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Parents awarded damages in misplaced child caseBy Times staff reports
© St. Petersburg Times, ST. PETERSBURG -- The parents of a girl injured in 1997 after being misplaced by caregivers at an after-school program were awarded $41,000 this week by a Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court jury. Paul and Joan Ornoski waited for hours as police and after-school caregivers at Bay Vista Elementary School searched for 7-year-old Melinda. It was later discovered that Melinda had left 'R Club Child Care Inc., which operates on School Board property, and had gone with a group of children to an after-school program at nearby Lake Vista Recreation Center, run by the city of St. Petersburg. Workers at the center failed to notice that Melinda didn't belong there. She later fell off the monkey bars and broke her elbow. Her parents sued the city, the Pinellas County School Board and the day care center for negligence. A week before the trial, the family settled with the School Board for $500 and with 'R Club Child Care for $1,500. The city was ordered Tuesday to pay $41,000 for past and future pain and suffering. Call to aid abused baby inspires flood of donors TAMPA -- A day after asking the public for help in providing a 10-month-old rape victim with food, diapers and clothes, the offices of the Department of Children and Families were inundated with donations. Donors started arriving at 8:30 a.m. Thursday. By 2:30 p.m., a vacant office was filled wall-to-wall with enough car seats, toys, stuffed animals, walkers, musical mobiles, diapers, diaper bags, blankets, books, booster seats, playpens and clothes to outfit an entire nursery of infants. The little girl has been in DCF custody since being kidnapped, assaulted and rescued Sept. 22. Randolph Standifer, a 20-year-old friend of the family, has been charged with capital sexual battery, kidnapping and attempted murder. Investigators said he raped and strangled the baby, then left her for dead in the woods. The child is not being identified by the Times to protect her privacy. A trust fund for her future medical needs has been set up at the Century Bank of Tampa at 13450 N Florida Ave. For the purpose of receiving donations, the child is being called "Baby Ann," although that is not her name. Checks should be made out to Century Bank with a notation that they're for the Baby Ann fund. Agents search chelation therapist's clinic, home TAMPA -- Federal agents served search warrants Thursday at an alternative health clinic in Carrollwood and a home in St. Petersburg. The clinic, run by Joseph DiStefano, a St. Petersburg nutrition counselor, focuses on chelation, an alternative health therapy that has been approved by the FDA for removal of lead from the bloodstream. Its use for other conditions has been controversial, but proponents also tout its curative properties for heart disease. Agents from Health and Human Services, U.S. Customs, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office arrived at the Medical Center for Preventative and Nutritional Medicine, 14372 N Dale Mabry Highway, about 10 a.m. They left three hours later with several large boxes containing an alternative cancer therapy. Agents also served warrants at DiStefano's St. Petersburg home, neighbors said. "At this point in our investigation, it's not appropriate to make any comments," said Steve Cole, a spokesman with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa. DiStefano could not be reached for comment.
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