at someone but not giving him the more incriminating label of "suspect."

Being a "person of interest" is definitely bad when murder or other crimes are involved, but there are a few instances when it could be a good thing.

Consider: You meet someone, go on a date, and later decide he is a person of interest. You interview for a job and the employer says, "You are a person of interest to us."

You yawn through the first hour of a dull party and finally find someone worth talking to.

"Thank goodness!" you tell yourself. "A person of interest!"

Contact Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler at 813 226-3373 or svansickler@sptimes.com and Christopher Goffard at (813) 226-3337 or goffard@sptimes.com

[Last modified March 24, 2005, 01:19:16]