Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Tampa Bay briefs

Briefs and news of note from around the bay area.

By Times Staff
Published July 12, 2006

Woman staying at shelter accused of abusing child

TAMPA - Kimberly Denell McLeod brought her 10-month-old son with her to a domestic violence shelter.

But, police say, once she got to the Spring, a program that uses the motto "where family abuse ends," she only added to her problems.

McLeod, 18, was being held without bail Tuesday at the Hillsborough County jail after police said she hit and shook her baby, telling him she wished he were dead. She was arrested at 3:20 a.m. Tuesday on a charge of child abuse, a felony, records show.

Witnesses told police that McLeod and her son were sitting in a gazebo at 5 p.m. Monday, when the baby started to cry.

McLeod reacted by hitting the baby in the back, pushing him face-first onto the ground, police say. As the baby lay on the ground, crying, a witness scooped up the child to comfort him and to see if he was hurt.

At that, McLeod started to yell and grabbed the child away, witnesses told police. As she walked away, McLeod shook the child and yelled loudly that she wished the child were dead, witnesses told police.

Police came to the shelter and notified the Department of Children and Families, and the baby was taken into protective custody, police say.

The baby didn't have any obvious injuries, but an investigator was assigned to check on his health.

Police say McLeod was arrested in November 2005 on charges of domestic violence. Further information about the case was not available because she was a minor at the time of the arrest.

Sentencing set July 25 for last of Al-Arian defendants

TAMPA - Hatem Naji Fariz, the sole remaining co-defendant of Sami Al-Arian's, will be sentenced July 25, according to documents filed uesday in U.S. District Court.

No details were available Tuesday about the sentencing. Steve Cole, a U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman, said he could not comment.

Fariz's lawyer, Kevin Beck, told the St. Petersburg Times in May that his client planned to accept a plea agreement. Beck could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

After a six-month terrorism-related trial that ended in December, a jury acquitted Fariz of 25 terrorism-related charges and deadlocked on eight. Rather than be retried, Fariz accepted a plea deal, Beck told the Times.

According to court documents, Fariz sent money raised in Tampa and Chicago to Elehssan, a charity in the Gaza Strip, which also was financially supported by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a group that has taken credit for hundreds of deaths in Israel and the occupied territories.

Media General, the company that owns the Tampa Tribune, filed a motion in federal court late Tuesday to unseal documents related to Fariz's sentencing before July 25.

In the motion, Media General lawyer Gregg Thomas wrote: "The documents should be released promptly and in advance of the upcoming sentencing, so that the public is able to fully understand those proceedings."

[Last modified July 12, 2006, 05:54:59]