C.W. Helton
June 14, 2017
Mr. C.W. “Pete” Helton, 88, passed away Saturday, June 10, 2017, in Bay Minette, Alabama.
Mr. Helton was a native and lifelong resident of Robinsonville, AL. He was a Sunday School teacher for 60 years, ordained Deacon, and was a member of the Robinsonville Baptist Church and the Brooks Memorial Baptist Church, president of Cattleman’s Association, active in Farm Bureau and Atmore Trucker’s Association. He was owner of Snappy Car Wash and Laundry for 30 plus years and a farmer for most of his life. In the military he received a Medal for Good Conduct, two medals for Courage and Dependability, medal for Sharp Shooter for a 45 caliber, Tank Weapons and Expert Gunner Medal and the Tank Medal for the 86th Tank Division.
He is preceded in death by his parents, Fonnie Martin Helton and Junie Etta Bell Helton; first wife, Ruby Earline Helton; one sister, Ima Crawford; and one brother, Robert “Bobby” Helton.
He is survived by his wife, Barbara R. Helton of Robinsonville, AL; four sons, Alan Helton of Atmore, AL, Roger (Beverly) Helton of Atmore, AL, Osborn (Kathy) Linam of Spanish Fort, AL and Desmond Linam of Atmore, AL; two daughters, Linda (Billy) Farr of Atmore, AL and Dawn (Tim) Turner of Atmore, AL; two brothers, Dr. Kendrel (Nancy) Helton of Huntsville, AL and Clyde (Gladys) Helton of Robinsonville, AL; two sisters, Leople Peacock of Montgomery, AL and Nelda Jernigan of Montgomery, AL ; 13 grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren; and three great-great grandchildren.
Funeral services were held Tuesday, June 13, 2017, at the Petty-Eastside Chapel Funeral Home with Rev. Robert Heard officiating.
Burial was at the Robinsonville Cemetery.
Pallbearers will be Brandon Whitehead, Dustin Helton, Nolan Linam, Nate Turner, Craig Helton, Cody Helton, Trent Linam and Colton Whitehead.
Petty-Eastside Chapel Funeral Homes is in charge of all arrangements.
Luvern Passmore
June 14, 2017
Mrs. Luvern Passmore, 105, passed away on Monday, June 12, 2017, in Pensacola, Florida.
Mrs. Passmore was a native of Brewton, AL and was a longtime resident of Pensacola, FL. She was a member of the Olive Baptist Church. She is preceded in death by her husband, Master Sergeant Melton Passmore and seven brothers, Marshall, Raymond, Juber, Edward, Aaron, Roger and Amond Steele.
She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Bobby and Violeta Passmore of Grove Hill, AL; two grandsons, Robert and Schon Passmore of Jackson, AL and Richard Passmore of Grove Hill, AL; two great-grandchildren, Rachel and Shawn Claxton of Jackson, AL and Ethan and Katrina Passmore of Jackson, AL; two great-great grandchildren, Addie and Anna Claxton of Jackson, AL; and four brothers, Cleveland Steele of Panama City, FL, Artis Steele of Pensacola, FL, Norman O. Steele of Molino, FL and Benny Earl Steele of McCullough, AL.
Funeral services will be Friday, June 16, 2017, at 11 a.m. at the Petty-Eastside Chapel Funeral Home with Dr. Jerry Passmore officiating.
Burial will follow at the Oak Grove Cemetery.
Visitation will be Friday, June 16, 2017, from 10 a.m. until service time at 11 a.m. at the Petty-Eastside Chapel Funeral Home.
Petty-Eastside Chapel Funeral Homes is in charge of all arrangements.
Savannah Lee Daughtry
June 14, 2017
Mrs. Savannah Lee Daughtry, 69, passed away on Saturday, June 10, 2017, in Atmore, Alabama.
Mrs. Daughtry was a native and lifelong resident of Atmore, AL. She was a member of Poarch Band of Creek Indians, devout Christian, loved and helped raise lots of children, even though she had none, loved to fish and travel. She was a member of the Friendly Holiness Church.
She is preceded in death by her parents, Hawk and Ella Daughtry; two brothers, Obie Lee Daughtry and D.C. Daughtry; and four sisters, Bernice Qualls, Vernell Aplin, Luverne Ward and Charlotte Reed.
She is survived by her nine nieces, Kay, Tena, Juanita, Phylis, Tracy, Shanna, Jennifer, Tawana and Dana; seven nephews, Dale, Ray, Douglas, Randall, Carl, Kendall and Derrick and one sister-in-law, Ernestine Daughtry.
Funeral services were held Wednesday, June 14, 2017, at the Friendly Holiness Church with Rev. Ray Ward, Rev. Dale Aplin and Rev. David Bryars officiating.
Burial was at the New Home Cemetery.
Pallbearers were her nephews, Randall Ward, Carl Ward, Kendall Reed, Douglas Daughtry, Derrick McDuffie and Heath Bryars.
Honorary pallbearers were Trenton Daughtry, Trevor Daughtry, Brian Richard and Steven Aplin.
Petty-Eastside Chapel Funeral Homes is in charge of all arrangements.
Morning Fire Damages Home
June 13, 2017
Fire damaged a home off East Ten Mile Road Tuesday morning.
The fire near the intersection of Motley Court and Bison Street resulted in smoke and water damage throughout the single story brick home. It appeared the heaviest damage may have been in the attached garage, where two vehicles were also damaged.
The cause of the fire is under investigation by the Florida State Fire Marshal’s Office. There were no injuries reported.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour, click to enlarge.
Man Charged With Stealing ATV From Molino
June 13, 2017
An Escambia County man was charged with stealing an ATV from Molino after he tried to register the stolen vehicle with the tax collector before trading it for a boat.
Adam Eugene Taylor, 36, was charged with two felonies — burglary of an occupied structure and grand theft of a motor vehicle. He was later released from the Escambia County Jail on a $40,000 bond.
Taylor allegedly entered a secured metal building in the 2000 block of Molino Road and took a 2015 Polaris Ranger 900 valued at $20,000. A few days later, he tried to register the Polaris at the tax collector’s office in Pace, but he was advised by employees to check the VIN because the VIN on the bill of sale he presented had been reported stolen. Taylor then changed one digit on the VIN label and drove to the Milton tax collector’s office where he tried again to register the Polaris.
A few days later, the owner of the Polaris contacted authorities and advised he had found it listed for sale on Craigslist. Local authorities determined that the listing was from Enterprise, AL. A meeting was set up between the Craigslist seller and officers from the Enterprise Police Department. The Polaris was recovered.
The seller gave police information where he had traded a 1987 Gambler bass boat for the Polaris Ranger. The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office located the bass boat parked in front of Taylor’s residence on Roberts Circle.
Milkshake With A Cop Canceled For Today
June 13, 2017
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office has canceled their “Milkshake With A Cop” event this afternoon at Arby’s in Cantonment due to weather. It has been rescheduled for June 20 from 2-3 p.m.
Legal Battle Over ‘Docs Vs Glocks’ Ends
June 13, 2017
Six years after Florida lawmakers tried to stop doctors from asking patients about guns, health-care providers have emerged victorious in a legal battle as the state did not appeal a federal-court ruling striking down major parts of the 2011 law.
The controversial measure, dubbed the “docs vs. glocks” law and supported by the National Rifle Association, included a series of restrictions on doctors and other health providers. For example, it sought to prevent physicians from entering information about gun ownership into medical records if the physicians knew the information was not “relevant” to patients’ medical care or safety or to the safety of other people.
Also, the 2011 law said doctors should refrain from asking about gun ownership by patients or family members unless the doctors believed in “good faith” that the information was relevant to medical care or safety. And the law sought to prevent doctors from discriminating against patients or “harassing” them because of owning firearms.
“This law is dead,” Tom Julin, a First Amendment lawyer who represented a coalition of medical groups and others who took part in the case as “friends of the court,” told The News Service of Florida in a telephone interview.
The plaintiffs in the case, including individual doctors, argued that the restrictions were a violation of their First Amendment rights. A federal district judge agreed with them and blocked the law from going into effect. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of the law in three separate rulings, but the ban keeping the law from going into effect remained in place.
A February ruling by the full appellate court — in a 90-page decision comprised of two majority opinions authored by different judges, as well as a dissent — struck down the law. Florida officials did not appeal that ruling before a deadline last month, Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office confirmed.
“Florida may generally believe that doctors and medical professionals should not ask about, nor express views hostile to, firearm ownership, but it ‘may not burden the speech of others in order to tilt public debate in a preferred direction,’ ” appeals-court Judge Adalberto Jordan wrote in one of two majority opinions on Feb. 17.
Bondi’s office referred questions about the case to state health officials, who, along with Gov. Rick Scott, were the defendants in the case.
Scott’s office also acknowledged the deadline had passed but did not say why the state decided not to appeal.
“As a strong supporter of (the) Second Amendment, Governor Scott is glad that a vast majority of this law was never challenged and upheld in court,” Scott spokeswoman Lauren Schenone said in an email last week.
The court found that the record-keeping, inquiry and anti-harassment provisions of the law are unconstitutional, but upheld the portion of the law that bars doctors from discriminating against patients who have guns.
The law — the first of its kind in the country — also prohibits insurers from discriminating against gun owners, an element of the statute that was not challenged.
Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, called the state’s decision not to appeal a major victory for free speech and the medical community. The ACLU organized a coalition of medical groups, including children’s health-care groups, who, represented by Julin and others, joined the legal challenge.
“What is important is that every doctor in Florida knows that the First Amendment right guaranteeing freedom of speech once again provides protection for the medical community to honor its mission to protect the health and lives of patients. And this includes counseling patients who own guns to ensure that they are safely stored so as to prevent suicides and out of the reach of children to prevent tragic accidental shootings,” Simon said.
The Florida case was especially significant because it was considered a test case, Simon said.
But for the appellate decision striking down the statute, the NRA would have “had this dangerous law introduced in every state,” Simon predicted.
A number of Republican legislators pushed the law, entitled the “Firearms Owners’ Privacy Act,” in 2011 after learning that a pediatrician told an Ocala mother to find a new doctor because she refused to answer questions about guns in the family home.
Lawmakers learned of five other anecdotes, in which doctors asked patients about gun ownership, before passing the law, signed by Scott, according to court records.
State Sen. Dennis Baxley, an Ocala Republican who was one of the House sponsors of the measure, said the law may have done its job, even if it was ultimately stricken from the books.
“I think we certainly made our point,” Baxley, who has frequently sponsored NRA-backed proposals, told The News Service. “If you’ve been able to present your case and move the hearts of people, sometimes you’ve won and you don’t know it.”
Baxley said it was too soon to tell whether lawmakers would revisit the measure.
“I don’t assume that we’ll abandon the issue. If there’s already been an impact made by bringing this issue forward, it may have worked itself out. We’ll see,” he said.
The litigation may have informed the Legislature — and the medical community — about balancing First and Second Amendment rights, Baxley said.
“I don’t think anything’s ever finished here. It’s an ongoing conversation for 20 million people about how these various issues fit together,” he said.
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
Block By Block: Summer Reading Program Continues At Library
June 13, 2017
The Summer Reading Program continues at local library branches this week as the Pensacola MESS Hall will present “Block by Block” as follows:
- Tuesday, June 13, 11 a.m. – Southwest Branch Library (Held at Big Lagoon State Park, 12301 Gulf Beach Highway)
- Wednesday, June 14, 11 a.m. – Century Branch Library
- Wednesday, June 14, 3 p.m. – Pensacola Library
- Thursday, June 15, 11 a.m. – Molino Branch Library
- Thursday, June 15, 3 p.m. – Tryon Branch Library
In “Block by Block”, a young girl outsmarts the king in this adaptation of “One Grain of Rice” using Legos. Students will get a concrete sense of exponential growth as they discover how quickly the Legos multiply.
Former Teacher, Coach Facing More Child Sex Abuse Charges
June 13, 2017
A former high school teacher and coach accused of sexual misconduct with a student has been arrested again on additional sexual abuse charges.
Jason Paul Blaney, age 38 of 4884 Highway 4 in Jay, is back in custody and facing three more felony charges of attempted sodomy first degree, sexual abuse first degre and enticing a child. He is being held in the Escambia County (AL) Detention Center in Brewton with bond set at $120,000.
The new charges were filed after another victim came forward alleging sexual abuse against him.
Blaney was hired a W.S. Neal in 2009 after leaving Milton High School, to teach math and coach volleyball. He became softball head coach in February 2016. He resigned his teaching and coaching positions on April 12, shortly after the first allegations were made against him on March 30.
Woman Charged With Pawning A Rented TV
June 13, 2017
A woman is facing multiple felony charges after pawning a television that she was renting from a Pensacola business.
Naja Hanifah Shavers, who provided an Atmore address when arrested, allegedly rented a 65-inch Visio Smart LED TV from Rent A Center on Mobile Highway in Pensacola. She then pawned the TV at Cash America Pawn on Mobile Highway, according to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.
Shavers, 28, was charged with proving false information to a pawn broker, dealing in stolen property and grand theft. She remained in the Escambia County Jail Tuesday morning with bond set at $4,500.