Digest

Ex-coach gets jail for sex with teen

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published August 14, 2007

WINTER PARK 

A former football coach who pleaded guilty to having sex with a 17-year-old student will spend a year in jail and a year under house arrest, a judge ruled Monday.

Edward Vincent Norton, 41, was a football coach and English teacher at Lake Howell High School. He was facing a maximum of six years in prison, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

Norton said he fell in love with the teen and gave her an engagement ring but called their romance a terrible misjudgment.

The victim did not testify but wrote the judge a letter saying she was a willing participant and not harmed by their relationship. She is now 19, married and expecting her first child in about a month.

WEST PALM BEACH

U.S. seeks back taxes from Strawberry

The government has filed a lawsuit against troubled baseball star Darryl Strawberry, seeking to collect nearly a half-million dollars in unpaid taxes.

The complaint filed Friday was years in the making. Strawberry was indicted in 1994 on federal tax evasion charges and pleaded guilty the following year.

He was sentenced to six months' home confinement and ordered to repay $350,000 in taxes.

In all, with penalties and interest, the government said Strawberry owes $481,656.86 as of May 31.

Strawberry, an eight-time All-Star and member of two World Series winners, has also battled drug addiction and cancer. He served 11 months in prison in 2002-03 for violating probation on cocaine possession charges.

PARKLAND

Lightning kills worker with weed trimmer

A 24-year-old landscaper was struck and killed by lightning, Broward County authorities say.

Domingo Andres Francisco was operating a weed trimmer near a lake, when a bolt of lightning hit him. Workers alerted the homeowner, who made the 911 call.

Francisco immediately went into cardiopulmonary arrest, and deputies quickly responded and administered CPR. Rescuers took Francisco to a Deerfield Beach hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Authorities say Francisco had come to the United States from Guatemala in May.

[Last modified August 14, 2007, 00:23:34]