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Out Of Jail Just 15 Minutes, Woman Steals Sledgehammer

A woman had been out of the Escambia County Jail all of 15 minutes before being busted for stealing a sledgehammer out of vehicle in the jail parking lot.

Deadra Roberts-Otto, 37, was released from the Escambia County Jail at 11:05 Wednesday night. At 11:20, Escambia County Sheriff’s Office deputies were called to the jail parking lot where Roberts-Otto had allegedly broken into toolbox on the back of a 2002 Chevrolet pickup track and removed a sledgehammer.

The truck’s owner told deputies he was outside talking another subject when he saw Roberts-Otto go into the toolbox on the back of his pickup and take the sledgehammer. The victim told deputies that when Roberts-Otto spotted him, she gave the sledgehammer back.

“The suspect stated she was upset because she did not get her children’s birth certificates and social security card from the jail,” said Sgt. Ted Roy, spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office.

Roberts-Otto’s 15 minutes of freedom ended when she booked back into the Escambia County jail on charges of burglary of a vehicle and petit theft. He bond was set at $1,500. Prior to the sledgehammer theft, she was jailed on a trespassing charge.

Ernest Ward Middle Eagles Soar Past Perdido Raiders

The Ernest Ward Middle School Eagles beat the Perdido Middle Raiders Thursday evening, 32-6.

The Eagles soared to a quick lead, 6-0, about two minutes into their season opener. With four minutes to go in the first quarter, the Eagles scored again. Then, in the second, Ernest Ward expanded their lead to 18-0.

Ernest Ward made it an all-Eagles first half, with a 32-0 lead at the buzzer. The Raiders managed to score just six in the second half, for the 32-6 final.

The Ernest Ward Middle School Eagles — the only middle school football team in Escambia County, Fla. — will be at home next Tuesday against Excel.

For more submitted photos, click here.

Pictured: Action as Ernest Ward Middle School beat Perdido Thursday evening. Submitted photos by Wayne Holland, click to enlarge.

Down Home Fun: Barrineau Park Music Night

There will be lots of good entertainment on stage tonight in Barrineau Park — and it’s free. The monthly Barrineau Park Music Night will be tonight at the Barrineau Park Community Center. The featured local groups tonight are Fowler & Holland and Rowell Bluegrass.

The singing starts at 7:00 p.m. Food and refreshments will also be available beginning at 6:30 p.m.

The event is family-friendly — no alcohol is permitted on the property, and no smoking is allowed in or near the building.

For more information, call (850) 587-5575.

The Barrineau Park Community Center is located on Barrineau Park School road, about three miles west of Molino.

Pictured: Rowell Bluegrass will perform tonight during the monthly Barrineau Park Music Night. Submitted photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.

Tate Beats Washington, 30-20

The Tate Aggies beat Washington High Thursday night in the season opener for Florida schools, 30-20.

Sophomore Lorzeno Long put the Aggies on the Board from seven yards and added a two point conversion with just over two minutes to go in the first quarter. Tate’s lead expanded to 14-0 in the second with a 43-yard touchdown run. Less than another minute had expired on the clock before Washington answered with a touchdown, 14-6.

The Wildcats scored again to narrow the Aggies’ lead to 14-12 headed to the lockers at the half.

In the third, senior Josh Dees scored from the five and Ladarian Young, a junior, added a two point co version to expand Tate’s lead to 22-12. Then in fourth, both Tate and Washington scored back to back TD’s, including a 30-yard run from Long, his second touchdown of the night.

Coarch Ed Rigby’s Aggies spoiled the Washington coaching debut of Michael Smith.

Tate will travel to Pensacola High Friday night, September 10 at 7:30.

Hurricane Season Heats Up With Earl, Fiona And Gaston

The hurricane season is heating up, with three named storms moving across the Atlantic.

For Gulf Coast residents, only Gaston bears watching. Gaston rolled off Africa and quickly went from a depression to a tropical storm on Wednesday. The storm is far from land, and its future path remains highly uncertain. Gaston weakened to a tropical depression on Thursday.

Meanwhile, powerful Hurricane Earl is moving toward North Carolina and causing worry up the entire Eastern Seaboard. Tropical Storm Fiona is not far behind early, but it is headed into hostile conditions likely to cause weakening before the storm is swept out to sea.

Back over Africa, yet another strong tropical wave will move off the coast with some potential for development.

The latest information on each storm can be found in the graphics on this page.

North Santa Rosa Transportation Improvements Outlined

Several transportation priorities have been identified for northern Santa Rosa County.

The Santa Rosa County Commission will recommend the following proposed projects for 2012-2016 to the West Florida Regional Planning Commission:

• Four-lane Highway 87 to the Alabama state line to promote regional connectivity between the Gulf Coast and I-65. Until Highway 87 can be four-laned, passing lanes south of Highway 4 to Country Road 399 would improve safety.
• Construct a trail from the end of the sidewalk on Spring Street in Jay to the Jay Schools between Alabama Street, Escambia Street and School Street. Sidewalks already exist on Spring Street from Commerce Street southward for 2,000 feet. The trail would extend about 3,600 feet to the schools.
• Continue the sidewalk on the south side of Highway 4 from Jay City Hall to the western town boundary. A sidewalk has been completed on the south side of Highway 4 from City Hall to Beck Avenue, funding through the Transportation Enhancement Program.
• Resurface Munson Highway from Highway 4 to the Alabama state line.

Florida Bans Fox Pens; Last Was In Walnut Hill

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission voted Wednesday to permanently ban all fox pens, like the one formerly located in Walnut Hill.

The rule approved by the FWC permanently prohibits the chasing of foxes and coyotes with dogs within an enclosure in Florida. The FWC had considered the issue for more than a year, and the practice was temporarily prohibited in February. At that time, the FWC ordered the Shady Oaks Fox Pen at 4000 South Highway 99 in Walnut Hill to cease any operations. The FWC did not accuse Shady Oaks — the last legal fox pen in Florida –or its owners of any wrongdoing.

There were as many as six state permitted fox pens in Florida in 2009, but all had closed by the end of the year except for the approximately 200 acre Shady Oaks Fox Pen in Walnut Hill. At one time, there were about 50 fox and coyote pens from the Panhandle to Central Florida.

In a prepared statement, The Humane Society of the United States praised the unanimous decision by the FWC banning what the group termed a “cruel practice”.

“We thank Chairman Rodney Barreto and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commissioners for their decisive leadership and thorough work to end the inherently cruel practice of fox penning that has no place in the 21st century,” said Jennifer Hobgood, Florida state director for The Humane Society of the United States.

“This is not about taking away hunting opportunities,” said FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto. “I’m a big believer in fair chase, and I have a list of places where hunters can still engage in those activities.”

“Coyotes and certain other nonprotected furbearers can still be taken year-round using several methods, including dogs,” Maj. Curtis Brown, head of the FWC’s Captive Wildlife and Investigations Section, said. “This can occur on open private lands and in specific wildlife management areas.”

Public input on the recommendation to permanently prohibit the enclosures varied from stating that “the prohibition preserves the true sportsmanship that hunting is all about” to saying that “legitimate fox and coyote hunters have been misrepresented on the issue”.

“This is not a referendum on hunting – we are a pro-hunting commission,” FWC Commissioner Brian Yablonski said Wednesday. “It is a question of fair chase and protecting the essence of hunting.”

Deliberations over this issue began last September, when Commissioners directed the agency’s law enforcement staff to review the permitting process and research the history and numbers of fox/coyote enclosures in the state.

At the February meeting, commissioners agreed to temporarily prohibit the practice. FWC staff was directed to work with stakeholders to address certain issues of concern regarding the enclosures and to draft proposed rules for the Commission’s consideration.

Pictured: A fence surrounds the former Shady Oaks Fox Pen on South Highway 99 near Walnut Hill. NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.

Future Of Class Size Amendment 8 Campaign In Question

Republican lawmakers have spent much of the past two years advocating a rollback of a constitutional cap on the number of students in school classrooms. But now that the proposed tweak is on the November ballot, one question remains: Who is going to campaign for a looser standard, and who will pay for it?

The Florida Association of District School Superintendents and the Florida Association of School Boards fought for legislative approval this past spring, but it will take more to get 60 percent of the voters to sign off on changing the requirements. And the two groups are squaring off against a frequent ally, the Florida Education Association, the statewide teachers’ union that could mount a serious, well-funded campaign in opposition to the proposal.

Bill Montford, executive director of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents, said there was never any expectation that his association put up the money to fund a public campaign in favor of the proposal, known as Amendment 8. The superintendents and school boards, he said, simply don’t have the money.

“That’s one of the problems,” said Montford, also a candidate for the state Senate. “So, I’m not sure how the campaign will be funded.”

In 2002, voters overwhelmingly passed the class size constitutional amendment that capped individual classrooms at 18 students in kindergarten through third grade, 22 in fourth through eighth grade, and 25 in high school, with the limits having been phased in since the amendment was passed. But with shrinking state revenues, many school districts said they cannot implement the class size caps as originally envisioned.

The Escambia County School District held two public workshops to lobby for a “Yes” vote on Amendment 8. Click here for that story.

Last week, the hard caps on individual classrooms went into effect.

Lawmakers who support the change are counting on school districts to get the word out through a grassroots approach to voters.

“Our network is full of parents, school administrators and school board members,” said Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, who sponsored the amendment in the Legislature.

Weatherford said he believes several groups will raise money to fund a campaign and that Tallahassee public relations executive Ron Sachs would be coordinating that effort. The law allows for groups to create largely unregulated committees known as 527s, which could allow a variety of groups to pump cash into it to fund a public campaign, but neither Weatherford nor Sachs would specifically say where the money will come from.

Sachs, in an interview with the News Service Wednesday, said the campaign is banking on a coalition of groups for support and will rely heavily on the gubernatorial campaigns – both GOP nominee Rick Scott and Democratic candidate Alex Sink support the change – as well as news media coverage and social media tools to publicize the need for the amendment. He also hopes the group will be able to air commercials regarding the issue closer to the election.

“If we don’t revise class size it is going to be the single biggest killer of state local budgets and family budgets,” Sachs said.

Rocky Hanna, the principal at Leon High School in Tallahassee and a supporter of Amendment 8, said that in a perfect world, the classroom cap system would work, but the schools simply have not received an adequate amount of money from the state to carry that out and therefore need some flexibility.

He admits he doesn’t foresee voters approving the class size tweak, but he thinks parents are getting the message about how the class size requirement is handicapping schools.

“They know, they’re getting the message now this fall because there’s no wiggle room.” Hanna said. “When they ask for schedule changes from this to AP, from honors to general. Sorry, I’m sorry. We cannot accommodate you.”

On the flip side, the Florida Education Association is already working to persuade voters to vote no on Amendment 8. The group filed a lawsuit to boot the amendment from the November ballot and a Leon County circuit judge will hear the case next week. But it is also preparing to mount a significant campaign to defeat the amendment should it wind up on the ballot.

State Sen. Alex Villalobos, R-Miami, is chairing the “Vote No On 8″ campaign in coordination with the union, which has had a history of success in galvanizing teachers across the state to advocate on behalf of various causes. The group does not think it will be tough to convince voters to strike down the proposal.

“I haven’t heard any classroom teachers or any parents say they want more kids in their classroom and I think that’s what we need to make clear,” said FEA spokesman Mark Pudlow.

Pictured: Members of the Escambia County School Board lobby for Amendment 8 at a recent workshop meeting at Northview High School. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.

Arrest Warrant Still Pending For Fireman Accused Of Abandoning Dogs

An arrest warrant for an Escambia County volunteer fireman accused of abandoning three dogs is still pending.

The warrant was not active as of late Wednesday afternoon, according to Melissa Aiken Rawson, spokesperson for the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. Once a warrant application is submitted by deputies, it can take a number of days before it is reviewed and signed by a judge, she said.

The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office has submitted an arrest warrant  for judicial review charging the firefighter with a felony count of grand theft, and misdemeanor charges of abandonment of animals and obstruction of justice.  As a matter of policy, NorthEscambia.com generally does not identify suspects until they are formally charged.

Disciplinary action was taken against the volunteer by the department, according to Century Assistant District Chief David Adams. He declined to elaborate.

The volunteer allegedly abandoned three dogs that were reported to be “rescued” by the Century Station of Escambia Fire Rescue August 22. The department requested NorthEscambia.com run a story seeking the dog’s owners so that they could be returned. The volunteer allegedly agreed to take care of the dogs until the owner stepped forward. He eventually told a fire department officer that he had found a good home for the dogs with a man in Walnut Hill. Instead, the volunteer told deputies,  he abandoned the canines at Pine Barren Road and Highway 168 near Bratt.

The Sheriff’s Office was contacted after the dogs’ owner saw the NorthEscambia.com story and went to the fire department to retrieve his animals. The dogs were found a few days later on Highway 4, not far from Northview High School. They were  determined to be in good condition by a veterinarian and returned the owner.

For more on this story, click here for an August 27 article.

Pictured top: These cellphone photos show three dogs found the evening of August 22 on North Century Boulevard just south of Tedder Road. The firefighter partially in the photograph is not the firefighter suspect in the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office investigation into the disappearance of the dogs. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.

Escambia Mexican Restaurant Owners Charged With Faking Death

A federal indictment has been returned charging the husband and wife owners of Mexican restaurants in Escambia County with conspiring to commit a $2 million fraud by faking a death.

The federal indictment alleges that Ismael B. Rodriguez, 45, and his wife, Maria Rodriguez, 41, were involved in a conspiracy to commit mail fraud based upon a fraudulent life insurance claim. The indictment outlines a scheme wherein the defendants traveled to Mexico in 2008 and faked the death of Ismael B. Rodriguez. Maria Rodriguez is alleged to have then returned to the United States with a fraudulent Mexican death certificate in an attempt to collect approximately $2 million worth of life insurance on her husband. In reality, Ismael B. Rodriguez was alive and later located by law enforcement, according to United States Attorney Pamela C. Marsh, Northern District of Florida.

The defendants made their initial appearance Wednesday in federal court before United States Magistrate Judge Miles Davis. Judge Davis ordered that both defendants be subject to electronic home monitoring pending trial. The defendants face up to 20 years imprisonment on each count if convicted.

This case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Florida Department of Financial Services – Fraud Division. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney David L. Goldberg.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Rodriquez own the Cazadores Mexican Restaurants in the Pensacola area.

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