TAMPA -- George Ira Smiley, who sped through a busy intersection and killed a 23-year-old woman after being chased by a Tampa police officer, will get a new trial on charges of vehicular homicide.

Circuit Judge Ralph Stoddard threw out Smiley's conviction Wednesday and ordered a new trial.

A jury found last month that Smiley, 38, was responsible for killing Svetlana Belyakova, a mother and Russian immigrant who was driving through the intersection of Nebraska and Waters avenues when Smiley blew through a red light in July 1999. Belyakova died an hour after the crash at Tampa General Hospital, but her 16-month-old daughter, who was sitting beside her, was uninjured.

Prosecutors charged that Smiley had stolen a $49 garage door opener from Home Depot and sped through the red light to avoid being caught. While the jury found him guilty of vehicular homicide, they also acquitted him of petty theft. Stoddard ordered the new trial because of a mistake he acknowledged making during jury instructions, the part of a trial when a judge tells the jury the law to be applied in a case. Stoddard did not instruct the jury that they could find Smiley guilty of culpable negligence, a less serious charge than vehicular homicide.

Two in patient brokering operation plead guilty

TAMPA -- Two more employees of the largest patient brokering operation in the United States pleaded guilty Wednesday and agreed to cooperate with an ongoing federal grand jury investigation.

Frank William Guagliardo, the controller of Progressive Health Care, and Richard James Santaniello, who ran the telephone operation at Progressive, both pleaded guilty to conspiracy.

The two face up to five years in prison, fines of $250,000 and unspecified restitution to the U.S. Government.

Progressive Health Care, a Morganville, N.J., company, was owned primarily by William DeMaria Jr., characterized as the kingpin of a nationwide patient brokering operation. The company paid illegal kickbacks for referrals of Medicare patients into treatment programs for addiction and psychiatric care.

In the Tampa Bay area, Progressive and sister companies steered patients to treatment centers at Sun Coast Hospital in Largo, The Manors in Tarpon Springs, Horizon Hospital in Clearwater, Greenbrier Hospital in Brooksville and Heritage Hospital in rural Citrus County.

DeMaria and two other principals of Progressive Health Care have pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and await sentencing.

Ex-Sen. Mack to be named chairman of Moffitt board

TAMPA -- Former U.S. Sen. Connie Mack, who has said he wants to make aiding cancer research a priority for his retirement, will be named chairman of the board of trustees at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute.

Moffitt has scheduled the announcement for 2 p.m. Friday. Mack will be one of about 25 members on the board. It is an unpaid position.

Contacted late Wednesday at his home in Palm Island, Mack declined to comment.

Moffitt is Florida's only National Cancer Institute-designated center and regularly conducts research and clinical trials of national significance.

Coe may be memorialized in courthouse annex

TAMPA -- Seven months after State Attorney Harry Lee Coe committed suicide, officials are discussing whether to name part of the Hillsborough County Courthouse annex in his memory.

The news came Wednesday at a meeting of Hillsborough judges, after Circuit Judge Claudia Isom suggested naming part of the courthouse annex in memory of Circuit Judge Diana Allen, who suffered a heart attack and died last summer while undergoing treatment for lymphoma.

Chief Judge F. Dennis Alvarez said that a county official informed him that someone in Coe's family expressed interest in getting the south tower of the annex end named for Coe. The north end already is named in memory of Circuit Judge I.C. Spoto.

Coe, a former judge and embattled state attorney, fatally shot himself under an expressway overpass this summer as stories began to break about his gambling habit and deepening debt.

So the judges had options to consider. There was talk of naming the south tower, which includes the State Attorney's Office, for Coe and dedicating the long middle hall of courtrooms, called felony row, for Allen, making it the Coe Allen Spoto Courthouse. Or the courtroom where Allen worked could simply be named for her.

It takes a vote of the County Commission to name a public building after someone, but naming a courtroom after someone wouldn't require the commission's blessing. In the end, a committee of judges was appointed to sift through the options.

Former catcher pleads innocent to DUI charge

BROOKSVILLE -- Darren Daulton, the former major league catcher who was arrested and charged with drunken driving in Hernando County on Jan. 3, has pleaded innocent. Daulton was originally scheduled to appear in court Wednesday, but his lawyer sent in a written plea in January, delaying his next court appearance until March at the earliest, court records show.

The Florida Highway Patrol said Daulton was driving north on Interstate 75 about 10 p.m. on his 39th birthday when, about 2 miles south of the Hernando-Sumter county line, his 1995 BMW sedan ran into the median, slid sideways across the southbound lane and plowed into a tree.

Public can comment on spending limits proposal

TAMPA -- Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth already has weighed in against a proposal by the Hillsborough County Charter Review Board to impose spending limits on the County Commission. Tonight the public gets its say.

The 14-member citizens board holds a public hearing at 6 p.m. and then votes on whether to put the issue on the 2002 ballot.

The proposal would force the County Commission to limit yearly growth of its operating budget to either 3 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. The commission could increase its spending beyond that only if six of seven commissioners agree.

The board sought Butterworth's advice, and last week he wrote that the amendment would conflict with Florida statues governing how county budget and county millage rates must be established.

The board voted last year to put a measure before voters in 2002 to create an internal auditor to investigate how the county spends millions in tax dollars.

Tonight's meeting begins at 6 in the County Center. The review board will not meet again for five years.

18-year-old motorcyclist dies after being hit by car

TAMPA -- An 18-year-old man riding a motorcycle died Wednesday morning in a multi-vehicle accident on E Busch Boulevard.

Robert Joseph Winkler III, of 2905 W Marquette Ave., died in the emergency room at St. Joseph's Hospital not long after the 10 a.m. accident.

Police said it started when Michael Stafford Freeman, 43, crossed the center line of Busch Boulevard after his 1995 Oldsmobile blew a tire and he lost control. Freeman's car, which was eastbound, hit a westbound 1996 Pontiac driven by 26-year-old Michelle Cerrito.

The impact sent the Pontiac spinning into a 1996 Honda motorcycle driven by Winkler. Winkler, a 2000 graduate of Chamberlain High, was thrown from the motorcycle and suffered serious injuries. No charges were filed.

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