Category: Experience

All charges dropped against activists protesting at Broward Transitional Center

18Oct

Austen Erblat Contact ReporterSouth Florida Community News https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-cn-deerfield-beach-broward-transitional-center-activists-charges-dropped-20181002-story.html Charges were dropped Tuesday against seven local activists who were arrested this summer for protesting outside of the Broward Transitional Center, an immigration detention center run by controversial Boca Raton-based private prison company GEO Group. The activists, referred to as the BTC7, were arrested and charged with trespassing, a misdemeanor….

Juvenile offenders caught in middle as agencies squabble over funding

15Oct

Rafael Olmeda Contact ReporterSouth Florida Sun Sentinel https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/crime/fl-ne-juvenile-assessment-center-funding-20181015-story.html Minors accused of crimes might be shortchanged by a funding dispute that keeps Broward County’s Juvenile Assessment Center operating overnight, according to lawyers and other officials. The Children’s Services Council has been providing $357,000 a year in funding for the center to keep it fully operational 24…

Flood of Trouble: Hollywood Police evidence vault flooded with sewage, are criminal cases at risk?

15May

A sewage leak inside a South Florida police department left evidence — soaked. The question now: could it sink pending criminal cases? 7’s Brian Entin investigates in our special report called “Flood of Trouble.” Evidence laid out all over the floor of the Hollywood Police Department. It was drying out after getting soaked in sewage….

Lockup guard slugged a skinny kid. Prosecutors say it’s justified. Here’s the video.

23Apr

Broward County prosecutors have ruled that a former detention center officer was justified when he slugged a 14-year-old boy in the face — breaking the teen’s nose in two places — because the juvenile was aggressive with staff and causing a disturbance in the county’s long-troubled lockup. Former lockup officer Darell Bryant will not face…

Judge won’t be back in court after video shows her yelling at frail woman who died days later

21Apr

Rafael Olmeda Contact Reporter Sun Sentinel https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-sb-judge-bullying-inmate-dies-20180420-story.html Broward judge is under fire after she repeatedly snapped at a frail inmate who later died at her Lauderhill home. Broward Chief Administrative Judge Jack Tuter said Saturday that he is telling Circuit Court Judge Merrilee Ehrlich not to return to the courthouse because of how she treated…

After reports of violence, low pay, wretched conditions, Scott signs juvenile justice reforms

27Mar

For the first time in a decade, Florida juvenile detention and probation officers will see a bump in their salaries — an increase in the state budget that is part of a series of juvenile justice reforms passed by the Legislature this month. The 10 percent across-the-board pay raise for lockup and probation officers was…

Broward to give small-time offenders a big break

11Feb

ot smokers aren’t the only law breakers able to get a second chance in South Florida. Underage adults buying alcohol, those stealing property worth less than $300 and people nabbed for trespassing, loitering or disorderly conduct are also now eligible to get a break in Broward County. A new adult civil citation program is expected…

Public defender says his office is shortchanged on fee collections

27Jan

Rafael Olmeda Contact Reporter Sun Sentinel https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-sb-public-defender-contests-fees-20180125-story.html Broward County is getting shortchanged on the fees that are supposed to be collected from criminal defendants who cannot afford to hire private lawyers, according to Public Defender Howard Finkelstein. He wants Clerk of Courts Brenda Forman to explain why. In a series of letters between their offices,…

Police say juveniles took control of detention center after riot

11Jan

Chaos broke out at the Broward Juvenile Detention Center when some of the inmates managed to take over the facility. 7’s Brian Entin has exclusive video of the riot in tonight’s 7 Investigates. This is where juveniles who get in trouble get locked up. And from the outside, it looks safe, secure and quiet. But…

Is the Opioid Epidemic Fueling Wrongful Convictions?

10Jan

Crime labs are overwhelmed and under-regulated – leading to the compromise of countless drug cases nationwide In separate incidents, just five months apart, two Massachusetts crime-lab chemists were arrested for tampering with evidence seized in drug arrests. At Boston’s Hinton State Laboratory, the state’s largest lab, Annie Dookhan falsified results by “dry-labbing”– submitting positive results…