State-Assisted Suicide, Florida Style

"Florida executed a man on Wednesday who had strangled a fellow prisoner to get a death sentence rather than serve a life term for sexually assaulting a child. He said he wanted to die but could not bring himself to commit suicide, and that he strangled Wigley in order to force the state to execute him. Blackwelder pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and told the judge at his sentencing hearing that if returned to prison he would kill "as many times as necessary" to be put to death. Abe Bonowitz, executive director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said the execution would show that 'If you don't like your life in prison, kill a prison worker or kill a fellow inmate and the state will assist in your suicide.'"

Spanky the Clown Arrested for Child Porn

Spanky, a clown with the renowned Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, has been arrested on charges stemming from a child pornography investigation, law enforcement officials said Tuesday. Spanky, whose real name is Thomas Allen Riccio, 23, of Jacksonville, Florida, made an initial state court appearance Monday in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where he was traveling with the circus, the officials said. He faces 10 counts of third degree sexual exploitation of a minor. The arrest Friday was the latest in an ongoing international probe of subscribers to a child pornography Web site that was shut down in an international raid last July. U.S. Customs agents leading the investigation worked with North Carolina authorities in making the arrest, officials said. Teachers, camp counselors and others with access to children have been high on the priority list for customs officials. Agents have arrested hundreds of people in recent months, after obtaining tens of thousands of names from a credit card billing company allegedly involved in handling payments for Internet porn sites. The investigation, dubbed Operation Predator, linked Riccio to a company in Belarus that provided the billing services for more than 50 child porn Web sites worldwide, officials said. In announcing the arrest, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that when agents searched Riccio's computer, they discovered "thousands of images, many of which involve prepubescent children engaged in various sexual and lewd acts." "This man's profession as Spanky the clown brought him into contact with hundreds of families," said agent Albert Fitchett Jr. in Wilmington, North Carolina. "Behind the clown nose, however, this man appears to have been supporting an industry that trades in the exploitation of children."


(CNN article here)

Gator Wrastlin'

A 12-year old boy from Deltona, Florida fought off a 7-foot long alligator who bit him on the head and dragged him underwater.


(article here)

Gun Safety Presenter Shoots Himself in Orlando

A federal drug agent shot himself in the leg during a gun safety demonstration organized by the Orlando Minority Youth Golf Association.

Florida Child-Protection Advocate Arrested For Abusing Child

MIAMI- A 20-year-old woman was arrested and charged with severely beating her daughter, less than five years after a jury awarded her and her sister $4.4 million for the abuse they suffered while in foster care. Yusimil Herrera was charged with aggravated child abuse after emergency workers found her daughter, Angel Hope Herrera, in their North Miami apartment Sunday evening, battered and unable to breath on her own, police said. Angel was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where she was on life support early Tuesday. She had severe head trauma and a broken arm, according to the arrest report. Herrera and her sister entered foster care in June 1986, after her mother left them alone in a park. A 1995 lawsuit alleged the two girls were beaten, molested, raped and forced to take drugs as they grew up in the state system. A Miami jury awarded them $4.4 million on Oct. 22, 1999. But an appeals court overturned that decision, and Herrera and her sister settled with the state earlier this year, said their lawyer Karen Gievers. Angel's godmother raised her until a few months ago, when she moved back into her mother's apartment, said Department of Children & Families spokesman Peter Coats. In February and March, the state's abuse hotline received three calls alleging Herrera was abusing her daughter, he said. DCF asked to take Angel into protective custody in March, but Miami-Dade Juvenile Court Judge Sarah Zabel found there were no grounds for the removal, said Chuck Hood, Miami district administrator for the agency.

(AP article here)