Free Republic

A man wanted in the 1984 killing of a Florida woman has been arrested in California nearly four decades later, authorities said Thursday. Detectives from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office were traveling to San Diego County to interview Donald Michael Santini, who was being held in jail following his arrest Wednesday, the sheriff's office said in a statement. crop-wood.jpg Cynthia Ruth Wood HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE Santini had been on the run since June 1984, when Florida authorities obtained an arrest warrant linking him to the strangling death of 33-year-old Cynthia Ruth Wood of Bradenton, located south of Tampa. Wood's...

NAPLES, Fla. — A Bradenton man with a violent history has been arrested after it was revealed he has 21 outstanding warrants in three Florida counties. Around 1:30 p.m. on February 2nd, Florida Highway Patrol Troopers initiated a traffic stop on a Nissan. The vehicle was pulled over on I-75 near Mile Marker 98 in Collier County. According to the arrest report, Troopers found 1,500 tablets of Alprazolam, sold under the brand name Xanax, and two grams of marijuana. The driver of the vehicle, 29-year-old Yasmin Nicole Forester, was arrested and faces three possession charges. The vehicle’s passenger initially gave...

A young Bradenton mother says she was in fear when she looked at her Ring App and saw armed men at her door. Kada Staples says the men had their weapons pointed at her door and when she said hello, they ordered her to come out and said “we know he’s in there”. The armed men were U.S. Marshals. Staples believes they were looking for a murder suspect, but they had the wrong apartment. At the time she opened her door and still didn’t understand what was going on. Florida elementary school principal arrested after driving BMW at neighbor, flipping...

Some residents in Manatee County, Florida, were evacuated from their homes over Easter weekend as officials cited fears that a wastewater pond could collapse "at any time." Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for the area on Saturday. County officials said the pond, located at the former Piney Point phosphate processing plant, has a "significant leak," according to CBS affiliate WTSP-TV. The Manatee County Public Safety Department told people near the plant to evacuate due to an "imminent uncontrolled release of wastewater." "A portion of the containment wall at the leak site shifted laterally," said Manatee Director...

A Bradenton man known by the alias “Murder,” which is tattooed on his neck, pleaded guilty to murder charges in connection to a 2016 home invasion that left a fellow suspect dead after a shootout. On the night of May 4, 2016, Courtney Lawrence, Emanuel Johnson and two or three other suspects stormed into a home in the 700 block of 64th Avenue East in Bradenton and demanded money from the resident. The resident and the suspects exchanged gunfire at the entrance to the home’s garage, which left the resident, Lawrence and Johnson with injuries. The resident’s wife arrived moments...

Despite pleas from two former state governors and at least 90 environmental and community groups and businesses, Gov. Ron DeDantis on Friday signed a multibillion-dollar plan to build long stretches of toll roads across undeveloped sections of the state. The legislation has been labeled “the worst environmental bill in twenty years.” And the Florida Sierra Club has warned of pristine areas becoming urban sprawl, where “subdivisions and strip malls will proliferate and the natural resources that bring visitors to the state will be overused and overrun.” DeSantis approved the bill anyway. The announcement came not from the governor’s press office...

A Bradenton woman ordered and feasted on a steak dinner and chocolate cake, but when the bill came she refused to pay, stating she had no money, according to the Manatee County Sheriff's Office.Ana Bulovic, 28, decided to treat herself at Cody’s Roadhouse in Bradenton Monday afternoon, even though she knew she didn’t have any money to pay the bill, according to an arrest report. The feast, which totaled $43.58, ended with her getting arrested and charged with petit theft. She is being held at the Manatee County jail on a $120 bond. When Bulovic was presented her tab at...

Saturday, June 25, 2016: Highlights of the Women United for Trump Event in Bradenton, Florida. Terrific rally of Trump supporters, emceed by Diamond and Silk. People traveled across country to attend this event. Speakers were grassroots activists and veterans. Great enthusiasm and humor!

Nicole O’Kelly couldn’t believe it when she heard the stuffed toy she bought for her daughter at Monster Jam may have a symbol meant for pedophiles. “I’m absolutely sick. I bought this for my 2-year-old little girl. This toy was made for little girls. I wanted answers,” O’Kelly said. When she got the answers as to why there was a strange heart symbol on her daughter’s stuffed toy truck she nearly threw up. The souvenir recently purchased at a Monster Jam event held a sick secret; a disgusting calling card for creeps. The heart on the toy was a symbol...

An ongoing lawsuit has pried loose new records linked to a family of Sarasota Saudis who left home in a hurry just before 9/11. It was Halloween night, 2001. The horrors of 9/11 were still fresh on the the minds of Americans. At a time when everyone was on edge, the sight of a man disposing documents in a dumpster behind a Bradenton storage facility aroused suspicion. Summoned to the scene, Manatee County sheriff’s deputies confronted the man, who had a Tunisian passport. According to FBI records, authorities searched the dumpster and found “a self-printed manual on terrorism and Jihad,...

BRADENTON -- There's no greater symbol of personal freedoms than the American flag, which is why a Bradenton homeowner has painted one across his 100-year-old house -- to protest what he says amounts to harassment by city code enforcement officials. In late February, the city received a complaint about a live Christmas tree that was placed on the family home of Brent Greer at 3102 Riverview Drive. The tree had fallen over, and Greer complied with a code enforcement officer's request to remove the tree, which was followed up by code enforcement in early May. It was during that visit...

Suspect arrested in beating of elderly Bradenton man in speeding case By JESSICA DE LEON jdeleon@bradenton.com January 1, 2014 MANATEE -- Investigators continue to search for two more suspects in the beating of a 70-year-old man after he tried to get them to slow their car down as they rode through a residential neighborhood last week, according to the Manatee County Sheriff's Office. Leon Rogers was arrested Monday and charged with battery on a person over 65. He was released on a $1,500 bond from the Manatee County jail early Tuesday afternoon just before his first hearing in court. Detective...

A Floridian who was reportedly “minding his own business, burning a Bible near the side of the roadway,” got into an altercation yesterday with a man who became “agitated” upon seeing the Good Book in flames, police report. According to cops, Mark See, 38, said he confronted the Bible burner in front of the man’s Bradenton home. When See, an Atlas Van Lines employee, “began to pick up the Bible and walk away,” the suspect punched him in the back of the head.

BRADENTON A man was arrested early Thursday after he tried to rob two men in a motel room, dropping his gun and later returning to buy back his own firearm, Bradenton police said. At about 12:30 a.m., Cedrick Mitchell, 39, barged into a room at the Royal Motel, 1526 14th St. W. He asked the two men inside for pills. When they said they had none, Mitchell pulled out a black handgun from his waistband and demanded “everything you got,” said Bradenton police Capt. Warren Merriman. The men began to fight. During the scuffle, Mitchell dropped his gun and one...

When burglar Kesler Dufrene became a twice-convicted felon in 2006, a Bradenton judge shipped him to prison for five years. And because of his convictions, an immigration judge ordered Dufrene deported to his native Haiti. That never happened. Instead, when Dufrene’s state prison term was up, Miami immigration authorities in October 2010 released him from custody. Two months later, North Miami police say, he slaughtered three people, including a 15-year-old girl in a murder case that remains as baffling today as it did the afternoon the bodies were discovered.

Posted on Sat, Sep. 14, 2002 Two men are charged with smuggling Middle Easterners for $20,000 eachAssociated Press Two men from Pakistan and Sri Lanka were held without bail Friday on charges that they smuggled Middle Easterners into the United States through third countries for $20,000 each.Iqbal Munawar and Chelliah Sri Kajamukam were arrested late Thursday at Miami International Airport on charges filed in New York, federal authorities said.They made federal court appearances Friday and were ordered to return to court for bond hearings Thursday.An Indian businessman led the smuggling ring, which illegally flew people to Miami and New...

"Alleged Bomb Maker Arrested in Murder-for-Hire Plot" SNIPPET: "TAMPA, FL—On Friday, April 23, 2010, the Tampa FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), which consists of numerous representatives from local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, arrested JOHN NICHOLAS COORS, age 20, without incident. COORS was arrested in Tampa, Florida, after meeting with an undercover law enforcement asset (UCA) and attempting to detonate an improvised explosive device (IED)." SNIPPET: "According to the federal complaint, the JTTF initially learned about COORS during November 2009. The JTTF received information that COORS was trained in “special forces” type military tactics, considered himself a mercenary,...

BRADENTON -- A man who was shot early Saturday during a botched home-invasion robbery in the Braden Crossing neighborhood was arrested Monday on an attempted murder charge. Authorities say Bradenton resident Clayton Nathaniel Dowling, 23, was one of four men who barged into a house in the 5500 block of 47th Court East while pretending to be police officers. The victim, Jerry Johnson, was hiding in a closet when Dowling confronted him, according to sheriff’s reports. Johnson punched Dowling and grabbed the pistol that was tucked in the man’s waistband. Johnson fired at Dowling, striking him four times, sheriff’s Detective...

BRADENTON -- For years, the Bradenton Police Department has quietly, without judicial review, confiscated hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and property from people they arrested for drug possession and other crimes. The police bypass the courts and confiscate money and property on the spot through a department-created form called the "Contraband Forfeiture Agreement." By signing it, a person agrees to relinquish their property to the police and waive any rights they have to try to get it back through the courts. In some cases -- including one last year where police seized more than $43,000 from a man...

A woman has shot an alligator that came into her home and attacked her dog. When the reptile came into the lanai of her home east of Bradenton Saturday and attacked her golden retriever, Frey went and got her gun. After Frey and her daughter managed to push the gator out of the lanai through the dog door, she blasted away at it four times. The alligator barely bled from gunshots to the neck and shoulder, Frey said, and wildlife officer put it back in the lake. The deputy gave Frey a warning citation for hunting without a license.