Authorities said the boys, ages 15 and 16, were not on school property when they fired the paintball guns Monday afternoon. The middle school students were standing outside on a patio and were not hit by the paintballs.

The boys, who are not being named by the Times because of their ages, were caught immediately after firing the guns, officials said. Both were charged with discharging a weapon at school property, a felony, and taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center.

Plant City student charged with bomb threat

PLANT CITY -- A 15-year-old student at Plant City High School was charged in connection with comments he made as the school was evacuated for a bomb threat.

Students were evacuated about 11 a.m. because a bomb threat had been written inside a bathroom stall, officials said.

While they filed out of the school for the second time in two days, a scenario becoming routine in Hillsborough schools, the 15-year-old student yelled: "One of these days we'll say f--- it" and not leave the building and "then the school's going to blow." He added, "Or maybe we'll go . . ." and then imitated the firing of a machine gun.

Those comments were construed as a bomb threat by school officials and sheriff's deputies. The student was charged with making a false report of a bomb and threatening to place a destructive device, both felonies. He was taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center.

Sheriff's spokesman Rod Reder defended the boy's arrest by saying that the student actually said other things that "indicated he was threatening to blow up the school."

The Times is not publishing the student's name because of his age.

Drawing breaks tie in Port Richey election

PORT RICHEY -- Bill Bennett got lucky Tuesday night. Bennett won the last seat on the Port Richey City Council after he drew a film canister from a basket that contained a piece of paper reading "Alpha 1st Elected."

In a rarity in elected government, that piece of paper broke the tie between Bennett and Dale Massad, two weeks after each of them received 369 votes.

Bennett will serve one year, the rest of the term of Tom Brown, who abruptly resigned in October.

Man sentenced for role in housing authority scandal

TAMPA -- One of four defendants accused in a Tampa Housing Authority bribery scandal was sentenced Tuesday to 41 months in prison.

Bill Williams Jr., a contractor who won several contracts from the Housing Authority, will also have to pay $9,000 in restitution.

Williams, 54, pleaded guilty last year to one count of bribery. He admitted paying former Tampa Housing Director Audley Evans $9,000 in December 1995 in return for Evans' influence in awarding a contract to Williams' company.

On Tuesday, he wept as he told the judge that he was trying to change his ways. "It's been a very difficult task," Williams told the judge. "I'm in a bad situation."

Williams' sentencing stemmed from a bribery and kickback investigation into Evans, Tampa developer C. Hayward Chapman and Tampa doctor Patrick Watson.

Federal prosecutor Robert E. O'Neill and the investigator who worked the case told U.S. District Judge Susan C. Bucklew that Williams cooperated from the start. They spent more than 100 hours debriefing him before Evans' trial.

"There's no doubt that the case could not have been made against Mr. Evans without Mr. Williams," O'Neill told the judge.

Given the cooperation, Bucklew agreed to shorten Williams' prison time. He had faced a maximum of 71/2 years.

Back to Tampa Bay area news

Back

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright

Special Links

Mary Jo Melone

Howard Troxler

Headlines
From the Times
local news desks