Tampa Bay briefs

By Times staff reports
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 24, 2001

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Ex-employee arrested in beating of boss

TAMPA -- A former employee, accompanied by an acquaintance, beat up and robbed his former boss Saturday evening after claiming he was due a paycheck, police said.

Robert Cotton, 34, of 3915 Arlington Ave., entered Itchy Mo's at 10414 N Florida Ave. about 6:10 p.m. asking for the check from owner Justin Shelton. An argument developed when Cotton and his acquaintance, George Weyrauch, demanded money from the register. They assaulted Shelton, 27, when he stopped Cotton from grabbing the register, police said. At one point, police said, Cotton tried to hit Shelton with a gumball machine.

Both assailants fled. Cotton was immediately arrested and charged with armed robbery. He is being held on $10,000 bail. Weyrauch, 32, remains at large.

Pedestrian beaten by 3 men in a truck

TAMPA -- An 18-year-old walking with two friends at Walnut Street and Fremont Avenue was beaten up and thrown out of a pickup truck Saturday night, police said.

Three men drove up to the trio about 10 p.m. in a late-model white Ford pickup, police said. Two of the victim's friends managed to flee before the men caught and beat Oliver Holiday, pulling him into the vehicle and later throwing him out of the truck. Holiday, of Tampa, was transported to St. Joseph's Hospital emergency room. An emergency room employee would not release his condition Sunday.

Troopers arrest 172 in drag racing sweep

MIAMI -- Troopers stopped about 350 cars Sunday, many of them juiced-up Hondas, Mustangs and Toyotas, and arrested 172 people in a drag racing dragnet.

The early-morning operation by the Florida Highway Patrol in west Miami-Dade County was the largest sting of its kind in South Florida and an attempt to fight the mushrooming and sometimes deadly drag-racing scene.

Eleven people have been killed in Broward County in the past two years in accidents that involved drag racing.

Last week, a man driving at more than 100 mph on a roadway northwest of Orlando accidentally plowed into a slower moving car being driven by his mother. She died at the scene.

High court rejects F. Lee Bailey's request

TALLAHASSEE -- The Florida Supreme Court has refused to give F. Lee Bailey extra time to appeal his disbarment to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The state's high court disbarred Bailey last month, giving him 30 days to close his Florida practice.

Bailey, who has represented such high-profile clients as Dr. Sam Sheppard, Patricia Hearst and O.J. Simpson, was disbarred for five years for the way he handled 600,000 shares of stock owned by a former client now serving life in prison for drug smuggling.

In a motion Thursday, Bailey's attorney asked Florida's court to suspend its Nov. 21 order for 45 days. The court refused to do so Friday.

Bailey lives in Manalapan, near West Palm Beach. He is also licensed to practice law in Massachusetts.

Bailey gained prominence for representing Sheppard, an Ohio doctor convicted of killing his wife in 1954. The Supreme Court overturned the verdict in 1966, ruling the trial judge failed to shield jurors and witnesses from the crush of negative news coverage.

-- Compiled from staff and wire reports.

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