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WESTCHASE CASE RULED ACCIDENTAL DROWNING: After months of waiting, the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner's Office officially ruled Wednesday that a young girl died because she accidentally drowned in Westchase's community pool.
Associate Medical Examiner Sam Gulino said a history of occasional fainting spells may have contributed to 8-year-old Kiana Appleby's death.
Robert Herce, an attorney representing Kiana's parents, Keith and Diana Appleby, said the ruling was no surprise.
"The medical examiner finding was something that we certainly expected all along," Herce said.
The ruling was delayed to wait for a test to see whether Kiana had a possible heart defect. But after three months, scientists said a tissue sample from Kiana was too degraded to test. Gulino made the final ruling based on his own findings and Kiana's medical history.
Kiana's Dolphins swim team was ordered out of Westchase's community pool May 5 when a storm hit. About 30 children stood under a shelter, and one of the children noticed Kiana was missing. Kiana was found at the bottom of the pool after a staff member did a head count, checked the restrooms and walked around the pool, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.
JUDGE BARS PHOTOS OF TEACHER: Hillsborough Circuit Judge Wayne S. Timmerman barred public access Tuesday to graphic police pictures of Debra Lafave, the former Greco Middle School teacher accused of having sex with her 14-year-old student.
The decision came after a rare detente between the defense and the prosecution in what has become one of the most contentious and closely watched sex offender cases in the country. Hillsborough Assistant State Attorney Mike Sinacore told the judge that police followed the letter of the law when they snapped closeups of Lafave's genitals. But he agreed that the photos should remain private.
Their release "would make it much more difficult for both the defense and the state to have a fair trial," Sinacore said.
Sinacore said DNA evidence matters more, and he has no plans to present the photos as evidence during Lafave's upcoming trial on charges of lewd and lascivious battery.
ROAD RAGE IN TOWN 'N COUNTRY: A red Toyota Corolla cut off Samuel Cruz's 2002 silver Jaguar near a stop sign at Catalina Drive and Northbridge Boulevard sometime before 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Cruz exchanged dirty looks with the Corolla's occupants, who ran Cruz's Jaguar off the road, Hillsborough County sheriff's officials said.
Cruz, 37, who lives in Orlando and was visiting friends, got out of his car. So did the driver of the Corolla. Cruz punched the man, sheriff's officials said.
A passenger got out of the Corolla with a gun and fired "several shots," which wounded Cruz in the upper torso, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.
The Corolla, carrying one other man besides the driver and the shooter, sped off. Cruz drove to Town & Country Hospital, where he was treated for wounds that weren't life-threatening, Carter said.
CRACKDOWN ON GANGS: Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee wants Tampa and its neighboring communities to be different. Gee wants the metropolitan allure without those big-city issues. That's why his office has "tried to get its arms around" a fledgling gang problem in the county.
After an intensive six-month focus on the western part of the county, Gee is confident that residents and those who participate in gang activity now know that law enforcement officials are taking aggressive steps to minimize gang activity.
"With big cities come big city problems," Gee said Monday. "We want to make Tampa different from those cities that have gang problems."
Gee praised local and federal authorities for assisting in the six-month effort that netted 105 arrests. Of those arrested, 52 were certified as gang members and the others were gang affiliates.
"We have seen an emerging gang problem," said Sgt. Scott Wellinger, the sheriff's official in charge of the county's year-old gang task force. "(This operation) will convey to the community that we are taking a proactive step, and hopefully this will encourage them to take the same approach."
Wellinger said more than 700 gang members have been identified in the county.
This was the completion of the third major undertaking to identify and prosecute gang activity in the county. According to Monday's results, 12 gangs were identified in the western area of Hillsborough, including at least 14 Bloods, 11 Latin Kings and eight TC Boys. Countywide, Wellinger said the Latin Kings, with 122 identified members, are the largest, followed by the Sur-13s, who have 108 members.