Digest

Body found in Pasco, foul play suspected

By TIMES WIRES
Published June 3, 2007

ZEPHYRHILLS

A body was found Saturday morning on Stewart Road near Richland Baptist Church, authorities said.

The Pasco Sheriff's Office has ruled out a hit-and-run and is calling the death suspicious.

The body is of a white man in his 20s. Detectives have not released the man's name.

Anyone who saw or heard anything unusual near that area Friday night or Saturday morning was asked to call the Pasco County Sheriff's Office toll-free at 1-800- 854-2862.

Driver gets her second arrest while on U.S. 19

NEW PORT RICHEY - Maybe Jeanine Garran shouldn't drive on U.S. 19 anymore. The road has brought her nothing but trouble.

Friday, on that same road at nearly 2 a.m., Pasco deputies arrested Garran, 36, of New Port Richey, on a charge of driving under the influence. She was released later that day on $500 bail. That was not her first misadventure on the highway.

A little more than a year ago, Garran ran over the body of Hans D. Uzzo, a 56-year-old German native who lived in Holiday. He crossed U.S. 19 and was hit by a truck that didn't stop. His body was then hit by several other cars and dragged 3, 000 feet.

Garran's car was the fifth and last one to hit him. She did not stop until witnesses flagged her down. She was charged with leaving the scene of a crash that resulted in death. The status of that case was unclear Saturday.

Tampa man crashes, dies off Interstate 75

WESLEY CHAPEL - A 21-year-old Tampa man died early Saturday when his car veered off Interstate 75 and crashed into several trees, the Florida Highway Patrol reported. It's unclear what caused Benjamin D. Hooper's car to go off the road near the State Road 52 exit shortly before 2 a.m. He died at the scene.

Judges in Miami less likely to grant asylum

MIAMI - Immigration judges here are far less likely to grant asylum to refugees than their peers in other major U.S. cities, a national study found.

The study released last week by three law professors found Miami's 21 immigration judges granted 23 percent of the asylum requests before them. The national average was 40 percent.

[Last modified June 3, 2007, 01:10:23]