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Courts

County courtrooms see new faces, old cases

By JAMAL THALJI and MOLLY MOORHEAD
Published December 28, 2006

Some of the biggest headlines in Pasco's courtrooms this year were made by the ones in the black robes.

The state's highest court removed one judge. The voters and the governor put new people on the bench. A new judge took over the criminal docket in Dade City. And one judge made national headlines just by parking his car.

A new courthouse expansion also opened in New Port Richey. And the county grappled with a secret docket of cases discovered hidden from public view.

Former Circuit Judge John Renke III made headlines by losing his job: He was kicked off the bench by the Florida Supreme Court.

The state's highest court issued a stinging rebuke in May to the 2002 campaign that got Renke elected, calling it a "fraud." The court found that Renke had inflated his experience and used an illegal loan.

Renke's judicial conduct was not in question - even his accusers said he was a good judge - but that didn't stop the justices from ending his 3 1/2 year tenure in June.

Circuit Judge Stanley Mills made headlines by trying to keep his parking space. He blocked in - for an entire workday in September - a scofflaw who parked in his reserved spot at the West Pasco Judicial Center.

Courthouse construction led to a parking crisis this year. Somehow the "reserved" signs for judges failed to deter those who just didn't feel getting to court was worth a long walk.

Mills said he wanted to teach the spot-stealer a lesson, but in the swirl of publicity that followed, he learned something, too. At the suggestion of a Times columnist, he tried to use a cone to keep people from parking in his spot. But the Sheriff's Office vetoed that idea. Instead, the county installed new warning signs.

A lot of good that did; soon after they went up, someone parked in Circuit Judge Joe Bulone's spot.

Elections, trials

In November, Assistant Public Defender Anne Wansboro won election to one of two new Pasco County judgeships.

Defense attorney Candy VanDercar got elected, too. But she had to wait a week to find out she took one of the closest races in Pasco history by 55 votes.

Pasco and Pinellas voters also added Christine "Chris" Helinger and Pat Siracusa to the circuit bench. Both start work in Pasco in 2007. So will Pinellas County Judge Shawn Crane, a New Port Richey native the governor elevated to fill Renke's old seat.

News broke this summer that several Florida counties - including Pasco - were improperly sealing court dockets from public view. The 6th Circuit's chief judge and Pasco's Clerk of the Court worked to fix the problems that wrongly kept the existence of 157 files hidden from the public.

Pasco's longtime Clerk of the Circuit Court Jed Pittman also announced this summer that he planned to retire in 2008. By that point he will have served 32 years.

Circuit Judge Linda Babb took over the criminal bench in east Pasco, starting off a year that promised plenty of courtroom drama.

But several key cases only saw more delays, notably the murder trial of Alfredie Steele Jr., accused in the 2003 shooting death of a sheriff's lieutenant.

Babb battled for months with Steele's public defenders, who wanted her removed from the case. The attorneys insisted they needed more time. Babb insisted they'd had enough. She declined to step down from the case, but ultimately moved the trial to March.

The long-awaited trial of Gary Elishi Cochran, accused in the 1997 stabbing death of 9-year-old Shara Ferger, was also pushed back to 2007. So too was the new penalty phase for convicted hitman Lawrence Joey Smith, who wants to represent himself when a new jury decides whether he gets life in prison or death for a 1999 murder.

One man accused of murder got his day in court - again. Scottie Lee "D'Angelo" White was convicted in April in his retrial of the 2001 slaying of Ronnie Barber and was sentenced to life in prison. But the trial of co-defendant Eric "E-Love" Wilson was pushed back to 2007.

They got a day in court

In April, a 14-year-old Crystal Springs boy was sentenced to a juvenile facility for torturing the dog that came to be known as "Miracle." The dog died in June, her last days spent with the man who saved her.

Jeffrey Ryan Alcantara finally started his 30-month prison sentence in August for ripping off the former Deerwood Academy, which imploded in 2003. He went to prison without repaying any of the money taxpayers lost.

Josue Oswaldo Ramirez-Mejia was 28 when he was arrested in 2005 for posing as a Mitchell High School student to get an education. He avoided jail in an August plea deal, but may not avoid deportation to Guatemala.

On the civil side in east Pasco, family members of Todd Byers, killed in a Land O'Lakes gas station brawl in 2003, saw their wrongful-death lawsuit against the station owners thrown out of court.

In August, a 101-year-old former schoolteacher won back her lifetime savings of more than $700,000 that had been wrangled away by her former caretaker and friend. Euphemia Rowland of Dade City met Betty Shye in church and eventually gave Shye control over her assets.

But the friendship eroded; and when Rowland tried to revoke control, Shye refused, saying Rowland intended the money as a gift. Shye was ordered to pay her back.

[Last modified December 28, 2006, 06:19:39]