Darrell Arnett Floyd, 41, arrested Thursday, faces charges of kidnapping a child younger than 13 and attempted sexual battery. Police also were seeking Lewis J. Cason, 22, on kidnapping charges.

Police think the two abducted the boy as he waited at a bus stop to go to Kanapaha Middle School on Tuesday.

The men forced the boy into a car and took him to a room at Gainesville Lodge, Gainesville police Officer Shannon Wallace said.

At the hotel room, the men gave the boy an alcoholic drink, Wallace said. Floyd then undressed, Wallace said, and the suspects undressed the boy. The boy escaped by climbing out a bathroom window, still undressed, and then tried to find his way home.

A young mother in her car saw the boy walking about four blocks from the hotel and stopped for him. He told Nakeshia Browning, 22, what happened and asked to be taken to his grandmother's house. The grandmother called police.

Old state seal removed from campaign letter

TALLAHASSEE -- After complaints from Democrats, the Republican Party of Florida will stop mailing a campaign letter signed by Gov. Jeb Bush that features an old version of the state seal.

Florida Democratic Party officials charged Friday that the letter, which urges Broward County voters to support Republican candidates for the Legislature, is an improper and possibly illegal use of the seal.

"Gov. Bush agreed to the language of the letter, but his office never saw or approved the artwork," said Elizabeth Hirst, a spokeswoman for Bush.

Under state rules, the seal cannot be used for "political or campaign purposes." But, Republican officials said, those rules apply to the current seal adopted in 1985, not the older version used in the letter, in which the text appears over a faint, multicolor reproduction of the old seal. "This is clearly not an official letter from a state agency. However, if this is going to create controversy, we are more than happy to use a different background," said Jamie Wilson, executive director of the Republican Party.

Panel wants judge fined for campaigning on issue

PENSACOLA -- A state panel recommended that a judge be fined $50,000 and reprimanded for suggesting during a campaign two years ago that she would favor police while her opponent was biased toward defendants.

A hearing panel of two judges, two lawyers and two lay people on Thursday found Escambia County Judge Patricia Kinsey guilty on eight of 11 ethics charges leveled against her by the state Judicial Qualifications Commission.

Kinsey "committed herself to a pro-police position on matters which she affirmatively stated would come before her on a daily basis," the panel wrote in its report to the Florida Supreme Court, which will take final action.

The allegations stemmed from Kinsey's 1998 campaign against then-incumbent Bill Green.

Judge candidates, unlike other politicians, are limited by judicial ethics in what they can say about issues that may come before them.

The panel rejected Kinsey's defense that her campaign literature and radio commercials were political speech protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Sheldon gets Republican's backing for education post

Former Republican state Sen. Dempsey Barron has crossed party lines to endorse Democrat George Sheldon for state education commissioner.

"I have known George for more than 25 years, and I know him to be a person the people of the Florida Panhandle should support," Barron said in a statement Friday.

Barron, who lives on a ranch near Bonifay, left the Senate in 1988. Sheldon faces former Republican legislator Charlie Crist of St. Petersburg in the Nov. 7 election.

Former clerk sentenced in $20-million Medicaid scam

TALLAHASSEE -- A former Unisys employee who helped his friends bilk the state's Medicaid accounts of more than $20-million was sentenced to prison Friday.

Daniel Perez, 48, admitted helping others divert money that was intended for medical care for the state's poor and elderly citizens. He has agreed to cooperate against others who have yet to be arrested or face trial.

Perez worked as a clerk inside Unisys, the corporation that handled the state's multimillion-dollar Medicaid contract. He changed the mailing addresses of about 90 health care providers, diverting reimbursement checks to mail drops where accomplices picked up the checks and cashed them.

Prosecutor Beth Blechman said Perez got only a small amount of the stolen money. The rest was taken by other members of the organization, several of whom are believed to be living in Spain.

Leon Circuit Judge Charles A. Francis sentenced Perez to eight years in prison. Perez also agreed to repay the state Agency for Health Care Administration $30,000 and pay investigative and prosecution costs of $57,000 to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and statewide prosecutor's office, and an additional $5,000 fine to Leon County.

The crime was discovered after some health care providers began to complain that they were not receiving reimbursements and it was noticed that the checks were going to new addresses.

Two Brinks guards felled by gunfire near bank ATM

CORAL SPRINGS -- Two armed Brinks security guards in an armored van were shot and wounded Friday as they serviced a bank automated teller machine.

The guards were found lying in the bank's drive-through at 6:45 a.m. Police said Eshman Ruiz, 39, of Hialeah was shot in the torso and Frank Granja, 28, of Miami was shot in the head and neck. Ruiz was hospitalized in critical condition after surgery, and Granja was in serious condition.

Police Sgt. Rich Nicorvo said the guards had just opened a door for a cash delivery to a CitiBank ATM when they were ambushed. One guard returned fire, and the robbers fled with no cash. Nicorvo said police found a red Honda Civic three blocks away with a shattered rear window and a shotgun, a handgun and blood stains inside.

Ag chief calls moratorium in war on citrus canker

MIAMI -- With tensions rising over the destruction of residential trees in the state's war on citrus canker, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Bob Crawford on Friday announced a two-day moratorium.

Crawford said workers would not cut trees Monday and Tuesday while the state trains 100 additional workers to serve as liaisons with homeowners upset over the prospect of losing their trees.

The announcement came after numerous complaints from residents and at least two armed standoffs between work crews and homeowners in recent weeks.

The crews are trying to get rid of citrus canker, a bacteria that causes oranges, grapefruits, lemons, limes and other fruits to fall prematurely and leaves lesions on fruit and leaves. The outbreak, mostly in the southern part of the state, poses a threat to Florida's $8.5-billion citrus industry.

State rules allow the destruction of citrus trees within 1,900 feet of an infected one. More than 750,000 trees have been cut down and burned since 1995 in residential areas of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Funding approved for new Florida veterans cemetery

TALLAHASSEE -- Congress has voted to buy 500 acres in Palm Beach County to establish a full-service national cemetery for Florida's veterans.

Florida, with more than 1.7-million veterans, is home to the largest population of elderly veterans in the nation. And 100 more move to Florida every day.

Congress voted Thursday to spend $15-million for the purchase.

The new cemetery could provide at least an additional 100,000 burial sites.

It will be the fifth national cemetery in the state. One of those is closed, and another accepts only cremated remains.

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk