Man Sentenced To Prison For Fatal Pedestrian Hit And Run
July 6, 2018
An Escambia County man was sentenced Thursday in a fatal hit and run crash a year ago.
Charles Otto Bodie was sentenced to 10 years in state prison for leaving the scene of a fatal crash July 15, 2017 in Ensley.
The Florida Highway Patrol said Bodie was driving a 1994 Chevrolet C10 that struck 52-year old Tina Baker Cain of Linden, AL, as she walked across Pensacola Boulevard in the 5800 block near near the Motel 6.
Cain was thrown about 100 feet from the collision and was pronounced deceased on the scene.
Bodie fled the scene, according to the FHP, with a witness following him to his address.
File photo.
Shower And Thunderstorm Coverage Increases Into The Weekend
July 6, 2018
For the latest on Hurricane Beryl, click here.
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
Tonight: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 72. Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
Saturday: Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 91. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Saturday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 71. Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
Sunday: Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after 1pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 88. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
Sunday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 71. South wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
Monday: Showers and thunderstorms likely. Partly sunny, with a high near 92. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
Monday Night: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 71. Calm wind.
Tuesday: Showers and thunderstorms likely. Partly sunny, with a high near 90. Calm wind becoming northwest around 5 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
Tuesday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 72. Northwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm.
Wednesday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 90.
Wednesday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 72.
Thursday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 91.
Thursday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 72.
Friday: Showers and thunderstorms likely. Mostly sunny, with a high near 92. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
Deadline Near To Request Alternate Escambia District Bus Stops For Students
July 6, 2018
from the Escambia County School District
Parents who are planning to request special transportation accommodations so their student can be picked up or dropped off somewhere other than their home address (such as a before or after-school care program site) are reminded that the deadline to file their requests online is midnight on July 15.
Parents wishing to hand-deliver their request need to bring the appropriate request form to the transportation office by 4:00 p.m. on July 12. District offices are closed July 13, 14 and 15. Families without internet access are welcome to visit the Transportation Department’s office for assistance.
To submit the form online, go to the ECSD Transportation’s home page and scroll down to read the instructions and identify the link that fits their student’s situation. Questions may be emailed to Ann Swanson at aswanson@escambia.k12.fl.us. The office is located at 100 E. Texar Dr. and the phone number is 850-469-5488.
Transportation will acknowledge receipt of the request within a few days. If parents do not receive that acknowledgment, they should send an email asking for confirmation or call 850-469-5488. All of this information, and links to the forms, is also available online on the Transportation Department’s home page: ecsd-fl.schoolloop.com/transportation.
Only requests submitted by July 15 will be considered for approval in time for the start of the 2018-2019 school year. Requests must be submitted each year.
Requests that arrive late will be held to be processed, but not until after school starts.
Biscuits Roast Wahoos 8-2
July 6, 2018
Montgomery’s offense struck early and often against Wyatt Strahan Thursday night as the Biscuits cruised to an 8-2 win at Riverwalk Stadium.
After putting together one of his best outings of the season, Wyatt Strahan (L, 5-8) struggled to keep the Biscuits offense in check. After scoring a pair of runs in the second inning, the hosts exploded for six runs in the fourth. He was eventually replaced with two outs in the fourth inning by Joel Bender.
Four different Biscuit pitchers held the Wahoos to a pair of runs. Using a strategy similar to their parent club, Montgomery opened with Brandon Lawson who pitched three shutout innings before being relieved by Curtis Taylor (W, 2-1). Taylor worked the next four innings without giving up a run before Roel Ramirez entered the game in the eighth.
That’s where the Wahoos did their damage offensively. Aristides Aquino led off the frame for Pensacola, and after a great battle, he ripped a single up the middle to extend his hitting streak to 10 games. Gavin LaValley followed with his seventh home run of the season to make it 8-2. After Luis Gonzalez reached with an infield single, Ramirez settled down and retired the next three batters in order to end the threat.
In the ninth, Travis Ott worked around a Brian O’Grady single to finish out the Biscuits win.
The series rolls along Friday with Seth Varner (4-0, 2.48) battling against LHP Genesis Cabrera (6-4, 3.83)
Man Sentenced For Shooting His Drug Dealer
July 6, 2018
An Escambia County man has been sentenced for the attempted murder of his drug dealer.
Dequnta Jerome Durant, 25, pleaded no contest to attempted first degree premeditated murder with a firearm, robbery with a firearm, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Immediately following the plea, Circuit Judge Paul Rasmussen sentenced Durant to 20 years in state prison with a 10 year minimum mandatory sentence. He will serve the first 10 years of his sentence day for day and he will serve at least 85 percent of the remaining 10 years. Durant has four prior felony convictions.
On March 30, 2016, Durant met with the victim in the in order to purchase a quantity of marijuana. During the exchange, the Durant pulled a firearm, shot the victim in the chest, and stole the marijuana. He was identified by the victim in a photo lineup.
Woman Finds Burglar In Her Closet, Manhunt Follows In Cantonment
July 5, 2018
A manhunt was underway Thursday afternoon in Cantonment after a woman found reporting finding a burglar hiding in her closet.
The woman had been behind her home on Rose Petal Lane and went back inside to notice things were out of place. She located a black male dressed in all black inside her closet and pepper sprayed him, according to Major Andrew Hobbs of the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. During an ensuing struggle, she received a small superficial scratch on her arm before the suspect ran outside.
There was no word of any arrests from the Sheriff’s Office.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office at (850) 436-9620 or Crime Stoppers at (850) 433-STOP.
Rose Petal Lane is located between Well Line Road and Neal Road, just west of Highway 29.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour, click to enlarge.
Century Correctional Officer Assaulted By Inmate From Escambia County
July 5, 2018
An inmate assaulted two correctional officers at Century Correctional Institution earlier this week.
The Florida Department of Corrections said inmate Rashud Dexter became combative, and two officers were injured. Staff responded and the inmate was subdued.
The officers were examined by medical staff. Dexter will receive a disciplinary report for he assault.
Dexter is serving a 1.5 year sentence from Escambia County for cocaine possession and fleeing from a law enforcement officer. He previously served a 7.5 year sentence for aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
Ruling Throws Cold Water On Smokable Pot Case
July 5, 2018
Chiding a judge who sided with sick patients and saying plaintiffs likely won’t win on the merits of the case, an appellate court refused to allow smokable medical marijuana while a legal fight continues to play out.
The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal came in a lawsuit initiated by Orlando trial attorney John Morgan and others who maintain that a Florida law barring patients from smoking their treatment runs afoul of a 2016 constitutional amendment that broadly legalized medical marijuana.
Leon County Circuit Judge Karen Gievers in May agreed with Morgan, who largely bankrolled the constitutional amendment, and plaintiffs in the case. The state appealed, touching off legal maneuvering that led to the appellate panel issuing a five-page decision that effectively blocked Gievers’ ruling while the case continues.
“I respect the 1st DCA immensely, but no matter what, this goes to the Supreme Court, so why not now,” Morgan, who has repeatedly called on Gov. Rick Scott to drop the state’s appeal, said in an email. “It is just a waste of time and taxpayer money. Cathy Jordan may die as this snails its way through the system. All of this proves why people don’t trust politicians. They know what they voted for.”
Cathy Jordan, one of the plaintiffs in the case, credits a daily regimen of smoking marijuana with keeping her alive decades after doctors predicted she would die from Lou Gehrig’s disease. Jordan, who grows her own pot, testified that smoking marijuana treats a variety of life-threatening side effects of the disease and that other forms of ingestion don’t have the same positive impact.
Gievers agreed with lawyers representing Jordan and the other plaintiffs. They contended that it was understood that the constitutional amendment allowed smoking, though it did not expressly authorize it.
State health officials, who answer to Scott, immediately appealed Gievers’ May 25 ruling, automatically putting her decision on hold. On June 5, Gievers lifted the stay, saying Jordan and Diana Dodson, a plaintiff who has neuralgia associated with HIV, would suffer without having access to smokable marijuana.
On the other hand, “there is no evidence the defendants (the state) will suffer harm if the stay is vacated,” the judge wrote.
“Lifting the stay preserves the status quo by returning the law to its previous state as it existed following the 2016 adoption of the constitutional medical marijuana rights” and before the 2017 law went into effect, she added.
But the appeals court quashed Gievers’ decision to lift the stay and directly contradicted the circuit judge. Appellate judges Joseph Lewis, Lori Rowe and M. Kemmerly Thomas found that the plaintiffs “failed to demonstrate that they will suffer irreparable harm if the automatic stay is reinstated.”
Noting that a trial court may vacate an automatic stay only “under the most compelling circumstances,” the judges also scolded Gievers, saying “it was an abuse of discretion for the circuit court” to lift the stay.
Even more, the panel signaled bleak prospects for Morgan and the plaintiffs, at least as far as the appellate court — which also rejected a request to rush the case to the Florida Supreme Court — is concerned.
“Here, after the panel’s preliminary review of the wording of the medical marijuana amendment and the statute prohibiting the use of medical marijuana in a smokable form, we conclude that appellees (the plaintiffs) have not sufficiently demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits as required to justify vacating the automatic stay,” the judges wrote.
The 2016 amendment “authorized medical marijuana for qualifying patients with certain debilitating medical conditions but authorized DOH (the state Department of Health) to issue reasonable regulations to ensure the availability and safe use of medical marijuana by qualifying patients,” the order said.
In addition, the judges pointed out that the amendment provides that “(n)othing in this section shall limit the Legislature from enacting laws consistent with this section.”
The judges noted that Gievers and the appellate court also have been at odds in a separate lawsuit filed by Tampa strip club owner Joe Redner, a lung-cancer survivor who wanted the state to allow him to grow his own medical marijuana for juicing purposes. Gievers sided with Redner, but, as in the smokable marijuana challenge, health officials’ appeal put her ruling on hold.
The appellate court in Redner’s case, mirroring the order, upheld the automatic stay, deciding that he had little chance of winning on the merits of his case. And the appeals court also refused to speed up his case by moving it to the Supreme Court.
The legal tangle over whether patients should be able to smoke marijuana — one of at least eight marijuana-related legal or administrative challenges about the state’s burgeoning cannabis industry — is also playing out on the political stage in Florida.
Morgan, a political rainmaker who supported Hillary Clinton for president and who toyed with the idea of running for Florida governor as a Democrat or an independent, has framed smokable medical marijuana as a make-or-break issue in Scott’s general election contest against incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson. Nelson has also come out in support of allowing patients to smoke medical marijuana.
“This is not surprising and why it should go to the Supreme Court now,” Morgan tweeted, referring to the 1st District Court of Appeal order. “It’s not a matter of if but when. So why waste taxpayers money. Vacating a stay is impossible. This issue will haunt @FLGovScott in November when his ‘stay’ will be over!”
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
Cantonment Rotary Makes Donation To Cantonment Improvement Committee
July 5, 2018
The Cantonment Rotary Club recently donated $800 to the Cantonment Improvement Committee for a freezer and tables for use at Carver Park. Courtesy photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Century Cuts Monthly Travel Stipend For Mayor
July 5, 2018
The Town of Century has ended a monthly travel stipend for Mayor Henry Hawkins, instead opting to reimburse him for his actual mileage.
Hawkins and previous mayors had received a monthly travel allowance of $590. A 2016 financial audit found that the town does not have a formal written travel policy and recommended that the town establish such a policy.
The elimination of the set travel allowance came after Hawkins submitted a reimbursement request for $83.15 over and beyond the stipend for a recent trip related to town business.
Now, the mayor will be required to submit mileage reports for reimbursement at the federal standard of 54.5 cents per mile.
Hawkins said he does not see the change hurting him financially because he does a lot of travel for the town.