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The week in review
By Times staff writer
© St. Petersburg Times, BOY DIES: Kevin Bernauer, 2, wandered from his mother and drowned in a Floral City canal. PAY INCREASES SUGGESTED: Citing the need to put its salaries on par with neighboring counties, Nature Coast Emergency Medical Services' board of directors approved a plan to boost the wages it pays over the next two years. The plan still needs the County Commission's approval at budget hearings later this month because it relies in part on $30,000 from county coffers next year. The proposal would raise the entry level pay for emergency medical technicians, or EMTs, and paramedics. LAWYER DISCIPLINED: One of Citrus County's busiest and best-known defense attorneys has been suspended from practicing law for 90 days by the Florida Supreme Court for several counts of sloppy legal work. Jim Cummins, 34, who has represented many of the county's most high-profile criminal defendants, was found guilty of nine offenses, including failing to keep clients properly informed, failing to file legal motions in the correct place and providing inadequate representation. Cummins' suspension will begin Nov. 19. He called the charges "absolutely false" and said he "never admitted to the allegations." He said he had a busy trial schedule at the time the charges against him were made and said the Florida Bar refused to grant him more time to respond. Since he didn't reply, he was automatically found guilty.
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