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Fla. School Bus Driver Charged with Child Abuse

May 112013
 

ABC News(BARTOW, Fla.) — A Polk County, Fla. school bus driver who allegedly set up a fight between two teenage passengers and encouraged them to brawl in the front yard of her home is in custody, charged with two counts of child abuse, according to the county sheriff’s office.

Authorities said Patrice Sanders, 29, of Lakeland, Fla., was driving students home from three different Bartow, Fla. area schools when she spotted two girls arguing in the back of the bus Thursday afternoon.

“This is going to be handled today and they just need to fight,” Sanders reportedly said.

Instead of making her normal route, Sanders allegedly skipped the rest of the bus stops, drove 20 miles to her home, and ordered all 34 students on board to get off the bus. She reportedly even offered the 13-year-old and the 16-year-old who she thought needed to duke it out Vaseline or baby oil so they wouldn’t scratch their faces.

The brawl, which was captured on video by another student, shows the two girls punching, kicking, and pulling each other’s hair. In the recording, one of the girls is seen throwing her opponent into a barbecue grill.

Sanders did not try to stop the fight, and instead stood by and looked on until the two students decided to quit, according to a statement from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.

Following the fight, Sanders got the students back onto the bus, the statement said. But when the two girls continued to exchange blows, Sanders allegedly pulled over and refereed the second round.

“What happens on the bus, stays on the bus,” Sanders reportedly told the passengers.

The 13-year-old’s mother reported the incident to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office and took her daughter to the hospital, the statement said. She was not seriously injured from the fight.

In addition to child abuse, Sanders was charged with false imprisonment, two counts of child neglect and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The two students involved in the scuffle were both charged with misdemeanor battery.

“Come on girl, what are you thinking? How in the world could you allow and promote and encourage children to fight?” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said.

Sanders is in custody at the Polk County Jail. Additional charges against her are pending further interviews with other students onboard, according to the sheriff’s office.

Sanders was due in court this morning.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Teen Surfer Recovering After Shark Attack

May 052013
 

iStockphoto(MELBOURNE BEACH, Fla.) — A teenage surfer is recovering in a Florida hospital after a shark took a bite out of his leg on Saturday.

Michael Adler and four friends went surfing at Melbourne Beach on Saturday morning, an area known for its bull sharks.

The 16-year-old said he didn’t see the shark that bit him, he recalled the moment of terror when it sunk its razor-sharp teeth into his leg.

 “His whole jaw just crammed down on my leg and right from there I kind of knew it was a shark attack,” he said. “So then I was paddling in as fast as I could.”

Adler’s friends said a man with military training raced to his aid, using his surf board leash as a tourniquet.

Doctors said because of the anonymous stranger’s quick-thinking, Adler was able to keep his foot and doctors were able to repair four tendons.

“The doctors told me that I was lucky that it didn’t hit like a major artery, cuz that would’ve been a lot more bleeding,” Adler said.

Adler later tweeted “I better be on Shark Week.”

The shark attack didn’t deter Adler’s friends, though. After dropping him off at the hospital they headed back to the beach.

When Adler recovers, he said he plans to do the same.

“I am definitely going to surf in the future,” he said. “I wish I could surf tomorrow.”

 

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Runaway Mom Turned Herself in on Outstanding Warrant

May 042013
 

Sondra Forrester and Brenda Heist are seen here in this undated photo. (Courtesy Sondra Forrester)(LITITZ, Pa.) — Brenda Heist, the Pennsylvania mother who disappeared 11 years ago and reappeared in Florida last week, turned herself in on an outstanding warrant, authorities said.

Alachua County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Art Forgey told ABC News that Heist, 53, originally of Lititz, Pa., walked into the Alachua County Jail in Gainsville, Fla., and turned herself in on a violation of probation warrant from another county in Florida just after 5:30 pm on Friday.

Heist was originally charged with forgery of a written instrument and for providing a false name to law enforcement. She was booked under her alias, Kelsie Lyanne Smith.

Smith will be transferred from the Alachua County Jail to the Santa Rosa County Jail, where the warrant is outstanding, Forgey said.

A man who answered the phone at the Alachua County Jail told ABC News that her bond has not been set and she would not be transferred until Monday at the earliest.

Heist disappeared in 2002 after dropping off her two kids at a Lititz, Pa., school. She went to a park where she cried over her the divorce she was going through, she has told police. She was discovered in this distraught state by three strangers and on a whim she decided to take off with them and hitchhike to Florida, where she lived homeless for several years.

“She decided to go with them on a whim,” Lititz Borough Police Det. Schofield told ABC News. “She told me that it was two males and female. They drove to York, Pa., with her car, parked it and abandoned it, and met up with another group, who were traveling down to Florida. It was a community down there living together.”

During her disappearance, her husband Lee Heist was left to raise their two kids, who were 8 and 12 at the time she went missing.

Lee Heist was financially hurt when his wife vanished. With no one to watch his young children, he had to quit his job in order to look after them. And with her disappearance, the family also lost out on her financial support. Brenda Heist had been a bookkeeper for a car dealership.

By law, Lee Heist was not able to declare his wife dead for seven years, which he did in a Lancaster County court on June 10, 2009. Afterwards he collected $100,000 on the insurance policy taken out on his wife, according to the Intelligencer Journal.

Now, her reappearance may mean that he will have to give the money back — plus interest.

What happened to Heist since then and her reemergence to authorities April 26 is not clear.

When she turned herself in to the sheriff in Florida on the criminal warrant, she also showed police a Pennsylvania ID for Brenda Heist, and told them that she was wanted in Pennsylvania, Schofield said.

Police quickly figured out that she was the same woman whose 2002 disappearance led to an extensive investigation involving local, state and federal agencies. Heist’s missing person case eventually went cold, only to be reopened in 2008.

Schofield said that when he met with her, her appearance was consistent with someone who had been living the homeless lifestyle, and she looked malnourished. She told him that she was at the end of her rope, and tired of running, he said.

Lee Heist, who was at one point a person of interest in her disappearance, is now remarried and living in Montgomery County, Pa.

The Heists’ daughter is now a 19-year-old freshman at Montgomery County Community College, and their son, 23, recently graduated from West Chester University and is pursuing a law enforcement career.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Sondra Forrester and Brenda Heist are seen here in this undated photo. Heist vanished from her life in Pennsylvania in 2002 and reemerged on April 26 in Florida. (Courtesy Sondra Forrester)

Trayvon Martin Shooting Targets Were ‘No-Shoot’ Tools, Fired Cop Says

Apr 142013
 

(PORT CANAVERAL, Fla.) — A Port Canaveral, Fla., Port Authority police officer who was fired for bringing shooting targets bearing a likeness of Trayvon Martin to a weapons training session said in a video posted online that his intentions for how the targets were to be used have been misunderstood.

“I would like to start my statement by first apologizing to the family of Trayvon Martin for being used as a pawn in somebody’s political agenda,” Sgt. Ron King said in a video posted on YouTube.

King confirmed to ABC News that he is the man in the video.

King, who had been with the department since January 2011, was fired Thursday, authorities said.

Port Canaveral Port Authority CEO John Walsh said that on April 4, when two fellow cops discovered King intended to use the Trayvon Martin shooting targets in their weapons exercise, they told the sergeant “they didn’t think it was appropriate.” The next day, Walsh said, the officers informed the Port Authority police chief, who called in internal affairs.

In the YouTube video, King said he had no intention of using the targets for target practice, instead, he said he viewed the targets as a training tool for “a no-shoot situation.”

“As a result of last year’s Trayvon Martin shooting, a company offered for sale a target of a faceless silhouette wearing a hoodie with his hands in his pockets, one of which was holding two objects, these objects in the hand were non-threatening and the target was something that I viewed as a no-shoot situation,” he said.

“While others used it as a novelty, I view it as a tool for scenario based firearms training. Although to date, the targets have never been used, I did possess the targets for those training reasons,” he said.

The incident comes two months before the scheduled start of the second-degree murder trial of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch captain who told police he followed Martin because the teen was acting suspiciously.  Zimmerman later told police he shot Martin in self-defense after the 17-year-old punched him in the face, knocked him down and began slamming his head into the pavement. Martin was unarmed.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Fla. Bill Would Ban Benefit Use at Strip Clubs, Casinos, Liquor Stores

Apr 132013
 

Goodshoot/Thinkstock(TALLAHASSE, Fla.) — A proposed bill in the Florida state senate would ban people who receive public assistance from withdrawing money from their electronic benefits transfer program accounts in liquor stores, smoke shops, strip clubs and casinos.

Florida residents using a state-administered EBT card would also no longer be able to withdraw funds from ATMs at dog racing tracks and other gaming establishments if the bill goes into effect.

Known in Florida as Senate Bill 1048, the legislation seeks to “develop minimum program requirements and other policy initiatives, including enforcement procedures from the electronic benefits program,” the bill states.

Funded by taxpayer dollars, the EBT program is established to help buy food, provide cash assistance, make healthcare available at low or no cost and help pay Medicare premiums, according to the Florida Department of Children and Families website, which administers the benefits program.

Those eligible for food stamps or cash benefits receive an allowance on their EBT card each month. Those enrolled in the program can use the card to either debit purchases or take out cash. The benefits remain in a participant’s account for 12 months before they expire.

But there has been a problem with EBT users withdrawing cash from their benefit cards at liquor stores, smoke shops and casinos across the state.

ABC Orlando affiliate WFTV uncovered almost 700 withdrawals at stores with the words “liquor” or “beer” in the title, as well as about 200 stores with “tobacco” or “smoke” in their name over a 30-month period.

WFTV reported $60,000 in EBT card withdrawals were made inside a casino run by the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians near Miami.

If the bill passes, first-time offenders would be ineligible for the EBT program for six months. Anyone who incurred three violations would be permanently disqualified from receiving aid.

If approved, the law would take effect on Oct. 1, 2013.

ABC News’ calls to the Florida Department of Children and Families were not immediately returned.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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