Dateline Florida

By Times Staff
Published August 23, 2007

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USF STUDENTS WILL GET HEARING ON SEPT. 21

A Sept. 21 court date has been set for a South Carolina judge to hear evidence against two University of South Florida students. Ahmed Mohamed, 26, and Youssef Megahed, 21, were arrested Aug. 4 in Goose Creek, S.C., after a deputy reported finding "several pipe bombs" in the men's car trunk. The men have been held in the Berkeley County jail since their arrest. Bail for Megahed was set at $300,000. Bail for Mohamed was set at $500,000.

After hearing jurors, killer opts for judge

A day after two dozen potential jurors said they would "fry him," admitted killer Charles Grover Brant waived his right to a jury trial. Hillsborough Circuit Judge William Fuente, who had already dismissed the 78-person jury pool, began hearing testimony Wednesday in a nonjury trial. Even in jury trials in Florida, a judge makes the final decision about whether someone lives or dies. Brant, 41, pleaded guilty to killing 21-year-old Sara Radfar in July 2004. Prosecutors refused to seek any punishment short of the death penalty.

Coral Gables loses truck-parking ban

Life, liberty ... and parking your pickup in front of your house? Apparently that's a right, too. The city of Coral Gables can no longer ban trucks from parking on residential streets overnight, the Third District Court of Appeal has ruled. Lowell Kuvin filed the suit in 2003 after being fined $50 for parking his pickup, a Ford F-150, in front of his own home overnight. The city ordinance allows residents to own trucks, but they must be kept in garages or outside the city at night. The appellate justices ruled that the Coral Gables ordinance "crossed the line into an impermissible interference with the personal rights of its residents."