The Florida Department of Law Enforcement says it has cleared a backlog of nearly 13,000 untested rape kits. July 5, 2019 Cute and Paste Content Here FDLE says Florida’s rape kit backlog cleared “for all intents and purposes" | wtsp.com In July 2015, 10Investigates exposed evidence collected from sexual assault victims had gone unprocessed for...

During treatment, the fire crew became exposed to a powdered substance and had to be transported to the hospital for examination. July 1, 2019 The Cape Coral firefighters who were exposed to fentanyl on Tuesday were cleared to return to work. The incident happened on Tuesday, when four Cape Coral firefighters were exposed to lethal opioid, fentanyl...

Detectives said they were able to match crime scene evidence to Emitt's DNA, through a national data base. June 14, 2019 LAKE MARY, Fla. (FOX 35 ORLANDO) - An over three-decades-long homicide cold case out of Florida has been put to rest, after authorities said DNA evidence recently led investigators to a suspect in Tennessee. The Seminole County S...

The chief said there was no evidence the officers were using, selling, or planting the drugs, June 11, 2019 TAMPA, Fla. (FOX 13) - Disgraced Tampa police officer Mark Landry was fired Thursday for what the chief of police called "egregious actions. " Officers John Laratta and Algenius Maceo were fired, too. Chief Brian Dugan did not hide his anger ...

Florida sheriff deputy revived with Narcan, 3 others recovering after exposure to drugs May 8, 2019 A traffic stop in Florida came close to being deadly. A Florida sheriff's deputy was revived with Narcan and at least one firefighter was given the overdose reversal drug on Tuesday after exposure to what officials believe to be fentanyl during a tra...

Using a public database, he said, investigators matched DNA found on Cahanes' body to Thomas Lewis Garner, a 59-year-old dental hygienist from Jacksonville. March 14, 2019 In the summer of 1984, Pamela Cahanes' body was found in an overgrown lot in unincorporated Sanford. The 25-year-old had graduated from boot camp at the Orlando Naval Training Ce...

Bartow Police Department detectives arrested Stacey Lee Schaufler of Eagle Lake after it was discovered that money was missing from department evidence envelopes, and computer records had been altered, according to the BPD. March 6, 2019 BARTOW — A former Bartow Police Department evidence custodian is being accused of stealing cash seized by the de...

Officer was arrested  and is facing charges of grand theft, official misconduct, and possession of a controlled substance.​ December 1, 2018 WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - A West Palm Beach Police officer is accused of stealing more than $1,000 from a suspect she arrested in October. Officer Nicole Palladino was arrested Thursday and is facing charge...

The case file on the shooting contains Florida Department of Law Enforcement documents that link a DNA profile matching Sangster to swabs of the interior of the vehicle in which Allen was found, according to the report. Enter Article DATE HERE Two men argued in a vehicle. A gun went off. Then the passenger pushed the victim's body aside and to...

This was police 'property' that was slated to be destroyed," - "no actual case evidence was tainted or stolen" September 12, 2018 Two civilian employees of the Miami Police Department were quietly fired this week after they were caught taking police "property" from storage lockers and placing it inside their own cars, a Miami Police spokesperson co...

Enter Headline here August 24, 2018 Joshua Vann Harrell, 26, pleaded no contest to grand theft of a controlled substance and destroying evidence. He was sentenced to five days in the county jail and 36 months probation for stealing "K2″ synthetic marijuana from an evidence locker. Officers reported finding a chain of custody form on the seat of the...

The pungent odor that sometimes hangs in the lobby of the Tampa Police Department headquarters August 16, 2018 TAMPA — For the uninitiated, the pungent odor that sometimes hangs in the lobby of the Tampa Police Department headquarters likely goes unidentified. For those with experienced noses, however, the skunky aroma at One Police Center has an u...

As the years went by and scientific advancements were developed in DNA analysis, a DNA profile of the suspect, August 16, 2018 MIAMI (CBS12) — A 50-year-old man was arrested in connection to a cold case murder from 1990, Miami-Dade police said. Lucio Leon, of Hialeah, was shot and killed Mar. 2, 1990 while walking near his restaurant, "Tuyo y Mio" ...

A veteran Miami Beach crime scene technician was suspended with pay last week as investigators sift through dozens of past cases to find out whether they've been tainted. July 22, 2018 A veteran Miami Beach crime scene technician was suspended with pay last week as investigators sift through dozens of past cases to find out whether they've been tai...

DNA evidence led investigators to an arrest in a St. Pete rape case from 1986. June 15, 2018 ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — 9AM JUNE 16 UPDATE | A Pinellas County judge set a $250,000 bond Saturday for Anthony Stokes, who was arrested Friday for a 1986 rape in St. Petersburg. At a first appearance Saturday morning, the judge also said should Stokes bond ou...

There was [an] evidence room deputy who had breathing problems while working in that room. June 22, 2018 The scientist Flagler County government hired to further and more broadly analyze air, soil ceiling and wall samples at the Sheriff's potentially sick Operations Center in Bunnell told the county today the gathering of samples was completed in o...

"The suspect said he believed because of the 'violent reaction' he had after smoking the drug, he was sold the wrong narcotic" June 14, 2018 A Florida man was arrested this week after asking a sheriff's office to test his drugs, authorities said. The Putnam County Sheriff's Office said Douglas Peter Kelly, 49, of Hawthorne, told officers he suffere...

"This situation came to light through routine procedures, spot checks, and internal controls, August 29, 2917 OKALOOSA CO. (WTVY) — The Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office today charged an OCSO civilian employee with grand theft of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription. 40-year old Deidra Rezzarday, a P...

Other officers allegedly found a chain of custody form and an evidence bag with a broken seal in a trash can near Harrell's post. Enter Article DATE HERE A Century Correctional Institution officer has been arrested for allegedly stealing drugs from an evidence locker. Joshua Harrell, 26, reportedly went into the prison's work camp evidence sto...

An internal police memo says "over 1,200 items had to be removed from the vault and dried." MAY 19, 2018 (WSVN) - A sewage leak inside a South Florida police department left evidence — soaked. The question now: could it sink pending criminal cases? 7's Brian Entin investigates in our special report called "Flood of Trouble." Evidence laid out all o...

The evidence custodian admitted to smashing drug paraphernalia with a hammer. May 7, 2018 Following a five-month investigation over 185 discrepancies in the Ormond Beach Police Department's evidence department, one employee has been fired and two others recommended for counsel, said Police Chief Jesse Godfrey during a press conference on Tuesday, A...

The case went cold, but DNA evidence eventually identified Robert Burton, 48, as the suspect. May 4, 2018 DNA evidence helped Pinellas County deputies arrest a man in a 25-year-old rape case, the sheriff's office said today. According to deputies, early on Jan. 21, 1993, a 37-year-old woman was walking home from a friend's house in the 2700 block o...

"I would absolutely say, without a reasonable doubt, that this was some really shoddy recordkeeping," said Ormond Beach Police Chief Jesse Godfrey. Apr 24, 2018 ORMOND BEACH, Fla. - About 185 Ormond Beach Police Department investigations are affected after an audit of the evidence room found it in such disarray that the evidence custodian was fired...

Marlene Warren opened the front door of her Wellington, Fla., home on the morning of May 26 nearly 27 years ago to find a clown in an orange wig and red nose, holding two foil balloons and carnations. The clown handed her the gifts, shot her in the face, and drove away in a Chrysler LeBaron convertible, authorities have said. April 16, 2018 Florida...

Evidence pictures showed $101 in cash, which went missing. April 18, 2018 A former Winter Park police officer violated department policy when he kept sensitive evidence at his home and stole about $100 in cash from a dead man, according to an internal investigation released Wednesday. Frank Cowart, 44, also faces criminal charges after he was accus...

Officials said that before Braun allegedly broke into the home, he rang the front doorbell — without any gloves on — to see if anyone was home. March 30, 2018 Deputies in Florida were able to nab a suspect in a months-old robbery case after his DNA was found on the front doorbell of the house he allegedly robbed. Jason Braun, 41, of Edgewater, was ...

Brady had been hired in August 2010 as the department's forfeiture coordinator February 6, 2018 FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A former police officer who confessed to stealing more than $310,000 in cash from his department has been sentenced to one year and four months in prison. The Sun Sentinel of South Florida reports 34-year-old Gerard Anthony B...

Now, in an attempt to clear out the shameful number of untested kits, the City of Miami is asking the U.S. Department of Justice for $264,263 to help MPD better organize itself and actually handle sex-crime cases February 2, 2018 As of 2015, the Miami Police Department reported in a statewide audit that a whopping 2,243 rape and sexual-assault kits...

Attorney General Pam Bondi says the state is ahead of pace in reaching its goal of processing all 86 hundred backlogged kits by June, 2019. December 28, 2018 TALLAHASSEE, FL (WWSB) - Nearly 5,600 previously unprocessed sexual assault kits have now been tested, according to new statistics released by the attorney general's office. "Our goal is to he...

"It is believed that Adams ingested the cocaine," prosecutors said in a statement.A kilogram of cocaine, about 2.2 pounds, is worth between $26,000 and $28,000 December 1, 2017 There might be some drug-sniffing dogs in New Jersey that are less familiar with cocaine than one would hope. A New Jersey sheriff's officer has pleaded guilty to official m...

A DeLand police officer was fired, another suspended without pay and a third reprimanded this month after they lost methamphetamine collected as evidence November 28, 2018 A DeLand police officer was fired, another suspended without pay and a third reprimanded this month after they lost methamphetamine collected as evidence at a home over the summe...

The suspected fentanyl were in the shape of square multi-color pills and resembled children's vitamins and candy, police said. November 28, 2018 SANFORD, Fla. — A Sanford man was arrested Monday after police said he was found in possession of fentanyl pills that were designed to look like children's vitamins or candy. Floyd Aiken, who had an active...

A little over an hour after paramedics took a dying Boynton Beach, Florida man to the hospital, Palm Beach County Deputy Jason Cooke was caught rifling through the man's cabinets and drawers, according to a probable cause affidavit. October 28, 2018 A sheriff's deputy swooped into a senior citizen's house after paramedics were called — and was caug...

Rushing was booked on charges of possessing methamphetamine while armed with a weapon. Enter Article DATE HERE It sounds like a joke, but, well — keep reading. In December 2015, 64-year-old Daniel Rushing had just dropped off a friend at chemotherapy and was driving home an older woman from his church who worked at the 7-Eleven and would other...

At one point last year, there were more than 13,000 untested rape kits in Florida. October 10, 2017 Cornelious Florman, 51, was arrested in Virginia for an almost 20-year-old rape case on Fort Myers Beach on Tuesday. The NBC2 Investigators have been following his story since learning his DNA was linked to the crime. Florman is already a convicted r...

The device was developed as part of the Fentanyl Detection Project -- a joint effort between the St. Petersburg Police Department and Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. October 4, 2017 LARGO (FOX 13) - Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin that was once used to treat terminally ill cancer patients. But drug dealers have fou...

Authorities tracked down witnesses, re-interviewed them and examined evidence using DNA technology not available in 1990​ September 27, 2017 (CNN) — Marlene Warren was finishing breakfast with her son and his friends on May 26, 1990, when a white Chrysler LeBaron pulled into the driveway of her home outside West Palm Beach, Florida. Someone dressed...

A deputy with the Orange County Sheriff's Office is accused of grand theft after stealing items from a crime scene, including cash, and possibly using stolen credit cards in another county, i September 19, 2017 A second deputy came to the address on Heming Way to handle the drug case, which resulted in Shehata's arrest, officials said. When Shehata...

Investigators say Rezzarday committed criminal violations in connection with prescription drugs stored in Evidence August 29, 2017 KALOOSA CO. (WTVY) — The Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office today charged an OCSO civilian employee with grand theft of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription. 40-year old D...

"one batch of evidence had a street value of more than half a million dollars" August 25 LIVE OAK — Instead of bringing evidence in, three members of the Live Oak Police Department spent time Wednesday morning taking old evidence out. Twenty-two boxes of drugs and evidence that no longer held any evidentiary value were loaded up and taken to a priv...

Neptune Beach Police Officer Chris Ortiz was arrested on one count of grand theft after complaints came in that money had gone missing following routine traffic Enter Article DATE HERE JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office arrested a one-year veteran of the The Neptune Beach Police Department. On Tuesday, July 17, Neptune Bea...

Establishes mandatory minimum sentences for possession of certain amounts of fentanyl June 19, 2017 Gov. Rick Scott signed into law Wednesday a bill pushed by two Southwest Florida lawmakers that cracks down on fentanyl abuse. The legislation, HB 477, sponsored by Rep. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton, and Sen. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, establishes mandatory m...

Evidence from nearly 4,000 cases sits inside two evidence vaults in the St. Lucie County Courthouse. Some have been stored there for decades. Enter Article DATE HERE Cute and ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. -- They're the items behind some of the most haunting, shocking and tragic crimes in our community. Evidence from nearly 4,000 cases sits inside tw...

More than $130,000 in cash, 1,000 pills stolen from evidence room Enter Article DATE HERE HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - The Hollywood Police Department is continuing to work on correcting its mismanagement of its Property and Evidence Unit, the Broward Office of the Inspector General reported Thursday in a news release. The OIG reported in February that H...

Fingerprints found on a box of cake mix and a can of frosting prompted police to arrest the well-known French Quarter "human statue. May 24, 2017 Bobby Farah was a child when his father was shot and killed on May 22, 1974, in an attempted armed robbery at his Jacksonville grocery store. As the decades rolled by, the son, three sisters and Freddie F...

Being accused of a crime is pretty crappy, but that's no reason to poop on a search warrant. May 18, 2017 He's accused of attempted murder, but it's what allegedly did afterwards that's raising a stink. Being accused of a crime is pretty crappy, but that's no reason to poop on a search warrant. That's what a Florida man accused of shooting at a Dee...

The Zaagmans paid $24,800 in restitution prior to Monday's hearing, though they were initially suspected of stealing nearly $30,000 from the police department from 2011 until 2015. May 8, 2017 The husband-and-wife duo who bilked the Bradenton Police Department out of tens of thousands of dollars pleaded guilty to a second-degree felony scheming to ...

Jennifer Odom was 12 years old when she was abducted and killed in Hernando County. For more than 20 years, there has been no solid leads, no persons of interest in the case. April 27, 2017 Detectives believe a 17-year-old victim got off the school bus at U.S. 41 and Twin Oaks Drive and made her way along a dirt road when sje was grabbed by a suspe...

​Hevel pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to a single charge of theft of government property related to the disappearance of the $4,055 check. Enter Article DATE HERE TAMPA — A retired lawman and husband of a disgraced Tampa police detective admitted Thursday that he cashed a U.S. Treasury check his wife had stolen from an evidence room....

John Braman stepped down Monday after body cam video of the Aug. 1 incident clearly showed the deputy going through what appears to be a wallet and tossing something out. The wallet is put in an evidence pouch and a $100 bill is visible nearby. January 31 A central Florida sheriff's deputy has resigned after body camera video apparently showed him ...