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Fireworks complaints pour in but no arrests
Deputies never saw anyone lighting a fuse, even though they received nearly 800 complaints.
By THOMAS LAKE
Published July 6, 2006
Bright chemicals exploded like thunder over Pasco County as night fell on Independence Day. And if you didn't know they were fireworks, you might have thought we were under attack. Carolyn Simons says she was. She says it happened on Sherwood Drive in New Port Richey on Tuesday night, when her mother, 77, asked revelers to stop shooting fireworks. They responded, she says, by bombarding the house with bottle rockets. Flying debris covered the roof and struck her 83-year-old father in the shin. Sheriff's deputies checked things out but made no arrests. "We can't turn to the police," said Simons' 12-year-old daughter, Cynthia, "because the police don't even do anything." The Pasco County Sheriff's Office took 763 fireworks complaints between Friday and Tuesday morning, and deputies issued verbal or written warnings in more than one-tenth of those cases. But in spite of a recent pledge to crack down on the illegal ignition of fireworks - a second-degree misdemeanor that carries a potential 60-day sentence - no one is going to jail. Why? Because unsuccessful prosecution is a waste of time and money, said sheriff's spokesman Doug Tobin. In order to build a solid case, a deputy must see the firebug lighting the fuse. And that didn't happen, even though fireworks complaints made up nearly 30 percent of the office's 1,100 service calls on July 4. "We made an attempt to go to every single one of them," Tobin said. But in many cases, no one was there when they arrived, and none of the calls resulted in an arrest or a court summons. When deputies responded to Sherwood Drive on Tuesday night, they found Simons' father, Louis Maione, with a starter's pistol. He said he needed it to defend himself against the fireworks shooters. Deputies took it away and went to the next call. Staff writer Mallory Simon contributed to this report.
[Last modified July 5, 2006, 22:55:43]
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