Escambia Man Gets 20 Years For Shooting His Landlord
March 31, 2018
An Escambia County man is headed to prison for shooting his landlord.
John Scott Borchert, age 63 of Pensacola, pleaded guilty to attempted first degree premeditated murder with a firearm, aggravated assault by threat with a deadly weapon, and possession of a firearm when subject to a domestic violence injunction.
Circuit Judge Jan Shackelford immediately sentenced Borchert to 20 years in state prison.
Prosecutors said Borchert got into an argument with his landlord. The victim asked Borchert to vacate the premises due to code violations. Borchert pulled out a firearm and shot the victim in the abdomen before threatening a witness with the gun.
After a brief struggle, Borchert was detained by the witness until law enforcement arrived. The firearm was recovered with Borchert’s DNA.
Feds Sue Operator Of Local Arby’s For Teen Sexual Harassment
March 31, 2018
Beavers’ Inc. violated federal law when it subjected several teenage female employees at an Atmore Arby’s restaurant to sexual harassment at its location, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit filed Friday.
According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, in May 2016, Arby’s hired a team leader trainee with a known history of sexual harassment who repeatedly pressured young female employees to have sex with him, and regularly used sexually graphic language to describe sexual acts he sought to perform on female employees and customers. The EEOC also alleges that the harasser deliberately touched one female employee in an unwelcome and sexual manner, and attempted to follow female employees home.
The EEOC further contends that these employees and others complained about the harassment up the chain of command to supervisors and managers, but Arby’s took no action for several months until the harasser physically injured one of the victims.
Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination which is prohibited by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama it completed an investigation and first attempted to reach a pre-litigation settlement. The lawsuit seeks monetary damages for the victims, including compensatory and punitive damages, and injunctive relief.
“Federal anti-discrimination laws exist to protect workers from this kind of abuse,” said EEOC Birmingham District Director Delner Franklin-Thomas. “The EEOC will continue to aggressively pursue remedies for victims of sexual harassment in the workplace, particularly young, vulnerable workers. This kind of misconduct adversely affects not only the harassment victims themselves, but also the entire workforce, when timely and effective corrective action is not taken.”
Marsha Rucker, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Birmingham District, said, “Employers have an obligation to provide a workplace free from sexual harassment, and that obligation is not met solely by having a written policy. Employers must take complaints of sexual harassment seriously and act promptly to stop harassment of their workers.”
Beavers’ is a Florida corporation which owns and operates 51 Arby’s locations in the Florida panhandle, south Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana, according to the EEOC. The EEOC’s Birmingham District consists of Alabama, Mississippi (except 17 northern counties) and the Florida Panhandle.
Camp Fire Kids Attend Easter Egg Hunt At Century Health And Rehab
March 31, 2018
The children at the Camp Fire Century Youth Learning Center recently attended an annual Easter Egg Hunt with the staff and residents at the Century Health and Rehabilitation Center.
Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Escambia County Jail Inmate Dies
March 31, 2018
An Escambia County jail inmate died at a local hospital Friday.
King Solomon Fountain, 35 was going through the booking process at the jail but had not yet been placed in a cell when he suffered an undisclosed medical emergency. 911 was called, and Fountain was transported by ambulance to an area hospital.
According to Escambia County Jail records, Fountain age 35, was booked into the jail at 1:51 a.m. on a third degree felony cocaine possession charge. Further details have not yet been released.
Escambia County Wants Governor’s Office To Enforce Budget Agreement Settlement With Sheriff
March 30, 2018
Escambia County is asking the governor’s office to enforce a signed mediation agreement with the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, according to a document filed Thursday.
The county and the Sheriff’s Office have been battling it out over funding for most of the last year, with the parties signing a mediation agreement on March 9. After the mediation agreement was announced, Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan announced a few days later that the agreement appear unsuccessful, citing issue over workers compensation, unemployment compensation, retirement and health care issues.
The county disagrees, based upon mediation wording that stipulates increased funding was “inclusive of all benefits and all raises for the implementation of a pay plan”.
The motion to enforce settlement filed by the county Thursday states the “Sheriff has had a change of heart as to the settlement reached. Sheriff may argue that his representatives at the mediation conference were under the impression or believed that the terms of the settlement could be renegotiated as part of the execution of an interlocal agreement. However, mistaken assumptions or misconceptions about what terms mean are unilateral mistakes which will not relieve the Sheriff of his obligations under the agreed upon settlement. It is black letter law that mutual assent or a meeting of the minds is determined. by the external signs of mutual assent and not the motives of a party in reaching an agreement.”
But the Sheriff’s office disagrees with the county, calling he motion “disingenuous” at best in a released statement:
We are aware of the BOCC’s most recent attempt to stop our appeal from going to the Governor, through a motion to enforce settlement to the Administration Commission. It is disingenuous at best. First, the County’s own General Counsel, Allison Rogers, sent over the first draft of an Interlocal Agreement that was supposed to outline the details of the mediation settlement showing that she knew there needed to be more work done as she modified portions of the original Mediation Settlement Agreement (MSA). Second, the county defeats their own argument by their actions of another one of their attorneys, Charles Peppler, who attempted to have the BOCC enter into a one year settlement with the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office (ECSO) for one million dollars through the Governor’s Office just last week. This also shows they knew the MSA was not binding in its current form. The strongest evidence that this motion is futile is the mediation settlement itself. Paragraph 5 of the Settlement Agreement provides: ‘The parties shall cooperate in the dismissal of the appeal with the Administrative Commission after all parties approve the settlement and execute a mutually agreeable Interlocal Agreement.’ …It’s quite obvious that there has never been a mutually agreeable Interlocal Agreement and as such, the Sheriff’s appeal will move forward. The ECSO has been in contact with the appropriate offices in Tallahassee and will respond if they request.”
From a previous (March 15) NorthEscambia.com story regarding the original mediation settlement:
Under the four-year agreement, Morgan will receive an extra $1 million for the current fiscal year that ends September 30. The commission will increase Morgan’s budget by an additional $2.6 million in the next two fiscal years, and $2.9 million in the final year. The funds will be for benefits and raises for the implementation of a pay plan.
Beginning April 1, 2018, the BOCC will reduce budgets for discretionary outside agencies by 50 percent, except for Pathways for Change and Community Health Northwest Florida (formerly Escambia Community Clinics). In fiscal years 2019-2021, funding for outside agencies in the general fund will not exceed $734,374. These funds will be used for the implementation of the sheriff’s pay plan.
Discretionary funds for each commissioner, previously at $50,000 each, will be cut by half to $125,000 total ($25,000 each) for the next three years, with $125,000 going to the sheriff’s budget each year.
Under the agreement, Morgan agreed that 50 percent of Law Enforcement Trust fund monies will go toward funding school resource officers. If that is not possible, the remainder can be used to offset other ECSO general fund expenditures as allowed by law.
Commissioners Steven Barry and Lumon May voted against the agreement.
Morgan asked for over $2 million when he appealed his budget to Scott last October to help with pay compression issues.
Pictured: Gov. Rick Scott and Escambia County David Morgan during a meeting October 5, 2017, at the Escambia County Emergency Operations Center concerning then Tropical Storm Nate. Pictured inset: The signature page from a mediation agreement between Escambia County and the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Molino Caution Light Cable Snaps, Falls Into Highway 29 Causing Traffic Delays
March 30, 2018
The most dangerous thing Thursday night at an intersection caution light in Molino was the caution light itself.
What appeared to be a steel support cable snapped on the caution light at Highway 29 and Molino Road just before 8 p.m. The cable was dangling into Highway 29, and was reported hit by at least one vehicle. The cable caused traffic delays at the intersection for about two hours.
There’s no word on what caused the cable to snap.
The Molino Station of Escambia Fire Rescue responded.
Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Lightning Does Strike Twice: Home Suffers Minor Damage, Again
March 30, 2018
Lightning really does strike twice — a home in Davisville was struck by lightning Thursday evening, the second time in the past three years.
The home on Meadows Lane just off Highway 97 sustained very minor damage in Thursday’s strike about 6:30 p.m.. Light smoke was reported in the home but any fire was out when firefighters arrived.
In May 2015, the same home was hit by lightning, reportedly damaging a fan motor in the home’s heating and cooling system.
There were no injuries in either incident.
The Walnut Hill, Molino, McDavid and Century Stations of Escambia Fire Rescue, the Nokomis (AL) Volunteer Fire Department and the Atmore Fire Department were dispatched to the call. Many of the units were canceled prior to arrival.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Fire Damages Jacks Branch Road Home
March 30, 2018
Fire damaged a home in Cantonment late Thursday afternoon.
The fire in the 200 block of Jacks Branch Road was reported about 5:20 p.m. The fire appeared to be concentrated in the attic of the 2,300 square foot wood frame home. The resident of the home reportedly escaped without injury.
Information on the exact cause of the fire was not immediately available.
The Cantonment, Molino, Beulah, Bellview, Brent and Ensley Stations of Escambia Fire Rescue and Escambia County EMS were all dispatched to the blaze.
The firefighting effort temporarily closed Jacks Branch Road.
Top: Fire damaged this home in Cantonment. File photo. Pictured below: Firefighters spent about an hour and 40 minutes on the call. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Florida Supreme Court Rejects Santa Rosa County Death Row Appeal
March 30, 2018
The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday rejected appeals by two Death Row inmates who were convicted of murdering women in the 1990s in Santa Rosa and Hillsborough counties.
One of the appeals was filed by Norman Grim, who was sentenced to death in the 1998 murder of Cynthia Campbell, whose body was found by a fisherman floating off the Pensacola Bay Bridge, according to a brief by Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office.
victim, who was wrapped in a sheet, a shower curtain and masking tape, had been beaten in the face and suffered multiple stab wounds to the chest.
The other appeal was filed by Samuel Smithers, who was convicted in the 1996 murders of Cristy Cowan and Denise Roach. The bodies of the women were found in a Hillsborough County pond, with a 2002 Supreme Court summary of the case saying both women had been strangled and suffered other injuries, including “chop” wounds to Cowan’s head.
The appeals dealt with issues related to a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in an Escambia County case known as Hurst v. Florida and a subsequent Florida Supreme Court decision.
The 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling found Florida’s death-penalty sentencing system was unconstitutional because it gave too much authority to judges, instead of juries. The subsequent Florida Supreme Court ruling said juries must unanimously agree on critical findings before judges can impose death sentences and must unanimously recommend the death penalty.
Juries unanimously recommended death sentences for Grim and Smithers.
But the appeals decided Thursday involved questions about the other findings needed to sentence defendants to death.
Chief Justice Jorge Labarga and justices R. Fred Lewis, Alan Lawson, Charles Canady and Ricky Polston agreed to reject both appeals. Justice Barbara Pariente supported rejecting the appeal in the Smithers case but dissented in the Grim case. Justice Peggy Quince dissented in both cases.
by The News Service of Florida
Man Fleeing From Deputies Crashes Into Delivery Truck
March 30, 2018
A driver running from deputies crashed into a Coca-Cola truck Thursday afternoon before committing a home invasion, according to authorities.
The Florida Highway Patrol said 37-year Bryant Lee Williams of Pensacola was actively fleeing from the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office eastbound on Johnson Avenue when ran a stop sign at Cody Lane and crashed his Nissan Altima into a Freightliner delivery truck driven by 40-year old Michael McCall of Pensacola. McCall suffered minor injuries and was transported to West Florida Hospital.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office said had deputies were called to assist the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) conduct a traffic stop on Williams but he refused to stop. A spokesman for the ECSO said they had called off the pursuit prior to the crash.
After he crashed into the Coca-Colatruck, deputies said Williams dropped a large amount of narcotics in the road as he ran away. After that, deputies said he committed a nearby home invasion before being apprehended.
Williams is facing narcotics, fleeing and eluding and home invasion charges, plus unspecified charges from the ATF. He was booked into the Escambia County Jail with bond set at $317,000.
Top photo courtesy Allie Norton, WEAR 3, for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.