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Polk's free speech zone rules challenged in suit
By wire services
Published December 10, 2005
LAKELAND - Polk County officials have imposed unconstitutional requirements on would-be users of a so-called free speech zone at the courthouse in Bartow, claims a federal lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The suit filed in U.S. District Court in Tampa complains mainly about a requirement that site users have a $500,000 insurance policy.
Officials last week rejected an ACLU request to use the site because it lacked the insurance.
The free speech zone "is only a free speech zone for those who can afford to cough up the funds," said Rebecca H. Steele, director of the ACLU Tampa chapter.
Under public pressure, county commissioners created the free speech zone outside the administration building this year after a Bartow church group erected a nativity scene there without permission last Christmas. The insurance policy is necessary to protect the county from liability, they say.
The ACLU also objects to rules requiring users of the zone to apply 21 days in advance and that bar displays containing pornography, obscenities or commercial speech.
One application to use the site has been approved. First Baptist Church of Bartow, which set up the nativity scene last year, has permission to do it again this year.
Manatees took a bad hit from Red Tide, group says
FORT MYERS - The massive Red Tide bloom in southwest Florida is suspected to be the cause of more than a fifth of the state's manatee deaths so far this year, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute said.
Through November, Red Tide was the known or suspected cause of 79 of the 358 deaths of the endangered sea mammals from Pasco to Collier counties.
The numbers have scientists worried about the southwest area's manatee population, said the institute's Elsa Haubold. "They went through Red Tide in 2002 and 2003 and again this year," she noted.
The 358 deaths in the area this year is the third-highest total on record. It is the fourth time in five years the toll has topped 300.
Most of the manatees died from natural causes, including Red Tide, but about 20 percent died after being hit by boats.
New lawyer expects Tate will be found competent
MIAMI - The new attorney for convicted child killer Lionel Tate said Friday he expects his client will be found mentally competent for hearings on whether his probation should be revoked because of the alleged robbery of a pizza delivery man.
Ellis Rubin said he has interviewed Tate at the Broward County jail, and he appears to understand court proceedings and consequences.
"I'm not going to fight any finding of competence," Rubin said.
Tate, 18, requested a competency hearing in a letter to Broward Circuit Judge Joel T. Lazarus, causing Lazarus to delay the probation hearing that had been scheduled to begin last Monday.
In the letter, Tate claimed he was "hearing voices" and that he had considered suicide.
Rubin took over Tate's defense this week at the request of Tate's mother and aunt.
Tate is on probation for the 1999 killing of 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick, a family friend his mother was babysitting, when he was 12.
Family of vanished cruise passenger plans suit
MIAMI - The parents and sister of a Connecticut man who disappeared from a cruise ship on his honeymoon said Friday they want answers from Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. about what happened and are preparing a lawsuit.
"No parent should have to go through what we've had to go through," said Maureen Smith, mother of George Allen Smith IV. "We just want to know where he is - what happened to him."
Smith, 26, of Greenwich, Conn., vanished July 5 from the Royal Caribbean ship Brilliance of the Seas in the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Turkey.
The family's attorney, Brett Rivkind, said bloodstains were found in and outside Smith's cabin, and other passengers reported overhearing a commotion. But he said Royal Caribbean has attempted a coverup, repeatedly calling the disappearance an accident. Royal Caribbean responded in a statement Friday that the company conducted a thorough search of the ship and has cooperated with FBI investigators.
Smith's wife, Jennifer Hagel Smith, has retained her own lawyer and did not attend Friday's news conference.
Officer accused of stealing from undercover detective
MIAMI - A Miami-Dade County police officer was dismissed Thursday after he allegedly stole money from an undercover detective during a traffic stop.
Officer Jose Novoa, a five-year veteran, had been assigned to uniform patrol. The Police Department's Professional Compliance Bureau began investigating him after receiving several complaints, Detective Nelda Fonticiella said.
Novoa stopped an undercover detective for a traffic violation, "patted him down and apparently took $20 from his pocket," Fonticiella said.
Novoa was immediately arrested by several other undercover officers at the scene, she said.
-LEDGER, WIRE REPORTS
[Last modified December 10, 2005, 00:50:10]
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