Category: Crime and Public Safety

GULFPORT, Miss. — A South Florida financial adviser has been indicted in an alleged scheme to promote and operate an illegal tax shelter through which he stole some of his clients’ funds, federal prosecutors said Friday. Stephen T. Mellinger III, of Delray Beach, conspired with several others to defraud the Internal Revenue Service in 2013 by promoting an illegal tax shelter, according to the indictment returned Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Gulfport, Mississippi, and unsealed Thursday. Mellinger was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, aiding in the preparation of false...

An 11th-grade student at McArthur High School died Wednesday evening after he was apparently struck by lightning in Pembroke Pines, according to officials. Pembroke Pines Fire Rescue found the student lying motionless underneath a tree in the 600 block of Southwest 67th Avenue, a residential area not far from the high school. He was in cardiac arrest and taken to Memorial Regional Hospital as a trauma alert, Pembroke Pines Fire Rescue Division Chief Jason Stepp said in an email Thursday afternoon. “We don’t have confirmation yet, but it does appear as though the patient was struck by lightning...

A jury will decide whether the City of Fort Lauderdale is liable for the injuries LaToya Ratlieff received during a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020, where she was shot in the face with a rubber bullet by a Fort Lauderdale Police officer. Ratlieff filed a federal lawsuit against several individual Fort Lauderdale Police officers and the city in May 2022, exactly two years after she was among the crowd of thousands of protesters in downtown Fort Lauderdale in the wake of George Floyd’s police murder. Fort Lauderdale officers fired tear gas into the crowd, and body-worn camera video showed some...

Gunshots erupted on a Fort Lauderdale street early Saturday morning and moments later, several of the men who were struck called 911, pleading for help and for one person to be rushed to the hospital. A shooter or shooters fired at a car in the 600 block of Northwest 62nd Street just after 5 a.m. and fled the area. Three people were found shot inside the car and were taken to Broward Health Medical Center, where one was pronounced dead. Fort Lauderdale Police on Monday identified the person who died at the hospital as 18-year-old Marion Harrison. A fourth adult man was found after the shooting...

A Lauderhill Police officer was arrested Tuesday in Sunrise and has been placed on administrative leave. Officer Johnny Alejandro Mateo faces one count of digital voyeurism, police department spokesperson Lt. Antonio Gonzalez said in a news release Wednesday night. Gonzalez did not provide information about what led to Mateo’s arrest but said Mateo was being investigated by Sunrise Police for an incident that happened while he was off duty. Mateo, who was hired in 2017, was placed on administrative the day of his arrest. Sunrise Police spokespersons did not return an email or a voicemail Wednesday...

After a chain-reaction three-car crash that killed two people, the Broward Sheriff’s Office is conducting an internal investigation to determine whether any deputies were chasing one of the drivers who crashed. Gavin Dorvil, 19, of Lauderdale Lakes, was speeding in a 2023 Tesla Model 3 west on Northwest Sixth Street, approaching the intersection of Northwest 27th Avenue shortly before 4 p.m. Sunday, according to the Sheriff’s Office. At the same time, a 2023 Dodge Durango was heading south on Northwest 27th Avenue, approaching the same intersection west of Fort Lauderdale. Dorvil crashed into...

Nine feet under water in a canal along West Broward Boulevard in Plantation, a diver reached his hand in through a small hole in the roof of the corroded car and pulled out an object resting on the backseat. Mike Sullivan, one of the founders of Sunshine State Sonar, an independent organization that uses sonar technology to find missing people and cars in South Florida, surfaced with the object, brought it to shore and searched on Google to find out what it was. The relic was a Fisher Price School Days Desk toy, made in the early 1970s. Inside the car were more baby toys, a little girl’s clothes...